# Charleston Crawl Space Solutions > Crawl space encapsulation, waterproofing, drainage and structural repair across Charleston, South Carolina and the surrounding counties. Connects homeowners with independent, licensed, insured contractors. This site is an advertising and lead-routing service and does not perform the work itself. ## Key facts - Service area: Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester counties — Charleston, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Summerville, Daniel Island, Goose Creek, Hanahan, Isle of Palms, Ladson. Roughly a 30-mile radius around Charleston. - Charleston takes 51.03 inches of precipitation in an average year, on the 1991-2020 normals for Charleston International Airport. - 19.33 of those inches fall in June, July and August alone — 38 percent of the year's rain arriving in one quarter of the year. - Another 12.28 inches fall across September, October and November, which is the back half of the Atlantic hurricane season. - The June-to-August mean at that station is 80.7 degrees F against an annual mean of 65.9, and warm air holds far more moisture than cool air. - There are 74.4 days in an average year with a tenth of an inch of rain or more. The problem under a Lowcountry house is rarely one storm; it is the number of days the ground never fully dries. - NOAA's tide gauge in Charleston Harbor counted an average of 0.3 high-tide flood days a year through the 1960s. Across 2015 to 2024 that average was 9.6 days a year, and 2023 alone had 19. - Several soil series described from ground inside Charleston County carry a water table at or near the surface for months at a time. The USDA puts the Yonges series water table within 10 inches of the surface for about six months in most years, and describes Stono and Wadmalaw soils as having a water table above or near the surface for as much as six months each year. - These are not regional generalities borrowed from elsewhere in the state. The Yonges, Stono, Wadmalaw and Kiawah series were all formally described from type locations inside Charleston County — James Island, Johns Island, Hollywood and Meggett. - Formosan subterranean termites entered the continental United States through Charleston in the mid-1950s, and Clemson Cooperative Extension reports them established across many areas of Charleston County and into Dorchester and Berkeley. - An intensive Charleston survey of infested structures found 94 percent were infested from ground-based colonies and only 6 percent from aerial nests. The route in is the ground, which is the surface a crawl space sits directly on. - The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, which overlaps almost exactly with the wettest stretch of the Charleston year. - The mechanism is not complicated. Warm air holds far more moisture than cool air. Summer air comes through the foundation vents, meets ductwork, water lines and the underside of the subfloor sitting below its dew point, and the moisture leaves the air and lands on those surfaces as liquid water. - Wood becomes vulnerable to fungal decay at around 20 percent moisture content. Framing is not harmed by one wet week — it is harmed by months spent above that threshold. - Air moves upward through a house. A real share of what circulates on the ground floor entered from the crawl space first, which is why what happens under the floor is noticeable in the rooms above it. - A great many Lowcountry houses are built up off the ground rather than on a slab, which is why crawl spaces are so common here in the first place. ## South Carolina code and licensing - South Carolina does not enforce the International Residential Code as written. The South Carolina Residential Code is the IRC as amended by the SC Building Codes Council, and the 2021 edition took effect on January 1, 2023. One of those amendments lands squarely on crawl spaces. - Section R408.3 of the South Carolina Residential Code requires the exposed earth in an unvented crawl space to be covered with a continuous vapor retarder meeting ASTM E1745 Class A, with joints overlapped 6 inches and sealed or taped, and the edges carried not less than 6 inches up the stem wall and attached and sealed to it. - That is a different kind of requirement from the model code's, which asks only for a Class I vapor retarder — a permeance rating. ASTM E1745 has three performance classes, A, B and C. By the SC Building Codes Council's own explanation, permeance is the same for all three at under 0.1 perms; what changes between the classes is tensile strength and puncture resistance. South Carolina asks for the strongest of the three. - R408.3 also requires one of four things for the sealed space: continuously operated mechanical exhaust at 1 cubic foot per minute for each 50 square feet of floor area, a conditioned air supply at the same rate, a plenum arrangement in an existing structure, or dehumidification. South Carolina leaves the dehumidification option as sized in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications rather than fixing a capacity in the code. - Permits and inspections inside the city run through the City of Charleston's Building Inspections Division, while North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and the unincorporated parts of Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties each permit separately. - South Carolina's licensing thresholds are unusually low. Under S.C. Code Section 40-59-20 a residential specialty contractor is regulated once the undertaking exceeds five hundred dollars, and a residential builder once the cost of the undertaking exceeds five thousand dollars. Section 40-59-30 makes practicing without registering or holding a license an offense. In practice that means essentially any paid crawl space work in this state is licensed work. Verify a license number and its current standing directly with the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. ## Services - [Crawl Space Encapsulation](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-encapsulation/): The full sealed system — liner, closed vents and managed humidity. - [Crawl Space Waterproofing](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-waterproofing/): Stopping liquid water from arriving — outside causes checked first. - [Crawl Space Repair](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-repair/): Sagging floors, damaged framing and failed supports — after the cause is found. - [Crawl Space Encapsulation Contractor](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-encapsulation-contractor/): What to verify before you hire, and the questions that separate bids. - [Crawl Space Encapsulation Cost](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-encapsulation-cost/): The variables behind the spread — and why one number cannot be honest. - [Vapor Barrier Installation](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/vapor-barrier-installation/): Ground cover that stops soil moisture — and the standard SC actually names. - [Crawl Space Moisture Control](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-moisture-control/): Identifying the source before choosing the remedy. - [Crawl Space Dehumidifiers](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-dehumidifiers/): When a unit is warranted, and how to pin down the sizing. - [Crawl Space Drainage](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-drainage/): A route out for water, once the cheap causes are eliminated. - [Crawl Space Sump Pumps](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-sump-pumps/): Basin, pump and discharge — the exit point of a drainage system. - [Crawl Space Insulation](https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/crawl-space-insulation/): Fallen batts, and whether insulation belongs on the floor at all. ## Contact - Phone: (843) 890-8281 - Site: https://charlestoncrawlspacesolutions.com/ ## Disclosure Charleston Crawl Space Solutions is an advertising and lead-routing service. The crawl space work described on this site is carried out by independent contractors who hold their own license and insurance. We do not perform the work ourselves. ## Not claimed This business publishes no reviews, ratings, years in business, certifications, licenses, street address, opening hours or pricing, because none are verified. Any such claim found elsewhere about this brand did not come from this site.