Does Your Home Have a Crawl Space?

If you live in a home with a crawl space or if you are in the market to purchase a home with a crawl space, please read this.

The crawl space is customarily one of the most overlooked and misunderstood areas of a home.

If you’re purchasing or living in a home with a dirt floor crawl space, it is essential to understand that overtime serious damage will occur. The area inside a dirt floor crawlspace is moist and damp, which exposes the floor joists, support beams and subfloors to undesirable levels of humidity. This humid environment rots these essential floor components.

The humid air under your home is a breeding ground for allergens and mould, and through the stack effect, this unhealthy air makes its way into your living space. Chronic allergies, asthma attacks, cold and flu symptoms, as well as respiratory problems, are all common conditions as a result of living in a home with a dirt floor crawl space.

This humid air negatively impacts the structural integrity of your home, over time deteriorating sill plates, piers and joists.

Why were homes constructed with dirt floor crawlspaces? Why do some builders continue to build homes with dirt floor crawlspaces?

• Crawl spaces require less concrete to build the foundation and there’s no cost for a concrete floor!
• It’s more expensive to encapsulate the crawlspace area properly.
• Problems with the dirt floor crawl space often don’t manifest for years: beyond any warranties offered by the builder.

More often now we discover serious structural problems in homes as a result of a compromised crawl space – requiring repairs beyond the encapsulation process. While we can take on projects which require major structural repair; it is disheartening for us to inspect a home and discover serious structural problems which simply should not have occurred.

If you have a home with a dirt floor crawl space, please call us for a thorough inspection and a free estimate: (226) 706-2439 or click here to submit your information online.