If you are a homeowner with a house on a crawl space foundation, we recommend you invest in crawl space encapsulation! This effort (when completed by a team of professionals) can help increase the quality of life in your house and ability to reduce the amount of energy your house uses to stay warm.
However, there are several factors that can damage or degrade the insulation that lies under your floors in the top of your crawl space. Once this insulation fails, as one homeowner from Ada, OK experienced, it’s important to contact your local crawl space repair pros to have it replaced before installing an encapsulation solution.
We sent out our crew of experts to check out the house in question. They found that heavy amounts of moisture had entered the crawl space and invited pests into the insulation. Once the insulation started to rot from the animal waste and other debris, it fell from the floor joists and onto the crawl space ground below. The damage was so severe that it needed to be replaced.
Next, the bats were removed from the joist and discarded. New bats were installed to replace them. Each new bat was positioned to begin against the back of the next joist until it touched the band joist, or until it reached the end of the previous bat. Systematically removing the damaged insulation and replacing it with new material ensured that no contaminants were left behind, including mold growth,
Any pipes or ducts that got in the way of the new insulation were carefully wrapped with insulation in a snug way to avoid compressing the insulation. It is important to make sure there are no gaps or spaces between the pieces.
Finally, installing insulation hooks and straps will help keep the new insulation in place and in contact with the subfloor. This also prevents moisture from entering the opening and forming mold, one of the most formidable foes of crawl space deterioration.
Once the whole process was complete, the space was ready for the consideration of a crawl space encapsulation. When problems like mold growth or pest infestation exist, the source of the problem must be taken care of before applying an overall solution. Otherwise, the moisture intrusion will continue to occur and it won’t be long before the condition has returned to its previously damaged state.
Does your home need crawl space insulation removal in Oklahoma? Call PIERMAN Foundation Repair today at (580) 453-0330 to schedule a free evaluation of your crawl space.
