Today we’re going to spend some time talking about what is underneath your home. Under your home is a place you don’t normally see. On the other hand, your home might be build on a foundation that has been made into a basement and your family may spend an ample amount of time down there. The topic of today’s post will be the crawl space, another type of foundation a home is built on that is much less generally considered a living area. This does not mean, however, that some families haven’t made their crawl space a nice place to go and spend time! Either way, a crawl space needs to be encapsulated to make sure that it remains moisture free and to prevent many other issues from developing inside both the crawl space and the home as a whole. We will explain what encapsulation is and how it works.
The goal of a crawl space encapsulation is to encapsulate the environment of the crawl space from the all of the surrounding moisture and other natural elements that would otherwise come right inside it. When an encapsulation is performed, the first order of things to do is to remove all of the organic material that is currently there. This may mean any garbage or building materials being stored there. Next, any necessary waterproofing measured need to be made. This would include a drain pipe around the perimeter and possibly a new sump pump system to pull water away from the foundation. Then a barrier is laid down, called a vapor-barrier, to disperse soil gases and moisture that comes up from the ground. A second, more thick type of vapor barrier is then installed over the first one along the floor and walls of the crawl space.
Lastly, any vents that may be exposing the crawl space to the open outside air need to be sealed, as this was once believed to be a best practice but has since been found out to only make these problems worse. Once all of these steps are complete, your crawl space has been successfully encapsulated. It means a healthier environment for your home as well, since the moisture and other adverse conditions like infectious waste from pests can no longer get inside the crawl space and come up into your home through the floor. Your family might feel cleaner as they go to bed at night simply knowing the crawl space under the home is now a clean and open place free of all of the mold and mildew that could have otherwise been growing there!
If your crawl space is in bad shape or you think a previous encapsulation job needs to be evaluated for repairs, give Barrier Waterproofing Systems a call at (615) 257-1060.
