Crawl spaces are often ignored — they can be damp, dirty and end up storing lots of old junk. Left unattended, crawl spaces can be the main source for poor indoor air quality, including mold, musty smells and dampness. Rooms above crawl spaces are often too cold. Most crawl spaces are located under additions, but sometimes they take the place of a full basement foundation. The team at York Home Performance can solve all of these problems with crawl space encapsulation.
Benefits of Crawl Space Encapsulation
Our certified experts understand that many comfort, indoor air quality and energy efficiency problems can be solved by isolating the crawl space and removing it from the building envelope. Air sealing and insulating the space provides an effective barrier from the dirt floor and offers effective protection from excess moisture.
How Does Encapsulation Work?
The first step of crawl space encapsulation is to clean out the crawl space, including old appliances, junk, insulation and other debris. Once the area is cleared, we’ll smooth out the floor and begin sealing the crawl space using a 6-mil heavy gauge plastic moisture barrier. We lay it down on the floor and continue it up the walls of the crawl space, sealing each seam to provide a continuous barrier against moisture. We’ll apply small amounts of spray foam to any gaps or cracks in the underside of the floor to air seal and separate the space from living areas above.
Insulation Completes the Encapsulation
To insulate the floor above the crawl space, the experts at York Home Performance apply Tyvek sheets to the floor joists. Then we’ll blow in dense pack fiberglass insulation in the cavities between the floor joists. The techs will leave a little sag in the Tyvek so that we can increase the R-value of the dense pack insulation for a more effective thermal barrier.