Since we built our house we have had water problems. Water came in when it rained. Condensation built up so bad the exterior looked wet. We first put in a positive drain at the lowest part(where the water drained to naturally). Then we did a french drain around the outside house were the water was coming in. One side where the french drain was put in is dry. The other side water is still coming in in the same spot. You can see the water seeping thru the concrete block when it rains. WE have done all this work ourselves with the help of my grandfather who just instructed us on how to do it. We may have not put the french drain in right maybe. We believe we may have a spring under the house right where the water is coming in when it rains. No bubbling water coming up but a hole we dug fills up with water when it rains.
The other problem we have is the band of wood(cannot think of name) between the face plate and subfloor gets wet and is stinking up one of the bedrooms. (We have I joists if this helps with band of wood name.) When it rains condesation builds up on the termite shield on top of the concrete blocks. Then the band of wood soaks up the moisture and gets wet and stinks. We got a friend to come over with a camera that has a little wand where it can look behind walls. He discovered that the termite shield was stuck in the between the brick. We also figured out the weep holes in the brick were full of motar. My husband knocked that out and the band of wood dried up and the smell went away until it rained again. So I have many questions and I will provide pictures. We live in TN.

What can we do about the termite shield piece of plastic stuck in between the brick? This is trapping moisture under the house we think?

What can we do about the spring under the house?

We have put vapor barrier down but there are mushrooms growing under it so what is going on with that?

The concrete block is not wet where the band of wood is soaking up the moisture that is condensating on the termite shield.

I could call and talk with someone if I need to. I am trying my best to explain. I am very upset about all of this. We built this house to help our 2 asthmatic children (duct work in attic, no carpet, no curtains) and now this!
PLEASE HELP US!!

Much more information is needed in order to help with these issues. Do you have a basement, or a crawl space, or what do you mean by "down there"? If you put in a vapor retarder (a) why wasn't there one originally, and (b) did you do it right, with all joints lapped and taped, and taped to all walls and all penetrations?

Do you indeed have a "spring", or do you have a failure in your foundation dampproofing (it is dampproofed, isn't it?), or a crack in your foundation, either of which could allow water intrusion? Was the foundation backfilled with gravel or clean earth, or with construction debris or rocks? Read through the posts of LicensedWaterproofer or LicensedWaterproofR (same person) for instructions about how to perform a hose test...that will tell you where your wall is leaking, if it is.

I don't know what to tell you about the termite shield...it is inconceivable to me that it can hold enough water to wet the "rim joist" enough to cause an odor inside the house. I gather that your wall has a brick veneer on the exterior. I wonder whether there is proper flashing behind the brick to dírect water out the weep holes and on to the termite shield. If the wall is built properly, the rim joist should never see a drop of water, so something is wrong.

As you can see, there are many more questions than answers at this point.

I will try and answer the questions in order. It is a crawlspace. There was never a true vapor barrier put in because we felt like we should stop the water from coming in first. Once we thought the water had stopped and we were trying to get rid of the smell, we put down the plastic but not taped to the walls. When we did put some plastic down, we noticed moisture under the plastic and mushrooms within a couple of days. There is so much moisture under the plastic the dirt underneath is starting to be soft where it was dry.
By dampproofing do you mean sealing the brick with something to keep water out. Yes we did that on the brick when we put in the french drain.
There is no crack in the foundation or walls. There are however step downs in the footer and the water seems to be around this one step down.
By foundation backfilling if you mean after the house was finished around the outside, it was clean earth. We made sure of it. Even when we dug out for the french drain there was nothing but some motar, no trash.
On the rim joist question, it is wet on the interior side of the crawlspace. When my friend came with the camera, he drilled a hole in there so that he could get his camera in. It was dry on the exterior side.
I read about the Humidex that some of the other post suggest. I think we have a bad moisture problem down there. Where the smell is in the house, under the house that is where the rim joist is the wettest. The smell is musty and old smelling. There is nothing dead under the house. When we opened up the vents the rim joist dried out and the smell subsided somewhat. The next time it rained after a couple of days the smell came back and the rim joist was wet again.
It is clay dirt on our property if that helps.

Start by installing the vapor retarder properly, by lapping and taping all the joints, and turning it up and taping it firmly and thoroughly to every wall and every penetration such as piers, columns or pipes. The moisture you see accumulating under it is proof that it is doing its job, but it needs to be comletely sealed.

I'm not sure what the step in the footing has to do with the wet rim joist, but if the rim joist gets wet on the inside and not the outside, the source of the moisture is likely in the crawl space.

Is the crawl space ventilated at least in accordance with code? Are the vents open at all times? What region of the country are you located in?

I do not believe we have enough vents. Our home is 2100 sq ft not including the slab garage. I think there are 10 vents. We kept the vents open in the summer, but closed when it started getting cooler. We live in TN. Southeast U.S. Out house was built before there was a county code enforcer.
I belive the water is coming in around the stepdown in the foundation. That is where the hole that fills up with water. When it rains the concrete block are wet right at that step down.
If we do the vapor retarder what happens with all that moisture. Will it not soak into the concrete block then cause more moisture?
We thought about an encapsulation system with a Sani-Dry or Humidex?
What about the termite shield and the water condensating on it and soaking into the rim joist? I read that for every 700 sq ft of earth it emits 10 gallons of water a day. That would be 2100/700 = 30 gallons of water a day under our house. Could that and the water coming in when it rains add extra moisture rising to the highest point make this happen?

Exactly why you need a vapor retarder! You want to keep that 30 gallons of water in the earth and not in your crawl space. Do one thing at a time. Install the vapor retarder properly, and then see what happens, and keep your vents open all year! That's what they are there for. They are needed more in cool weather than in hot weather.

I don't believe there can be condensation on a plastic termite shield, at least not enough to wet the rim joist. The water source is somewhere else. It is more likely the water is condensing on the rim joist and running down onto the termite shield. Otherwise the rim joist would be wet on both sides.

Get rid of the moisture first by correcting the vaopr retarder. Keep the vents open, to allow moisture to migrate out of your crawl space. Then see what happens.

The vapor barrier should not carry up to the rim joist. It should only go up to the level of the grade outside. if your seeing that much condensation below the plastic in such a short time you still have water entering into the crawl space from the outside.Based on your comment about water in the step block area of the foundation that is a sign that what ever water proofing that was installed on the outside of the crawl space is not working.
We install the Humidex systems They work great. They work well in crawls as well. But be sure to block off the outside vents completely otherwise you will be pulling in outside air which will contain moisture. Also consider checking for radon if you have not already done so. A radon system will be placed under the plastic which will also remove moisture that is collecting below the plastic as well as riding the crawl space from moisture.

Well we closed the vents. My husband went under the house and in that same area where the water comes in at the step down that little hole filled up with water in one day. There is not bubbling water the hole just fills up. I too do not believe the last french drain we did was not installed properly because the water is still coming in. Now my husband believes that it might be coming in from under the front porch. It rained here a lot last night so when my husband gets home from work he is going back in the crawlspace to check on it. He was in the crawlspace yesterday before it rained so he will kind of have a base line.
I have more questions for anyone who wants to answer.
Would radon cause moisture and that smell we smell? I thought radon was odorless because I researched it thinking that might be the odor we smelled. But could it cause the moisture problem.
What is the difference between Humidex and the Sani-dri? Some say not to use a dehumidifier and some to use one? I am confused on that.
So if the moisture is causing the condensation on the rim joist if we install either a Humidex or a Sani-dri will that stop the moisture?
We are considering an encapsulation system and then installing the Humidex or Sani-dri. Have any of you heard of this?

Well just to say that after we closed the vents the smell has gone away some? Go figure?
My husband went under the house and can see the water for sure coming in the step down area. He said that is partially filling up the small hole I mentioned before. He is going to have to check the french drain to see what the problem is. The friend we hired to help my husband do the french drain was in a hurry that day. WE think that the plastic we laid down in the ditch is U shaped (on sides and bottom of ditch) instead of L shaped (against house and bottom of ditch). That might be the problem.
Has anyone thought anymore about the encapsulation system. What do you think? Look at www.basementsystems.com to see what I am talking about.

Plastic in the ditch? WHY?

BasementSystems appears to be an inside water-diverting company and not a waterproofing company, and are thus best avoided. The water belongs outside, so if it's coming inside, the only place to effectively deal with it is outside where it belongs. They make no mention of any kind of outside waterproofing.

To get rid of the smells in the crawl space you must remove the moisture. Masking it with a encapuslation system is just that, masking the problem.

You need to go to the basics.
forget about all the fancy stuff your reading on the internet. Most of its garbage. What you need to do is the following.

Get a good quality exterior water proofing system installed. On the Outside! If you think your front porch is causing the issues make sure they know of that concern.

They should be digging down to the footing that supports the block walls of the house. Not just part way down.

Once the water proofing system is installed. I assume because your husband can get into this area fairly easily you have some space in there.

Get a mason contractor, or perhaps the water proofing company to lay a 6 mill plastic barrier down on the soil of the crawl space and pour a slab of cement over it to seal it and protect the plastic. It does not have to be to thick. A few inches will do fine.

If you feel that you need dehumdification after that then install a Humidex system not a dehumidifier. This is for several reasons.
1. cost much less to operate.
2. as we begin to seal up our homes for energy efficency we begin to make them like thermos bottles. The interior air begins to build up with all types of mold spores and pollution. The venting properties of the Humidiex system will help remove this from the home.
3. Easy to use. Dehumidifiers must be cleaned and serviced as the coils and cheep filters they have begin to grow mold because of moisture.
4. You must empty the dehumidifier or have it near a drain in order to work.

You are looking for the quick fix answer that many folks look for in these forums. There is no such thing as a better mousetrap. The old fashion methods employed for many years always work. With the other methods you only will be hiding the problem not fixing it.

Bsasement systems look nice, Real expsensive and do nothing to stop the problem your having. Only masks the issue which will not go away until proper water control methods are performed.

No one mentioned that someone needs to add gutters with drains that run away from the house at least 10 ft. to air.
There really should be a trench dug around the inside of the foundation (start trenching at the ends of the trench, starting out shallow) with a sump pump set at the lowest point in a pit with a check valve in the piping to stop the water from running back when the pump shuts off.
A simple pit that's at lest 12" larger around then a 5 gal. plastic pail with 1/2 holes drilled in the pail around the outsides then back filled with #56 stone works well.
Always install piping from the pump that's the same diam. as the outlet on the pump. (do not step it down)
On the outside of the foundation there should have been foundation sealer (looks like tar) applyed to the block before the brick was applyed.
Did you say someone installed plastic inside the trench outside? Plastic is just going to allow the water to pool up in the trench. Any outside drain as mentioned should have been installed below the level of the footing, not on top of it.

When we did the french drain, we were told to put 6 mil poly against the house and bottom of ditch.
1st we mopped the brick with water proof sealer
2nd we placed a sheet of poly against wall and bottom of ditch
3rd we put corragated pipe down
4th we put septic tank rock on top

WE agree that the water needs to be stopped before the it comes in the house. We called Bdry and Olshans to come and look JUST to see what they thought. They both wanted to do french drains under the house. WE thought they were idiots and that is why we did it ourself.

WE are NOT looking for a quick fix. WE are looking to resolve this once and for all so that there are no more worries. We were going to do the encapsulation AFTER we stopped the water. The reason we were thinking of doing it is because of our kids allergies. BUT once we stop the water then what you have suggested sounds real good too. AND much cheaper. I do like what Humidex says on their website.

We do have gutters and they have extensions on them directed away from the house.
The contractor did not do what you said to the block before the brick was put up. There are many things that we have found that the contractor should have done, but did not, it is too late. We are just going to have to fix it ourselves.
The 1st french drain we installed (we had to do the house in 2 stages because of time and money) worked well with the plastic. It is below the footing. We think that because we were in a hurry during the second stage we put in too much plastic and it may not be below the footer.
We are doing the best we can. At least we did not go out and hire professionals and let them rip us a new one and just put a band aid on the problem instead of a permanent fix. That is what we are trying to do, fix this problem for good!

I'm sorry once again you mentioned plastic. Do mean you layed something like 6 mil. plastic under the drain pipes or do you mean PVC pipe.
There should not be any solid plastic used under, or over the drain pipes. There should be just a thin layer of #56 or 57 gravel then the PVC or corigated piping layed with the holes down that are in the pipe. Make sure there's more then enough slope then hand back fill with more gravel until it's over the pipes by about 6". Then I cover the stone with screen cloth and but top soil on top of that. The cloth filters out the dirt.