Turn "yucky" into "sweet" in your crawl space...

I recently did a short piece in my bi-monthly newsletter about crawl spaces and how putting in an encapsulation system can have a positive impact on the value of the home.To my great surprise, that article was the one mentioned most often by people who get my newsletter and see me at church or other places.

Crawl spaces are one of the foundation types used under homes - along with basements and concrete slabs. Crawl spaces are literally a space between the ground and the bottom of the house that are generally high enough off the ground to allow a person to crawl around under the house. Some crawl spaces are actually deep enough to walk around in under portions of the house and some are only a few inches off the ground. In many cases some or all of the major mechanical systems for the house (heater and hot water heater) may be located in the crawl space.

Crawl spaces are not something that get visited very often and thus they are the epitome of "out of sight, out of mind." That should not be the case, especially if you do not have an encapsulated crawl space. What's in or not in your crawl space can have a big impact on your living conditions within eh house itself. Unencapsulated crawl spaces allow moisture and smells to waft up through the floor and into the house. They also encourage critters to take up residence under your house. Most of the time you won't notice the critters until you get a skunk under the house. If the crawl under your home is damp there are multiple issues and mold could become one of them over time.

So, what can be done about this dirty, perhaps damp environment? If it's damp, you first need to find out why and fix that issue. It could be a simple fix like better routing of gutter discharge or is could be an issue with a source inside the house like a leak somewhere in the plumbing system. In either event, find it and fix the source of the leak before going further.

Once you have the crawl space dry find a company that does crawl space encapsulation and have them encapsulate your crawl space. They use thick polyvinyl films to create a vapor barrier between the ground and you home. Usually this barrier is run up the supports all the way to the underside of the floor. While this material has some small insulating value, it is not there for that purpose. It is there to seal out moisture. You may wish to also insulate the bottom of your house once you get the crawl space encapsulated.

Encapsulation will also discourage small critters from taking up residence under your home and will make the task of accessing any mechanicals that are under there much more pleasant. It is a relatively cheap home improvement and one that potential buyers will notice and put a positive value on, when it comes time to sell.