St. Anne’s, Still River, MA

The Challenge

Built in the 1940s, the crawlspace of this church property was like many other crawlspaces, out of sight and out of mind. The unused, below-grade area suffered from mold growth caused by high humidity levels on the sub-floor and joists.Regardless of the magnitude of the contamination we find in a crawlspace, Alpine begins by removing the existing mold. This is done by scraping, scrubbing with an organic disinfectant, dry-ice blasting or any combination of these methods. From there we seal the exposed sub-floor and joists with an anti-microbial coating. We then cover the ground and the walls with a continuous, impermeable vapor barrier. Next, we seal up any open vents to the outside and install spray foam insulation to the proper R-value on the foundation walls. Finally, a dehumidifier is installed to condition the air and keep the relative humidity below 50%.

Client:

St. Anne’s

Location:

Still River, MA

Project Type:

Mold Remediation

Alpine-Environmental-st-annes-still-river-MA-buiding-crawlspace

Alpine-Environmental-st-annes-still-river-MA-buiding-joist-detail

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Alpine-Environmental-st-annes-still-river-MA-joist-in-crawlspace

How We Shaped The Solution

Regardless of the magnitude of the contamination in a crawlspace, we begin removing the existing mold. This is done by scraping, scrubbing with an organic disinfectant, dry-ice blasting or any combination of these methods. From there we seal the exposed sub-floor and joists with an anti-microbial coating. We then cover the ground and the walls with a continuous, impermeable vapor barrier which also contains anti-microbial agents. This vapor barrier will keep ground moisture out of the crawlspace. Next, we seal up any open vents to the outside and install spray foam insulation to the proper R-value on the foundation walls. Finally, a dehumidifier is installed to condition the air and keep the relative humidity below 50%. The dehumidifier is connected to a condensate pump so the water in the collection tank is pumped away, eliminating the need for anyone to empty the water. The result here was a clean, dry, low maintenance crawlspace with healthy air.