Crawl Space Dehumidifier in Greater Charleston, SC

Relative humidity (RH) levels can rise to very high levels, in South Carolina- especially in the summer.  This humidity helps to create damp, musty smells in your basement or crawlspace, and can often lead to the growth of mold and dust mites on organic materials.  Crawlspaces PLUS.COM 'Disaster Plus' of Charleston, SC has the perfect answer for your crawl space- the SaniDry dehumidifier and air filtration system!

When crawl spaces are damp, even in cases where a crawl space waterproofing system has been installed, a great deal of damage results. This moisture in the crawl space is due to water vapor in the air and the air’s condensation on cool surfaces in your crawl space.

• While block walls may not leak, they can still feel damp because they’re wicking (wicking is sometimes called capillary action).  This brings the water inside the hollow block walls to the surface like a sponge.


• Water vapor can make its way through foundation, crawl space, and basement walls whether they’re dirt, stone, concrete, or tile, because concrete, dirt, grout, and tile are porous and allow water vapor to pass through easily.  This is especially problematic in areas like Charleston, Georgetown, Mt. Pleasant, Wadmalaw Island, Edisto Island, and other coastal areas of South Carolina.


• As exterior air leaks bring moisture into your crawl space in the form of humidity, it collects on cold surfaces in your crawl space.  Humid air entering the crawl space is less of a problem as long as the outside air is cooler than the crawlspace. However, when the hot summertime air moves into the crawl space, your underground space will become soaked with humidity! In southern South Carolina, very high relative humidity leads to significant dampness and moisture.

Outside air that is warmer than inside air – especially when it's humid outside air – is likely to develop into a condensation problem in the crawl space or basement. The relative humidity of air rises by 2.2% for every degree it’s cooled. A crawl space is always cooler because it is below ground space; it is rarely warmer than the summer air outside.  With recent crawl space science, we know that air in a house moves in the same way that it flows through a chimney - with air flowing upwards and escaping out of the upper levels.  Meanwhile, the empty space created by the exiting air is replaced by new air sucked in at the lower levels.

Whether or not it’s raining, if it’s a hot, humid summer day, your crawl space may be wetter than it’s been all year!

For example:  On an 80-degree day with a RH of 80%, air is pulled from the outside into the crawl space and cooled to 68 degrees.  As this happens, the relative humidity rises by 26.4% (12 degrees x 2.2%). But because 80% plus 26.4% is more than 100%, the air is trying to hold more moisture than it can possibly hold! Instead, the overloaded wet air drops its extra moisture on your cold crawl space walls, floor, water tank, pipes, and other cold things in the form of condensation. Unfortunately, the relative humidity reaches over 100% easily and often in a crawl space in Southern South Carolina  during summertime.

Even without condensation, high relative humidity levels make a perfect environment for mold to grow and spread via thousands of mold spores released into the air. Dust mites also love high relative humidity levels as well, and each one can release 200 times its body weight in feces in a single lifetime. To effectively eliminate condensation, we need to either heat the air (ridiculous in summer), or remove the humidity from it (easy to do). However, effective dehumidification should remove water from the air efficiently and effectively.  With dehumidifiers, good work can be hard to find!

The Best Dehumidifier For You

Dehumidification is the simple answer. Unfortunately, most dehumidifiers are neither efficient or effective. After working in the basement and crawl space dehumidification market for 20 years, Basement Systems has researched the only machine that can get the necessary job done: the SaniDry Crawl Space Air System. And it's awesome.

The SaniDry is an Energy Star rated crawl space and basement dehumidifier. As an energy-efficient model, it can remove 100 pints of water per day at the same energy usage of a 40 pint model.  Its self-draining design can send the water it squeezes out of the air into your normal drainage system and can be set at the humidity level of your choice so that you can bring your humidity level to meet what’s most comfortable for you. 

And with its heavy-duty blower, it will send dry air all around your basement, drying out wood structures and moisture in the area!

The SaniDry is only available through authorized CleanSpace dealers.  If you’re a homeowners in Southern South Carolina, you should call Disaster Plus today for a free, no obligation consultation on the benefits of the SaniDry dehumidifier!

If you’d like a copy of our 90-page full color "Crawl Space Science" book that give you more detailed information about crawl spaces, sump pumps, crawl space vapor barriers, and dehumidification, just let us know.  Schedule your FREE home inspection and estimate with one of our home improvement contractors, and we'll send the book to you for free. Schedule Now!