From the Junior Warden's Workbench

Crawl Space Project Summary

As of Friday, July 24th, our Crawl Space Project is essentially complete. Here is what it entailed.

Contractor: PBS Crawl Space Specialists of Hartfield, Virginia.

Summary of the Problem:

There was a soft spot in the floor of the Fellowship Hall, that when we uncovered it, showed that there were several OSB floor joists that had mold and fungus on them, and that several of them had areas that were rotten. This was all in the area of the south wall by the first window from the kitchen.

Cause of the Problem:

The cause of the problem was moisture that had caused fungus to grow on the joists. And although the salt treated 2 X 12 beams were not affected, the OSB joists were affected and had begun to rot. The moisture could have come from one or more of the following sources.

· The seam between the old roof of the Fellowship Hall and the new roof of the Parish Hall.

· There were 8 holes in the roof above that area that were left when some ice clips were removed. There were also 6 holes in the north wall roof in the same area. (All the holes have been plugged with epoxy and then covered with “Through the Roof” vinyl adhesive.)

· The ground being saturated by rainwater from the roof, since the gutter drains were clogged up causing the rainwater to back up and saturate the ground along the south wall. This was filling up the basement with water from hydro-static pressure as well as allowing water to simply flow into the basement.

· The humidity in the crawl space was roughly 80%, which will allow mold and fungus to thrive, and to rot the wood.

Scope of Work:

In speaking with four contractors who deal with this issue, we developed the following scope of work.

· Reroute the gutter downspouts to PVC pipes that will carry the water to the woods to the east of the building.

· Enlarge the access ports in the basement to the crawl space.

· Inspect the crawl space for any further damaged joists or beams.

· Spray a mold killer throughout the entire crawl space to kill the mold and fungus.

· Replace the rotten OSB floor joists with #1 Salt treated 2 x 12’s. ( There were a total of 11 joists needing replacement.)

· Line the entire crawl space with 12 mil vinyl, taping all the seams, and then foaming the edges along the wall to “encapsulate” the crawl space.

· Place a de-humidifier in the crawl space.

· Once the work commenced, we realized that water was streaming into the basement from both sides when it rained. Therefore, the scope was modified to include trenching the interior perimeter of the basement to include a drain that channeled the water to the sump pump. It also included a covering on the walls of the basement that keep the water flowing to the drains and not onto the floor. A new sump pump with a battery back up is in place that takes the water out the back of the building to the woods.

Contractor:

PBS Crawl Space Specialists were chosen to do the work as their proposed scope of work was more closely aligned with the scope suggested by our Building and Grounds Committee, and they were the lowest cost.

Their total cost was $19,330 but that did not include the basement. The basement addition was $6,000 bringing the total to $25,330 that has been paid in full as of July 23, 2026. The cost was covered by Reserves.

Jeff Loustanau