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Recently, two seperate clients showed me
dirt around the edges of their main floor carpets, (in their old homes thankfully) and asked me to prevent this
from occuring in thier new home. I presume it’s a result of air flowing from the crawl space under the wall plate.
Aynbody know how to prevent this?
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Replies
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I normally run a bead of caulk around the bottom of the skirting board (sorry base board) that stops it. Although it can cost a bit on a big propety.
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Tom, I recently had a client apply caulking at the subfloor/bottom plate junction of all interior walls just before drywall was installed. He experienced the dirty carpet arond the perimiter of the rooms in his previous home and was hoping to eliminate it on his new one. It will be interesting to see if his idea works.
*Tom, I'm courious, is the entire floor insulated or just the box beam and is there a vapor retarder installed over the crawlspace floor? Keith
*I also believe that this dirt that appears around the edge of carpets is caused by the movement of air (drafts) going through the walls. Where the carpet meets up with wall the carpet acts as a filter, trapping all of the airborn dirt particulates. My guess would be eliminate any air movement at this area.
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In these cases the floor is insulated between the joists and there is a vapor barrier on the dirt. These are both newer homes with minimum height crawl spaces.
*Here in Indy... standard practice is for insulation contractor to foam seal the crack between subfloor and bottom plate to stop air infiltration.. to stop this draft
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Drafts cause the dirt in interior as well as outside walls. On the new home, use cellulose on exterior walls and on interior walls cut strips of sill seal into strips and staple to top plate lines so as to become gaskets between the studs plates and sheetrock. OR use cellulose ceiling insulation.
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Recently, two seperate clients showed me
dirt around the edges of their main floor carpets, (in their old homes thankfully) and asked me to prevent this
from occuring in thier new home. I presume it's a result of air flowing from the crawl space under the wall plate.
Aynbody know how to prevent this?
*
Older houses - 1950s and earlier had diagonal plank sub floors. Over time, the planks shrunk and a gap of about 1/4 inch opend up every six inches or so. Hardwood floors were laid down with a gap of about 1/4 inch to the wall and this gap was covered with a 1/4 round shoe. When wall-to-wall carpet is put down the shoe is frequently removed and vola, every six inches there is a direct opening to the crawl space. Draft city. The fix is inside a can of foam.