Have a Crawl Space? Consider This!

A crawl space is an area of a home that may fall under the category, “out of sight, out of mind”.

However, imagine for a moment that your crawl space was actually a basement… a basement with a dirt floor, a high level of humidity resulting in mould and mildew growth, open vents, ineffective or failing insulation, standing water and maybe even some critters - happily living in this funky environment!

If this were your basement, you’d never go down there, right? You’d probably try to seal the basement door to keep out the cold air, funky smells, the critters and all the other nastiness!

Even if you didn’t use the basement for extra living space or storage and never needed to venture down there, consider the effect on your upstairs living space:

Simply unhealthy: As your cooling system runs in the summer, the cold ductwork meets the warm air, condensation forms, resulting in a wet environment, encouraging mould and mildew growth – the spores (that bad smell!) creep up into the home, which your family breaths in! The same situation occurs in the winter when your warm ductwork is surrounded by the cold outside air.

Inefficient heating and cooling: Your heating and cooling systems continually fight against the outside air, and excessively humid environment, making it harder to work efficiently!

Failing insulation and cold floors: To battle against the cold, you may install fibreglass insulation… but the insulation absorbs moisture, rendering it completely ineffective. After a time, the insulation will fail completely and fall onto the floor.

Creepy crawlies and critters: The open vents or unsealed vents combined with a damp environment, (filled with delicious mould!) are like hanging a “welcome home” sign to bugs, spiders, mice… and more!

Affects structural integrity: What do you get when you soak wood in water? Rotten wood! Over time the damp environment not only creates mould, but will begin to rot floor joists and beams! 

You can imagine the above scenarios totally unacceptable in a home with a basement; however, it’s very likely the exact same thing is happening in your home due to an unsealed crawl space.

For these reasons…

A crawl space should be sealed just like a basement!

What needs to be done:

-        The vents completely sealed.

-        The entire crawl space encapsulated from the ground.

-        The installation of mould and moisture resistant insulation.

-        Improved drainage to keep water out.

If you have an unsealed crawl space and this makes sense to you (or doesn’t!), check out some of our “before and after” photos, then, feel free to reach out to us to schedule a complimentary inspection and free estimate. 1-866-277-1277