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This homes old insulation was heavy with water and had mold spores. To fix this crawlspace we did a full crawlspace encapsulation to properly insulate this home.
This homeowner knew they needed crawlspace repair. When the noted a damp earthy smell, they opened up the crawlspace entrance in their closet, only to find a muddy flood. They called up John's Waterproofing for a full encapsulation. We first performed a full dry-out and then encapsulated the space to make it dry and healthy.
The crawlspace needs to be insulated properly. So many people believe attaching fiberglass along the underside of your home will keep your home insulated. However, it absorbs moisture, holding it against the homes wooden beams, and allowing mold to fester. This home suffered from this issue, and to address it, the homeowners needed to tackle the mold and what caused the mold so it wouldn't end up coming back. To keep their home healthy, a full encapsulation was installed, properly insulating the home and preventing mold.
Crawl spaces are often easy to forget about. They are out of sight, therefore, out of mind. Most homeowners don't know that about 40% of the air in their home is coming from underneath, so if the crawl space is full of dirt, debris, mold and rodents, that is what is circulating in their air. These homeowners felt like their air quality seemed poor, they also noticed a strong odor which lead them to checking their crawl space and after seeing the state of it, they knew they had to transform the space. They gave us a call and scheduled their free visit and we went out and thoroughly inspected the space. After, we met with them to discuss options and provide a permanent solution; encapsulation.
First we remove all of the debris, damaged vapor barrier and fiberglass insulation. This crawl space did not have much water activity so we install one of our SmartDrain systems which will alert the homeowner to a plumbing leak with an audible alarm and drains the water away into a drywell underneath the waterproofing system until it can be addressed. We then make sure to cover all of the vents and seal them shut to ensure no outside enters. On the dirt floor, we install our TerraBlock material which is 3/4th inch foam acting as ground insulation. On top of the TerraBlock system, we place our 20 mil thick liner, CleanSpace, which is placed between each footing and wooden post and anchored into the foundation walls, up to the rim joists. This is sealed with our heavy duty CleanSpace tape. We install a SaniDry Sedona Dehumidifier to effectively eliminate odors by drying and filtering the air. This product will also keep the crawl space at a healthy relative humidity and create better over all air quality. To finish this encapsulation, we install our foam insulation onto the foundation walls, up to the rim joists. This is sprayed onto the foundation walls and expands, filling every crack and void guaranteeing a complete airtight seal. This encapsulation is now complete and these homeowners can now have peace of mind knowing their home is protected.
This before and after shows that process of applying Spray Foam insulation to the walls of the crawlspace after Cleanspace is installed. Insulation is not needed on the sub-floor because the Spray foam on the walls is working with the cleanspace to encapsulate, waterproof, and insulate. They work better together than apart! Spray Foam is closed-celled so it will not allow water to collect or stick to it.