Nothing beats the feeling of coming home to a place where you can relax and create special memories with your family. This is the reason homeowners spend money on cleaning tools and home maintenance services. You want to keep it safe, healthy, and pest-free. But when it comes to home maintenance services, very few pay close attention to what is happening right under their homes, the subfloor, specifically subfloor ventilation.
Subfloor ventilation works by replacing damp air with dry, fresh air in your home. It helps get rid of excessive moisture in your home to protect against molds, mildew, and pests. This also protects the structural stability of your house as it prevents the wood from absorbing too much moisture.
Because sunlight never reaches the subfloor of your house, it is an area where condensation occurs a lot. Condensation buildup will cause structural damage to your home, especially the wooden support structure of your house. If uncorrected, condensation may cause such destruction that it would cost a lot of money to fix it. With proper subfloor ventilation, moisture in the air does not have time to condense in the subfloor of your home.
Radon gas is an odorless radioactive gas that emanates from the soil, especially if your house is built on soil with natural uranium deposits. Yes, radon is dangerous and may cause lung cancer. Subfloor ventilation keeps radon from rising through the floor and into your home.
Without good ventilation, condensation happens inside your subfloor, making it a city of rats, roaches, centipedes and other destructive pests. Not only that, condensation may also cause molds to grow and ruin wooden floors and make your family sick.
If the subfloor of your home is not well-ventilated, stale air from it may enter your house. It may also cause respiratory problems like asthma and cough. If someone from your family is allergic to molds, a badly ventilated subfloor may cause health problems.
In case of fire, a subfloor that is not well-ventilated may cause a backdraft of air to enter into the house and make the fire stronger.
Do not take subfloor ventilation for granted. A well-ventilated subfloor makes your home unattractive to pests and helps maintain structural stability. The money it will cost to install better subfloor ventilation is outweighed by the many benefits you will get from it.