Dehumidifier Installation
in Brentwood, BC

Brentwood is one of Burnaby's most actively developing neighbourhoods, with rapid densification around the Brentwood Town Centre SkyTrain station transforming what were single-family residential streets into a high-rise urban district. Beneath this transformation, however, there remains a significant inventory of older single-family homes on crawlspace foundations in the surrounding streets — homes that were built in the 1960s and 1970s and have not had major crawlspace work since original construction.

Humidity management is the operational heart of any crawlspace encapsulation system. Sealing the crawlspace envelope stops the major sources of moisture entry, but the residual humidity in the sealed space — from the soil itself, from diffusion through concrete stem walls, and from any minor air leakage — needs somewhere to go. In most Lower Mainland crawlspaces, a properly sized commercial dehumidifier running continuously is the right answer. The target is to maintain relative humidity at or below 50 to 55 percent year-round, which is the threshold at which mold growth and wood-boring insect activity become effectively impossible.

Proper sizing is critical. An undersized dehumidifier will run continuously without reaching the setpoint humidity level, eventually burning out its compressor. An oversized unit is not a problem in terms of dehumidification, but it costs more upfront and uses more energy than necessary. We calculate required capacity based on crawlspace square footage, current moisture load (as measured during inspection), the vapor barrier coverage and sealing quality, and the seasonal humidity patterns typical for the specific location.