Fixing the problems of a damp crawl space

[dominoman]

I live in an Edwardian semi, with solid brick walls and fairly shallow foundations. Our house has had serious attacks of woodworm in the past, and many joists and floorboards are thoroughly riddled with holes.

I want to stop it coming back, so keeping humidity from getting too high is important.

Under our lounge and dining room the crawlspace has always looked damp. There is no water, but lots of almost muddy looking soil.

Yesterday I installed a remote humidity detector down there and it reads 75%. It's an expensive, reliable meter that I've used for months and in the house above humidity is generally around 60-62%, which is fine.

So what should I do?

I've read about putting down a barrier on the ground, and encapsulating the whole crawl space. But is that worth doing? What else would you do?

 

[TheVictorian]

Woodworm aren't really an issue these days, central heating drove them out.

Is your crawl space ventilated? A damp base isn't on its own an issue, but when combined with a lack of ventilation it can become one.

 

[dominoman]

Yes I heard that about woodworm. I never had mine tested but I do suspect it is historic and not still spreading. However, I will have to replace some floorboards as they are so riddled with woodworm that I can put my finger through them! Luckily the joists seem much better.

The crawl space is ventilated with air bricks. But all the same, 75% humidity is very high and I really want to get that down a bit.

 

[maltaron]

I would think that having a meter to measure it is causing more heartache than the damp itself. The 1915 semi I used to live in had 3" of water on the earth subfloor and that caused no problems.

 

[dominoman]

Maybe I shouldn't worry too much about it then. I just don't want to get woodworm that's all.

I'm going to spend a day over Xmas removing the piles of damp earth and all the detritus down there and that should help get rid of damp stuff.