Crawl Space Moisture/Condensation
I'm working on a rehab for rental and pulled up the flooring (vinyl floor and carpet) and noted there was a ton of moisture (wet) in the existing wood floor. The house when I bought had been vacant with utilities shut off for 8 months. This is a home built in 1918 - dirt is six inches from floor joists in the crawl space in most areas. Encapsulation would require complete foundation work and isn't really an option at this time.
I talked to one of the neighbors and he mentioned that in the 3 years he's lived there, he knows the home I bought had flooded from burst pipes at least 3 times. I believe some of the moisture is still contained in the souls in the crawl Space.
During the rehab, the contractor I'm working with moved the furnace to a wall furnace on the main level and the new water heater vents (with blower) to an outside wall so there really isn't much of a heat source down there. Again, a 1918 home so there are no vents.
It appears the current thought process for crawl spaces is no insulation between floor joists to keep the crawl space around the same temp as the home....but I'm intent on installing vinyl tile which will prevent Moisture from coming up and will encourage Moisture on the wood floors. Not sure if I should remove the existing insulation (in areas that are insulated) or not.
Curious what others have done in this situation. Again, encapsulation would be a huge job (possibly costing as much as what I paid for the place) in that you would basically have to shovel dirt into buckets and walk it out of the open 6x8 room in the crawl space, the re-set all the piers supporting the joists...not an easy task