All-Dry of the Carolinas Before & After Photos

This homeowner had a lot of work done when our company came out to his home. This before and after will only focus on a very small part of the entire job, however, this was a very important part of the project. It may not seem to have changed all that much between the two photos (besides that the area is covered in some white plastic), but it certainly has!

CleanSpace does much more than it seems, but it was not the only thing that was done in the crawlspace and in this photo. One thing that gets masked is that our crew sealed the vents in the crawlspace. In the before photo, the vents in the corner of the crawlspace can very obviously be seen, however, in the other photo, the area is covered. The crew actually seals the vents up and caulks them so that no air can get into the crawlspace from these vents.

Now that the sealed vents have been discussed, let's go back to the CleanSpace, which is what really makes the difference in a crawlspace. Having this thick liner keeps water vapor from penetrating it, which is good because that means the relative humidity level should go down quite significantly. One of the most important aspects of the CleanSpace's installation is that it gets sealed to the wall. This is important because if it is not sealed, then it is much less effective at keeping the water vapor out of the crawlspace. In the after picture, the CleanSpace has been sealed just a few inches below the "ceiling" of the crawlspace. Don't forget, CleanSpace also brightens up the crawlspace and makes it look much more "Clean"!

This customer wanted to make sure his mountain home was protected while he was away. It can be stressful enough worrying about a home that you are living in now, much less one that is several hours away. This customer decided the work was worth it for the peace of mind, as well as the quality in products and excellent service that All-Dry of the Carolinas provides to each and every customer. The home was strictly a crawlspace/CleanSpace job. While we installed a few supplementary products such as a Santa Fe dehumidifier and a SuperSump sump pump, the main focus was that of the CleanSpace encapsulation system.

The "before" picture shows what the basement looked like before any of our products had been installed. You can hardly see it, but they actually do have a crawlspace liner already. However, this is not doing them any good. It is so thin and fragile that it can easily rip and tear just by crawling on it. The other thing about this liner is that it is not properly sealed. If you're looking for something to keep your jeans from getting dirty, that might be the product for you, but if you want real protection from moisture and mold, CleanSpace is the product you need.

The "after" picture shows the crawlspace after our crew had installed the CleanSpace Liner. As you can see, the CleanSpace is laid almost from floor to ceiling. While not all customers and jobs have the CleanSpace go all the way up the wall, this customer was encouraged and wanted to. The only part that is left uncovered is a few inches of wood, for courtesy to other professionals like; pest control and termite inspectors.

Foundation issues can be some of the scariest issues that we see and deal with here at All-Dry of the Carolinas. This home definitely did not have as bad bowing walls as many of the other homes that we see here, because the homeowner was proactive about the issues with their home. However, these small cracks will continue to grow if not watched and taken care of quickly.

One of the biggest causes of bowing walls is the pressure that is created on the outside of the home by the earth, as was the case with this particular house. The type of cracking that can be seen in these pictures is a "stair-step" crack, which is one of the more common types of cracking. One of the things that a lot of people wonder about is the duct tape that the crew puts over the cracks. As you can see between the two photos, the duct tape shows how much the wall has moved and came together.

Wall anchors are able to really make a difference in basement walls, especially because they can be progressively tightened. This means that after they are installed, just months later they can be tightened to provide even more support and bring the wall closer to its original position. It can sometimes be difficult to notice how much the wall anchors really do, but the duct tape certainly makes it much more obvious how much the cracks were closed.

This homeowner was worried about the water intrusion that they were experiencing in their lake house in Inman, SC. This was an even more pressing issue since the owners did not live in this home year-round. They wanted to get this problem taken care of so that they wouldn't have to worry about water getting into the basement, or having to constantly check on this home.

One of the main parts of this system was the SuperSump that was installed in the home's basement. The sump pump is what really gets the water out of the basement and away from the home. In this basement, we also installed WaterGuard and ZenWall Panels. These are both extremely important to the system. The ZenWall helps to give the basement a more finished feel, but its inorganic construction allows it to drain any water coming through the basement walls to the WaterGuard. The WaterGuard is a perimeter drain that collects the water from around the basement and drains it to the sump.

This basement was the perfect size for this sump pump. One of the things that we like to do is to solve our customer's problems while doing our best to keep our system from being visible. Sometimes this is almost impossible, but this home had a perfectly sized closet, that just barely had enough room for this SuperSump to fit in it. This also worked pretty well for the drain line, going up along the wall and out to the driveway and eventually the yard!

The All-Dry of the Carolinas team are the masters when it comes to lifting up your home, mentally and physically. Whenever you feel like your floors won’t hold you don’t worry, we will be there for you. In this case in Inman, SC the homeowners were having issues in their house in relation to their foundation. The windows would rattle and the hardwood floors were starting to split. In the before picture you can see that the floor joist is being held up by bricks and cinderblocks. This type of solution doesn’t work well with a home since the bricks can sink into the ground leaving the floor with its original problem.

               In the after pictures you can see that a SmartJack has been added to replace the use of the bricks and cinder blocks. This SmartJack crawl space stabilizer is different from the homemade version that was already under the house. SmartJacks are placed on a precast concrete pad that prevents the jack from sinking, hence giving the issue a permeant solution.