We have a 200 year old Cape in New Hampshire with the typical rubble foundation walls and basement dirt floors. There was once a rat slab poured, but that is broken up and partially removed by a previous owner. The sills have been redone with concrete and the post and beam frame is in good shape. In the Spring, there is some snow melt runoff into the basement dispersed via a sump pump in a bucket dug into the floor. A dehumidifier runs almost year round. The basement floor is always slightly damp and the smell of mold is sometimes present. I can stand in some parts of the basement, but some areas are not even crawl spaces accessible only by the cat chasing resident mice. The dirt floor in these areas is dry to the eye and feel. Heat ducts obscure walking upright more that a few steps. A local contractor has proposed installing Clean Space reviewed in Fine Homebuilding. My “problem” with this is that not all of the basement areas will be covered with the barrier material as there is no way to get into these spaces. True, the area that is proposed to be covered is where water will be present at certain times of the year, but about 1/4 of the total space area will be uncovered and still have exposed dirt for the floor. I hate to spend a large sum of money and not completely address the problem. Will putting in a better sump and spreading crushed stone in the accessible areas do as much for this situation? Thanks for any advice
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