We are often asked why should a homeowner encapsulate a crawl space. “This house is 60 years old and hasn’t even had a vapor barrier – why should I encapsulate now?” and “Yeah, the last guy tried to get me to spend thousands of dollars to encapsulate my crawl space too”
I have to admit, it wasn’t too long ago that I was one of the people in the industry that thought encapsulation was just another way for a money hungry salesperson to make a few bucks on an unsuspecting homeowner.
As I understand more about the STACK EFFECT, Radon, and soil gases I am now a firm believer in crawl space encapsulation. I’ve done it on my own home as well as my parents home. Why?
In the old days, houses were drafty. This allowed the air to turn over in the home multiple times an hour, providing fresh air into an otherwise unhealthy environment. As houses became more energy efficient, the house doesn’t breathe as much, but when it does it “sucks” from the lowest level – your crawl space.
According to multiple studies, 50% of the air in your crawl space comes into your first floor air or said another way – 50% of your first floor air is from your crawl space. Now do we have your attention?
Most crawl spaces, left unattended, will have high moisture levels, radon/or other soil gases, and in general unhealthy air. The main risk for most homes is the high humidity. Crawl space encapsulation solves many of those problems by blocking out hot humid air from coming into your crawl. But isn’t fresh air important?
When hot humid air enters a crawl space the air cools down but the moisture level stays the same. This creates a more humid environment – making it worse for air quality, wood quality, and in some cases provides the right environment for mold. Fresh air is good – but only under the right circumstances.
If you or your home suffer from health issues consider encapsulating your crawl space. As a side note – anytime you are doing indoor air quality evaluations or considering a crawl space encapsulation you should check your radon levels before doing any renovations.