Are musky odors coming from my crawl space?

     Are musky odors coming from my crawl space? I was discussing this exact question with a homeowner yesterday. The answer is, any home that has a crawl space, whether it be a full crawl space foundation, or half basement, half crawl space foundation, will have a distinguishable scent inside the crawl space portion of the project, versus the actual living quarters of the home. Much is the same with basements. Ever opened a basement door to go downstairs, and the musky odor from the basement immediately knocks you in your face? It's the same type smell. It accumulates due to excessive humidity within the confines of the crawl space, and makes its way up, into the living quarters of the home.
     The musky odors will die down some during the winter months, as cold weather drops humidity in the air. Whenever spring comes around, we start getting more rain, and temperature rises. This results in the increase of humidity in the air, as well as an increase of moisture content within the soil, in turn resulting in an increase of musky odors present within the home itself.
     The way to remedy this situation is to gain control of the excessive humidity within the crawl space, so that it is no longer able to present problems to the home. As you have seen me do all these years with my crawl space encapsulation system, I am changing the crawl space's environment entirely! You have, and will always notice, my system doesn't change. That is solely due to the fact that my system works, and has been working for a long, long time now.
     Part of the system is not the system. An encapsulation itself is not the remedy. A dehumidifier placed inside of an ongoing, unchanged damp environment will work itself to death! The play hand in hand off of one another. They're teammates! Once they have in partnership, gained control of the humidity inside the crawl space, the once present musky odors are no more. 
     And why are they no more? To reiterate: The crawl space environment has been changed. The environment that provided adequate means of excessive humidity has lost the fight. The system wins again! Just like it wins every single time you have ever seen me do it. That's why it stays the same. And it's how you to, can get rid of moisture problems inside your crawl space, which are what's causing the musky odors inside of your home.
     If you want to learn more, watch all the videos you want here at CRAWLSPACEARTISTS.COM and my book is available on Amazon now, ''Everything You Need To Know About Crawl Space Encapsulations''.
     Thanks for your time.
​     -Tanner Flowers 5/23/2025