Loose Crawl Space Door

The door to your crawl space, ideally, needs to shut firmly, creating a watertight seal between the space and the rest of your home. Unfortunately, the door to your crawl space can often fall victim to the immediate effects of moisture build-up in your home. Too much exposure to moisture can cause your door’s frame to warp, making the door itself impossible to fully open or shut. 

You cannot leave a door in this kind of condition. At the same time, you cannot allow your crawl space door to suffer cracks or other forms of damage. In doing so, you’ll break the seal around your crawl space and put your home at greater risk for water damage. 

The Stack Effect 

Your crawl space door is one of the few obstacles that stands between your home and the stack effect. The stack effect sees the moist air in your crawl space—made damper by a leak or crack in the floor—travel up through the rest of your home.  

As that air travels, your home can become inundated with moisture, resulting in property damage and putting your space at greater risk for an infestation or mold growth. After all, insects and mold spores alike can all make their way into your home more readily if your crawl space lacks the protective measures it needs—a door included. 

Preventative Measures in Your Crawl Space 

If you can get ahead of this kind of damage, you can maintain your home’s overall value while also protecting the health of your family. It is with that in mind that you should make a point of scheduling an annual crawl space inspection with the professional contractors in your area. Professional contractors can help you find the spots in your crawl space that are most vulnerable to water damage. In turn, these parties can help you repair any damage done to your space while also providing you with the waterproofing measures you need to prevent future damage. 

When it comes to the care and keeping of your crawl space door, you can count on a professional to tell you when your frame might be at risk and how best you can go about protecting the rest of your home from stack effect-related moisture damage.

You do have the option of exploring alternative crawl space doors should yours start to show signs of wear and tear. However, your problems won’t go away after you tighten up your door. Superficially, moisture levels in your home may start to decrease. However, in fixing a door that’s been forced off its frame or otherwise exposed to high levels of moisture, you’re only attending to a symptom of a much larger problem. 

Look for Damage 

A rotten or bent door frame is a sign that something has gone wrong in your crawl space. As such, should you notice damage in your crawl space door, you’ll want to reach out to the professionals in your area. With their guidance, you can determine whether or not your crawl space or foundation might be leaking. 

Other signs of damage in your crawl space can include: 

• Unpleasant smells 
• Mold growth 
• Standing water 
• High humidity 
• Higher electric bills  

Water Damage and Your DIY Ambitions 

If it turns out that your home has fallen victim to some kind of water damage, you’ll want to avoid investing in any DIY solutions. In theory, DIY solutions can save you money on repair expenses. In practice, however, DIY crawl space repair solutions can often run up your repair budget faster than you’d like. When you opt to work with a professional, you can save money on immediate repairs while also lowering the chance that the damage you saw in your crawl space and door frame will reoccur. 

If you do try to DIY a crawl space door solution, note that you might just make the problem in your crawl space worse. As mentioned, fixing the door alone only attends to a symptom of a much larger problem. If you leave that problem go or try to patch it over with a DIY repair job, you may see the conditions in your home worsen by a significant margin in the days, weeks, and months to come.