Thread: White stuff on soil

This is a small bedroom addition onto a 1950's home. It was built in 1995.
The ground had this with crystal-like stuff covering it. The ground was dry, as we have not had any rain for a while out here in SOCAL.
Does anybody have any idea what this is, and what causes it??

Ventilation was sufficent.
The grade next to home was basically flat.

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I believe that’s basically efflorescence like you would see on concrete being brought to the surface by moisture. The water evaporates and the minerals and salts are left behind as a residue that builds up over time.

What did it taste like?

I'll go with the efflorescence.

That look like the area is bare ground with no concrete slab. Around my wood we see that some people have lines this area with lime or another chemical that wicks the mousture. I never climb in these areas for my saftey and health.

Lime spread around the crawl space to control moisture.

First guess - dried leaves from a small leaf bush like an azeleza or boxwood.

Second guess - a ground cover or weed that was built over top off and has lost its color due to no sunlight.

Dick,

I don't think its vegetation at all although looking at the photos again I could see how you might think it might be. Especially with all of the visible vegetative runners in the area.

Martin in his original post however said..."The ground had this crystal-like stuff covering it..." I don't think that Martin seeing it firsthand would have mistaken small dried leaves for anything "crystal-like". Only Martin can say for sure though!

I used to see (in SoCA) a white powder in attics. A termite inspector told me it was a silica based medium for termite treatment (or something like that).

I vote for efforescence. Floor joists have a fair amount of mold growth on them and there is no ground cover or ventilation visible. It looks like the crawl space has been pretty damp during the past but has dried up. I have seen similar, though not as extreme. Hope you were wearing a respirator in there!

I was in a crawl with a termite inspector last week and we saw a similar material which he said appeared to be a kind of broadcast (applied like lawn fertilizer) termite treatment as mentioned above. I would be careful crawling around in things that you don't know the chemical make-up of!! It's bad enough doing a crawl when you can't see anything on the soil.

Eric

Hello everyone,

I read all of the posts and I would venture the guess, that is a pesticide granual, or gel bait. Although gel baits can have a crystal-like appearance when dried out, I doubt from the even distrubution that it is gel. Most likely a granual pesticide for termite or ant control.

Here in Pennsylvania, some of the treatment companies will use diatamatious earth, (unsure of spelling) or other granual pesticides to control crawling insects like roaches and carpenter ants.

Aaron

Aaron,

Diatomaceous. I put it in my spell check dictionalry. If I get pretty close, it automatically corrects it. As a certified Master non-speller, I love that feature of WORD.

T

Do Plumbers use lime to control moisture? I thought they threw it around after a sewage spill to control bacteria and the gram negative stuff.

Looks like salt so maybe efflorecence is the right answer saw some on the concret foundation in photo 1.

Greg Dames