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Recently, I was helping out a friend of a friend with their crawl space. They wanted to keep costs down, so we were trying to work with what was already there. That's when I found something that, unfortunately, I see way too often under Charleston homes: a failing condensate pump filled with green slime.

You might think all crawl space repairs are created equal. After all, how many ways can you put up a vapor barrier, right? But here's something I learned after 14 years of crawling under Charleston homes: it's the details you can't see that make the difference between a repair that lasts decades and one that fails next month.

I was just out at a high-end project on Sullivan's Island, setting up lighting for a crawl space encapsulation. The number of lights we brought might seem like overkill, but here's something that might surprise you: on a $15,000 crawl space job, proper lighting only costs about $150. Yet when we tell customers it's non-negotiable, they often ask if we can skip it to save money.

You might be surprised to learn that nearly a third of our business at Crawl Logic comes from fixing other companies' crawl space work. Actually, if you've dealt with crawl space companies before, maybe you wouldn't be surprised at all.

Here's a shocking number for you: 20% of the encapsulated crawl spaces I inspect have failed because of one small device that was supposed to make everything easier. I'm talking about condensate pumps, and if you've got one under your Charleston home right now, you might want to keep reading.

You might think I'm crazy. I just walked into a flooded crawl space in downtown Charleston and offered to fix it for free. But here's the thing - this isn't your typical crawl space story, and we're not your typical crawl space company.

There's something special about downtown Charleston homes. They've got character, history, and usually, some interesting challenges underneath. Today's story starts with one of these beautiful houses – though what was under it wasn't so beautiful after a flood left their crawl space in rough shape.

You might think I'm crazy, talking about mustaches and facial hair when it comes to crawl space work. But stick with me for a minute - this small detail actually tells you a lot about how serious a contractor is about safety and quality.