I am planning to build a wooden wall in my crawlspace. It is a large, dry space and would be great for storage. The wall would be about 6ft x 32ft and would run along the inside of the cement foundation. Can I attach it to the cement foundation or to the wooden beams running along the top? Or does that cause weakening of the foundation or other problems. If I can't, does anyone know a good way to make the wall sturdy without attaching it to anything (I just want to attach some peg board and shelving to it). Thanks for any advice!
Wood against the cement wall is not a good idea. Moisture from the ground usually seeps in through concrete, and evaporate from the floor. and the wood will soak it up, grow moldy and rot. If you are planning to use it for storage the best course of action would be to encapsulate it instead. That means lining the whole crawl space, floor and walls with a 20mil poly sheet (like a pool liner) specially developed for this purpose, and then install a conditioning system to blow air from the upstairs into the crawl, keeping it dry. Besides protecting your crawl space and stored items from moisture, termites etc... encapsulation makes your whole house at least 18% more energy efficient. It is recommended by the US Department of Energy's Building America as Best Practice. I am adding the link to Advanced Energy website. There you will find videos explaining the process and a ton of studies conducted by them on crawl spaces, as well as to another website about Crawl Spaces.
