How (And Why) We Seal Crawl Spaces
Our Common-Sense Approach To Sealing & Conditioning A Crawl Space
Vented dirt crawl spaces, long the building code standard, have failed us time and again. The results have been rotting, moldy, inefficient crawl spaces.
By sealing your crawl space, you can create and maintain a drier, healthier, more energy efficient space.
Over the past few decades, it has become increasingly clear that vented dirt crawl spaces are simply not working for homeowners.
Crawl space ventilation brings a number of unwanted outside issues into the home -- including summer humidity, rain, snow, and winter cold.
Combined, these forces create a damp, moldy crawl space environment, while the cold affects furnaces, hot water pipes, and other utilities and costs you unnecessarily on your utility bills.
What's The Alternative?
Instead of bringing humidity, moisture, and cold air into the crawl space, our experts seal the crawl space. This closing the vents, installing an airtight door, sealing the walls and floors, and dehumidifying the space..
Once you've created and maintained an encapsulated, dry space, you can ensure that your building materials stay dry, the structure remains strong, and that you make the best of your home's energy usage.
At Basement Systems, we pride ourselves on providing fast, warrantied installations to homeowners all over the world. Our crews are often able to completely seal and dry a crawl space in less than a day.
Our experts are available, at no charge, to visit your home, inspect the problem, and provide you with a crawl space repair cost estimate. To get in touch with your local dealer, contact us by phone or e-mail today!
Six Steps To Dry And Seal A Crawl Space
With hundreds of thousands of systems installed, we have crawl space sealing down to a science! Our experts specialize in crawl space repair -- it's what we do every day.
A typical installation of our crawl space encapsulation is completed with these five steps:
Install A Drainage System
If you have crawl space flooding, we'll begin by installing a waterproofing system in your crawl space. This involves installing our SmartPipe™ Crawl Space Drain around the interior perimeter of the crawl space, and our SmartSump™ Crawl Space Sump Pump at the low spot on the floor.
To prevent water from collecting under the vapor barrier, drainage matting will also be installed underneath the liner. This will provide water with a channel to the perimeter drain and sump pump.
If there is no flooding, we recommend installing a drain in your crawl space liner to address any plumbing failures.
Repair The Structure (If Necessary)
In some cases, the crawl space may also have structural damage. If this is true in your case, this is the ideal time to address it.
Our award-winning SmartJack® Crawl Space Jack Post system will restore structural integrity to your crawl space by transferring the weight of your home through the posts, and into a cube of engineered fill located underneath the support. Rotting beams may be replaced or reinforced by a new sister beam.
This fill disperses the weight to 10% of its original load per square inch. This ensures your soil is strong enough to bear the weight necessary to stabilize your home.
Seal The Walls & Floors
Moisture continually passes into the crawl space through the dirt floors and foundation walls. Concrete, brick, and grout are porous materials that allow water to pass through continuously in the form of water vapor. This is especially true in the case of concrete block wall foundations, where water can collect and fill the empty cavities of each block.
Even if the walls and floor themselves look dry, the water vapor transmitted through can be present in the air. Sealing the walls and floor with a thick, durable vapor barrier will prevent this moisture from entering your crawl space environment. Insulation products are also available the do double duty as a vapor barrier system.
Install Vent Covers & An Airtight Door
Crawl space vents are second only to flooding when it comes to bringing moisture into a crawl space.
During the hot summer months, humid air will pass through these vents into your crawl space. As it does, it is cooled in this dark, underground space. The cooling process causes the humid air to drop its moisture in the form of condensation, saturating wood, insulation, and other materials with moisture.
Sealing these vents and installing an airtight crawl space door will protect your space from this humidity, and will also protect your utilities from cold outside air during winter months.
Air Seal & Cap Off Block Wall Openings
If you have a block wall foundation in your crawl space (and most crawl spaces do), then simply sealing the walls will not be enough.
The open cavities inside block walls are open along the top -- right underneath your sill plate. Unless this is sealed, the humidity can simply rise upwards.
However, covering this opening with our typical crawl space liners will obstruct termite inspectors, who need visual access to this part of the wall to look for the mud tunnels of subterranean termites. Our solution includes a clear plastic fitting that's mechanically attached (and then caulked) to the wall.
Install An Energy Efficient Dehumidifier
One all sources of standing water are addressed and your crawl space has been sealed away from outside moisture, a great next step is to maintain the space with a crawl space dehumidifier.
We recommend installing a system that's energy efficient, self-draining, low-maintenance, and able to turn itself on and off automatically.
Our Sanidry™ CX dehumidifier fills all these needs, and includes a powerful blowing motor that will circulate dry air throughout the crawl space. An air filter removes particles from the air as small as 2 microns, removing mold and allergens as it dries.
We Waterproof, Insulate, & Seal Crawl Spaces!
Whether you'd like to stop your crawl space from flooding, dehumidify the space, add structural support, or simply insulate it for enhanced energy savings, our experts have a solution for you! We've upgraded hundreds do thousands of crawl spaces and basements worldwide, and we're ready by to help you!
It costs you nothing to meet with one of our certified crawl space experts for a free dry crawl space estimate! Your local dealer will send a professional to your home to measure and inspect your crawl space, answer any questions you may have, and customize a solution for the space that meets all your needs (waterproofing, insulation, structural repairs, etc.).
As an added courtesy, we like to mail out a copy of our full-color book: Crawl Space Science. This informative book is filled with everything you need to know about crawl spaces, as well as the products and solutions we apply.
Our international network proudly serves throughout Canada and the United States. Contact us by phone or e-mail today to get in touch with your local dealer!
Looking for a price? Get a no cost, no obligation free estimate.