Dehumidifier Installation
in Cloverdale, BC

Cloverdale is one of Surrey's oldest communities, with a historic town centre that predates the modern municipality. The residential areas around the historic downtown and extending into the surrounding rural fringe have housing stock that spans from early 20th-century farmhouses to contemporary subdivisions, but the most common crawlspace problems we encounter are in the mid-century stock from the 1950s through the 1970s. These homes were built with vented crawlspaces on soils that are a mix of silty loam and clay — reasonable in dry periods but slow to drain after the extended wet seasons typical of the Fraser Valley.

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.