We have had 3 straight days of rain and I noticed a small amount of water seeping under scrawl space wall. My space has a vapor barrier and is in decent shape. I did notice the finder blocks on frame of space are dark/damp on each side. Assume it is water making its way down through ground. Any suggestions to help? I will tackle ways to drain better around the foundation and away from my house. Is this normal for water in crawl space?
Water – Crawl space water
basementconcreterepairwallswater
Related Solutions
Based on your comment I think what you will need to do is replace the insulation.
As I said in my comment condensation is caused when warm moist air hits a cold surface, be it a window or roof. If your insulation was sound then this would prevent this happening, but it sounds like it letting the air through to the roof.
I'm reluctant to suggest what to replace it with as I haven't seen the roof - so it might be worth getting someone in to quote for the job and ask them what they intend to do.
If you do decide to replace then putting a semi-permeable membrane up as well will help keep the moisture off the cold surfaces.
We had an almost identical situation in a former garage that we refinished to be an office. Our contractor suggested this and we liked the result: he installed a piece of wood about an inch out from the concrete, putting insulation between them and keeping the wood a consistent and level height - a little higher than the concrete. I can't remember if it was pink fluffy insulation or spray stuff. Then a shelf about 6 inches out from the wall - nice and level by being a bit up from the concrete and supported by the vertical wood, and there's insulation under the shelf too. The whole thing is a good looking clear pine and is well varnished.
Looking from the side gives an idea of the distance from the wall:
The shelf runs around the entire room and is remarkably useful for something so low. It hides all the lumpy bumpy aspects of the concrete and while it's not something you see everywhere, no-one has ever mentioned it so it can't be that unusual.
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Best Answer
When there is uphill ground leading down to a house the standard intervention is to locate an underground drain (a so called "French drain") to intercept the ground water and surface water and conduct it around the foundation and downhill away from the foundation.
In some cases the trench for this drain (3 ft or 4 ft deep and filled with gravel or crushed rock over a perforated pipe) is located close to the house (within 3 ft) and in others it is placed farther away.