AC unit dripping onto crawl space vapor barrier

Question

I just bought a house whose crawlspace looks like it was partially converted to being sealed off. Basically, they put down a vapor barrier and closed off the vents, but didn't finish the job. On top of that, there's a PVC pipe from the furnace dripping what I assume is condensation onto the plastic, and that's what I'm here to ask for advice on.

The wood down there seems like it's in good shape now, but I'm trying to avoid future damage. I talked to a couple inspectors about the crawl space prior to buying the house, but I'm trying to figure out which of their suggestions I should go with. The easy solution is to undo what's been done with it and tear up the plastic, or at least cut a hole underneath where it drips, and let it drip into the gravel. The other recommendation was to run the pipe off somewhere else or to join it to the house's sewage drain.

You can see about all there is to see in these two photos. The short pipe in the second picture is dripping down the insulated pipe coming off the air conditioning unit and onto the plastic. It's a pretty steady trickle when the AC's running.

In addition to this, I do need to re-open the vents (I was told they were re-opened before we closed on the house but they look closed to me) and re-insulate the AC pipe, but that all sounds straightforward.

Any advice on what to do here would be appreciated. I can try to provide more info or details if needed. Thanks!

Answer 1

The short pipe looks like it's a condensate drain - which will trickle when the AC is operating. It needs to run to a drain or to the outside. It looks like the insulation over the pipes has been damaged by the condensate running over it, and will need to be replaced. Even if the drain wasn't running onto them, the pipes are cold, so will sweat unless they're well insulated - the C shaped insulation needs taping closed, or you can buy insulation with a ziploc type feature that closes it up.