Controlled relative humidity in crawl spaces: A new treatment methodology

Purpose – Crawl space ventilation became essential to avoid moisture damage. Historical houses with wood floor and crawl spaces unventilated correctly often face problems of biological degradation. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – In this work a case study of the Egas Moniz museum house, in Estarreja, Portugal, with different building pathologies, such as biological degradation and development of micro‐organisms and fungi, is presented. An experimental campaign was carried out with continuous monitoring of the relative humidity and temperature, to validate the real climatic conditions in the crawl spaces. Additionally, the authors analyse the treatment technologies used in the past and the characteristics of the rehabilitation solutions in order to control the hygrothermal behaviour. Simultaneously, numerical simulation was done using the software tool WUFI‐2D to simulate the hygrothermal building behaviour and a sensitivity study of parameters used was done.Findings ...