Wondering if anyone has run across one of these cabins designed by H.F. Zornig. My father built this in the early 1970s. I don't have the plans, but I found a document in his files titled "Construction Notes, The Gothic Cottage of Wood" by H. G. Zornig, Athens, GA, April 10, 1970. It's 1st and 2nd story floors are attached to pressure treated utility pools sunk into the ground.
Looking for damp crawlspace advice.
We have a small A-frame cabin with a 3-4 ft high, dirt floor crawlspace, roughly 400 sq feet. We purchased this cabin just this past Spring, so no prior experience with how this crawlspace typically is, but after a heavy snow melt and a decent amount of rainfall, we had some pooling water in some areas (less than an inch deep) and the rest of the dirt was very damp, almost mud in some places. Since then it has dried up a bit, no real standing water, but still damp dirt and a mild musty smell. Additionally, there are 5 narrow vertical cracks in the poured concrete foundation. I am pretty confident these can just be sealed with epoxy or something similar.
What I am wondering is should I focus on exterior drain tile and then just better circulation in the crawlspace, a heavy duty dehumidifier, and maybe some plastic on the floor, or am I better off skipping the exterior drain tile and fully encapsulating the crawlspace, maybe adding interior drain tile and sump pump? I don’t need the crawlspace to be so clean and perfect I could live in it, but I’d like to be able to store some things down there without them becoming damp, and I don’t want to just put off by a few years whatever bigger problems this might be causing. Budget is up to 20k but the cabin was only 200k, so I don’t really want to spend that much if I don’t have to, and preferably closer to 5k-10k.
Any advice welcome and GREATLY appreciated! We are in central Wisconsin, near Castle Rock Lake.
Just started the framing for my A Frame build in Michigan.
Framing continues this week!