Outside of my garage in my back yard I have a concrete slab. The side of the slab looks to be deteriorating. Here is a pic of the side... http://img117.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000950kq2.jpg

Also, here is a pic of where the slab meets the garage http://img117.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000952tm8.jpg

To the left of the downspout is the concrete slab and to the right of it is the garage foundation.

2 questions... Should I be concerned about the huge gap and the holes in the 2nd picture and how do I fix all the imperfections in the side of the slab?

What is happening here my friend is spalling. A very common condition on porches that have water entering through spaces between the wall that comes up to the slab and the slab itself. to fix this you have a few options. You can remove the wall and rebuild it. Expensive and lots of hard work. typically not a do it youself project. Or you can parge over it with a wire mesh and fresh coat of portland cement. but you must first fix the source of water otherwise it will crack once again. You may need to fill the space with a expanding water proofing cement then paint the surface with a good quality water proof paint. But be sure there is no other paint on the surface or the water proof paint will not last.
As far as the space or crack your calling it where you dug out. That is space caused by the contractor that built the porch which is not attached to the home itself. You can use the same cement to fill this gap. Then parge over it. Any suface that is below grade should be covered in a thick tar to prevent water from getting behind and leaking into the house.
Be sure to check the drain pipe that is broke off if you plan to connect your leader pipe to it. If its broke replace or drain the leader away from the foundation of the house.

Thank you for the info.

When you say fix the source of water are you referring to that long horizontal looking crack that goes from one side of the slab to ther other by the downspout? The "crack" actually looks like he parging coming off the blocks. There are full blocks above and below the "cracks" If I put hydraulic cement over it, it will really grey when it dries and stick out like a sore thumb. I guess I should parge over that?

Even though the back porch slab is in that condition and is not directly attached to the back of my house...is there any way that could allow water to enter my basement/.

As for that space between the garage foundation and the slab...I can fill it with hydraulic cement. After digging it out, the was a OLD clay drainage pipe that is was once connected to a long time ago. The pipe crumbled when I tried to get it up. I am going to but an attachment to the downspout and run it into PVC pipe underground about 15' away from the house.

Also,

I went into the crawl space under the addition to my house for the first time since I have owned it (3 years) to run some CAT6 network cable. I noticed, for whatever reason, the outside air vents in the crawspace were boarded up and had insulation crammed in them. What would the purpose of that be? I thought crawlspaces under additions needed vents?

EDIT...I just read that wall vents in a crawlspace should be covered and insulated. So which is it?!?

Also, I noticed that there was no insulation between the floor joists in the crawlspace. Should I add some? One more think, it is a dirt ground in the crawlspace, I read somewhere that I should cover the dirt ground with 3mil plastic....is that correct?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daveyd,

Crawl spaces need ventilation unless they are conditioned, which, in most climates means heated. Therefore the vents should not be boarded up.

Crawl spaces also need vapor retarders, usually 6-mil polyethylene sheet, all joints lapped six inches and taped, and turned up and taped to all walls and any penetrations such as posts, piers or pipes.

Then the floor above the crawl space needs to be insulated, the amount depending on the requirements of your region, installed with the vapor retarder side UP against the subfloor, UNLESS you are in an extreme southern climate.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Hetzel:
Crawl spaces need ventilation unless they are conditioned, which, in most climates means heated. Therefore the vents should not be boarded up.

Crawl spaces also need vapor retarders, usually 6-mil polyethylene sheet, all joints lapped six inches and taped, and turned up and taped to all walls and any penetrations such as posts, piers or pipes.

Then the floor above the crawl space needs to be insulated, the amount depending on the requirements of your region, installed with the vapor retarder side UP against the subfloor, UNLESS you are in an extreme southern climate.

Thanks for the reply.

I am in South Central PA. The crawlspace under the addition is not conditioned and has 2 vents in the block walls that open to the outside.

In the crawlspace, there is an uninsulated water pipe that leads to an outside water faucet as well as uninsulated ducts that provide heat/air conditioning to the addition above. I guess whomever put on the addittion blocked off the air vents to try and keep the crawlspace warm or something since neither the water pipe nor the ducts are insulated? Seems like a poor choice to me. Thank god the water pipe never burst.

I assume the best think I should do is go ahead and insulate the water pipe as well as the ducts. Also, put R19 insulation between all the floor joists with the paper side up as well as put a 6mil vapor retarder on the dirts ground and extend it how far up the block walls??

Should I close the vents in the winter or leave them open year round and is there a specific kind of tape I should use when overlapping the plastic joints?

There is an inexpensive system which will allow the best of both worlds. Home Care Club knows the name of it, but what it does is steal a small amount of the already-conditioned air from your house, and discharge it into the crawl space. That way you can leave the vents closed, because it now qualifies as a "conditioned" crawl space under the code.

Insulation in the floor joists and a good vapor retarder are still necessary.

I found the name of the unit Home Care Club knows about...it"s Humidex. You can find information here: http://www.humidexhome.com

If the crawl space is open to the basement you do not need to open the vents. But if the crawl is sealed off from the basement then the vents should be left open.
Now for the tricky part. If the crawl space is sealed along with the vents and has been sense the house was built. And NOTHING has appeard in the way of mold, foul smells etc. Do Nothing to change what was done. As it is not apparently doing anything to effect the conditions in that area. But if you see the slighest hint of mold growth on the exposed beams, or it has a funky smell. Get the ventilation going in there or your going to have issues later.

quote:

Originally posted by The Home Care Club LLC:
If the crawl space is open to the basement you do not need to open the vents. But if the crawl is sealed off from the basement then the vents should be left open.
Now for the tricky part. If the crawl space is sealed along with the vents and has been sense the house was built. And NOTHING has appeard in the way of mold, foul smells etc. Do Nothing to change what was done. As it is not apparently doing anything to effect the conditions in that area. But if you see the slighest hint of mold growth on the exposed beams, or it has a funky smell. Get the ventilation going in there or your going to have issues later.

The house was built in 1966. I am not sure when the addition was put on. The addition is 10x10.

The crawlspace is accessible from my basement and is sealed off with removeable rigid foam insulation.

Like I said, I've lived there for 3 years and never had a need to go into the crawlspace. I removed the foam insulation this past weekend to run some network cable. There is definitely a funky "old basement" smell in the crawlspace. After I was done, I put the foam insulation back so my basement would not smell like that.


Any truth in this... "Why crawl space vents don't work

Old crawl space thinking said that air would blow in a vent on one side of a house and blow out of the vent on the other side. But we now know that a house works like a chimney, sucking air in at the lower levels, including in through all of the open crawl space vents, and then this air rises up into the house and escapes out of the upper levels.

This rising air brings with it everything that's in your crawl space, including humidity, musty odors, and mold spores, up into your living space. A crawl space fan or crawl space power fan makes this mold, moisture, and energy situation worse - fast! Sealing and conditioning your crawl space makes this air cleaner and healthier."

http://www.basementsystems.com/crawlspace/crawlspace_pr.../crawlspace_vent.php


I guess that would not really matter is the crawl space is sealed and does not have access to the basement

The musty odor is a clue to the fact that it is unhealthy in your crawl space now. A vapor retarder will go a long way toward reducing the moisture level in there, and thus the musty odors.Then you might be able to open the crawl space to the basement, and avoid having to "condition" it and then, you can leave the vents closed.

If you want to keep that opening to the basement closed, you'll either need ventilation, probably more than you have, or you'll need to condition the space.

Either way, you should still insulate the floor above.

I really don't want to leave the crawl space entrance open to the rest of the basement...my wife doesn't "want all the bug to get in" and it is a bit of an eyesore as I have most of the basement finished.

I'll definitely be putting insulation in the floor joists as well as a vapor retarder down regardless.

Should I leave the vents open all year round or close them during the winter?

The vents are even more important in the winter. Their purpose is to allow moisture which migrates from the house to the crawl space insulation to escape. Otherwise the insulation will get wet and stay wet, which reduces its insulating value to almost nothing, and can cause mold and structural decay issues.

You should insulate any water pipes or heating pipes which run below the bottom of the joists. This is very easy using insulation called "Arma-Flex", sized to match the pipe size. It is long and tubular, with a slit along its length. It just snaps onto the pipe, and that's it. Be careful to insulate all fittings also.

If you have ductwork down there, it should be insulated. You can get foil-faced insulation blankets to wrap around the ducts and tape. Try not to compress the insulation when you install it.