Rodent service
Crawl Space Remediation in Charleston, SC
Before anything gets sealed, what the damp has already done has to come out. That is remediation, and on most houses here it is the bigger half of the job.
What we are removing
Fallen and saturated insulation first, because it is usually the most obvious thing and the most contaminated. Wet fibreglass has no insulating value, it holds moisture against the subfloor, and where rodents have been in it, it is a sanitation problem rather than just a mess.
Then the debris, the old failed liner if there is one, and any construction material left under the house when it was built, which in older Charleston housing is more common than you would expect. Anything organic left down there is food for mold.
Where there is standing water, that gets addressed at the source: grading, drainage, a failed downspout, a plumbing leak, or groundwater that needs a sump. Sealing over standing water is the most common bad job we get called in to correct.
And what we do about the damage
Affected framing gets assessed rather than assumed. Wood that has been damp can be surface mold on sound timber, or it can be rot that has taken structural capacity out of a joist or a sill, and those are different repairs. We tell you which one you have, and if it is structural we say so plainly rather than sealing it out of sight.
Mold-affected material is treated or removed depending on what it is and how far it has gone. See mold remediation for how that part is handled.
The space is then cleaned and disinfected so that what goes back in - new liner, new insulation - is not going in on top of a contaminated surface.
Straight answers
- Free Phone Estimate, written price before work starts
- No poison, trapping and the Rat Vac system
- 100% money-back guarantee
- Family owned since 1982
Related
The rest of the work
Rodent Control
The whole rodent job in one place: finding how rats or mice are getting in, closing it, taking out what is already inside and cleaning up after. Four parts, one repair.
Read more →Rat Removal
Closing the route the rats used first, then getting the ones already inside out of the building, without poison. Removal on its own is a pause; sealing plus removal is the end of it.
Read more →Rodent Proofing
Closing the building so nothing gets back in. Every gap a rodent can use is sealed in material it cannot chew, which in a Lowcountry house means starting at the crawl space.
Read more →Crawl Space Encapsulation
Sealing the crawl space off from the ground and the outside air. In a climate this humid it is the repair that stops the mold, the sagging floors and the rodents at the same time.
Read more →Vapor Barrier Installation
A sealed liner over the crawl space floor. Bare soil in the Lowcountry gives off moisture continuously, and that moisture has nowhere to go but up into your house.
Read more →Mold Remediation
Removing the growth, and then removing the reason it grew. Mold is a symptom of a water problem, so cleaning it without fixing the moisture just resets the clock.
Read more →Insulation Replacement
Wet insulation does not insulate, and rodent-fouled insulation is a contamination problem. Both come out, and both get replaced once the cause is fixed.
Read more →Infestation Sanitization & Remediation
What an infestation leaves behind is its own job. Droppings, nesting material and soaked insulation come out, and the space is disinfected rather than just cleared.
Read more →Vehicle Rodent Removal
Rats and mice nest in engine compartments, chew wiring and leave droppings and odor behind. A four-step process to clean it up, treat the vulnerable parts and discourage the next one.
Read more →We handle crawl space remediation across the Charleston Lowcountry, see every area we serve, or start from rodent control in Charleston.
FAQ
Crawl Space Remediation: common questions
Can you just replace the insulation and leave the rest?
We can, and it will fail again. New insulation in a crawl space that is still damp is wet insulation within a season or two. If you only want the insulation replaced we will tell you what we expect to happen and let you decide, but we would rather fix the moisture.
How bad does it have to be before it is worth doing?
The free phone estimate is the place to start - describe what you are seeing and we will tell you plainly whether it is worth doing anything about yet. Where it needs eyes on it, what that costs is agreed before anything is booked.
Do you handle structural repairs to the floor system?
We identify them and tell you the extent. Where a joist or sill has lost capacity to rot, that is structural work and we will be clear about what is inside our scope and what needs a structural contractor, rather than quietly covering it with a liner.
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