Crawl Space Encapsulation

In many areas of the pest management industry today, exterminators are following up on their work by encapsulating the crawl space. Encapsulating a crawl space involves sealing all crawl space vents and doors with airtight covers, covering the crawl space walls and floors with a durable plastic crawl space liner, and, in the case of block foundation walls, adding a plastic covering over the open cavities of the blocks to keep humidity from filtering upwards through the crevice. In some cases, the contractor may complete the job with a crawl space dehumidifier to remove residual humidity, or a crawl space sump pump if there?s been a history of flooding.

Why are pest management professionals encapsulating crawl spaces? By sealing off the crawl space vents and doors, they prevent those from serving as access points for infestations of insects and animals that could reenter the space, causing problems in the area. And lining the crawl space walls and floor with a polyethylene liner will also help to deter pests, such as subterranean termites, beetles, and carpenter ants, from entering the space through the foundation or floor.

A crawl space moisture barrier, in combination with a crawl space sump pump and dehumidifier when needed, will create a dry, healthier crawl space. By removing humidity, the environment can become inhospitable to mold, dust mites, rot, and certain pests, such as the American Cockroach. Foul, mildewy smells are reduced, and the smells of the animals, that live, create waste, and die in the area will be gone.

Crawl space encapsulation of a dirt or concrete crawl space- especially a vented one- will make the space much more energy-efficient. By sealing off the vents, winter cold and summer heat are kept out of the space. Cold winter air on furnaces, hot water pipes, and heating ducts located in the crawl space forces them to work harder just to maintain status quo, and a cold crawl space means a cold floor above. In the summer, heat and humidity enter the space, where the humid air condensates on the wood and metal or travels upwards into the home. Humid air is much harder to cool than dry air, and therefore more expensive to condition.

Houses in the Southeast

Houses in the Southeast are known to undergo moisture related issues generating wood framing to deteriorate, mold to fester in-turn causes musty stenches, wet air in the living space, insulation to droop, buckled hardwood floors, insect infestations and condensation on air conditioning piping, and that is just to name several. Homes in the southeast undergo these problems which can be chalked up to the high relative humidity in the area. For someone who is not as familiar with this meteorological term, it is a measure of the amount of moisture in the air in contrast to the utmost amount of moisture the air can hold at the same temperature and pressure. This region is known for some of the highest relative humidity in the United States; for instance, the average relative humidity in Charleston, SC is 56% and in Cape Hatteras, NC it remains a whopping sixty six percent. Certainly buildings in the southeast are not the only ones suffering from this problem as houses in other parts of the country also have this problem. There are multiple methods to prevent moisture from building up in these unwanted places in your residence. The use of a vapor barrier is one of the best ways to prevent moisture from invading the unwanted area. In the process of installing a vapor barrier, one should make sure to enclose one hundred percent of the area. This will stop moisture from the ground below to find its way into the preferred region, whether it be a crawl space or whatever area you desire. Dehumidifiers can be located in the preferred area, which is really a quite simple way to facilitate pull moisture out. Dehumidifiers thrust warm air onto cold metal coils, and that produces water which falls into a bucket. Cold air is then created and it then is passed over warm coils to bring it back to room temperature. One other popular way is to situate vents or double check that your installed vents are permitting air to distribute in the desired area, but during winter the air penetrates and drifts under the floor and the floor of the home is then affected. Then some contractors use insulation to stop the floor from unwanted cooling or heating. Then sometimes this insulation builds moisture within itself, so basically you are clearing up a problem with another problem. Anyway you try to prohibit moisture from establishing itself into your crawl space, basement, or other area, make sure that you do it accurately. This article only names to a few of the ways to pull out moisture. There are more ways to achieve this goal, but no matter how it is fulfilled it must be achieved correctly or you will still be left with the situation of mold, wood rot or even insect infiltration.

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The Foundation of a Healthy Home

Vented crawl spaces are the perfect breeding ground for everything from mold, mildew, rot, and decay, to termites, rodents, and reptiles.

Because your home continually draws in air from your crawl space and circulates it throughout your living area, you and your family are breathing in and living with its harmful effects day in and day out.

Your health could be seriously compromised by anything from simple allergies to severe infections. You're more likely to pay much higher heating and cooling costs, and to experience cold floors, drafts, uncomfortable humidity levels, and stale odors. What's more, from rotting sills and joists to sticking doors and windows to buckling hardwood floors, the structural integrity of your home is always under attack.

The smartest solution for all your crawl space problems is the superior closed system developed by Your Crawl Space. Using our proprietary multi-layer crawl space liner material and proven installation methods, we can completely isolate your home from the ground below, and give you a new crawl space that's level, dry, properly conditioned and usable as a clean storage area.

The more you know about Your Crawl Space, the more you'll agree it's "the foundation of a healthy home."