Crawl Space Repair & Encapsulation
Crawl space moisture means crawl space mold. Mold creates health problems for your family.
Schedule Free InspectionCrawl Space Problem Signs
Crawl space problems come in many forms, and they make themselves known throughout your house in a variety of ways. If any of the below signs are familiar in your home, you may need crawl space encapsulation & repair.
Wet Crawl Space Insulation
Safeguard your home against the hazards of wet crawl space insulation with JES Foundation Repair's comprehensive services.
Sagging Floors
Sagging floors are a red flag for foundational concerns. JES Foundation Repair offers a solution with advanced crawl space support.
Mold in Crawl Space
Crawl space mold, often unseen, poses significant health risks. JES Foundation Repair offers specialized encapsulation services.
Crawl Space Humidity
Learn how JES Foundation Repair addresses crawl space humidity with specialized solutions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Sagging floors and unpleasant odors might seem like the norm to homeowners with a crawl space. But these common crawl space problems are far from normal.
The condition of your crawl space greatly influences the health and safety of your home overall. Problems that stem from excessive moisture and humidity include mold growth that can be dangerous for many people to breathe, as well as wood rot that compromises your home’s structural integrity.
These issues are serious, but they’re not beyond repair! JES Foundation Repair specializes in crawl space encapsulation that will protect your home for years to come.
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Causes of Crawl Space Issues
Here's what's compromising your crawl space:
Open crawl space vents let in moisture, which creates the perfect environment for wood rot, mold, mildew and dust mites. Plus a vented dirt crawl space can also cause your energy bill to be nearly 20% higher!
Exposed dirt in your crawl space absorbs moisture open crawl space vents allow inside. As damp soil dries, it rises through your house, changing relative humidity inside your home, contributing to high energy bills.
Spring showers are great for your flowers & landscaping, but create problems for your crawl space. Extra moisture forces the soil to expand & press against your crawl space foundation, eventually causing cracks.
If your home doesn’t have a drainage system in place, then all the water that flows out of your gutters or roof will land near your foundation. That water forces the soil to expand & will push against your crawl space foundation, forcing water in & creating cracks.
Most of us think about the damage to the inside of our home when we find a plumbing leak. Those problems spread to your crawl space. Cracks in pipes or water lines leading to your home create a mess out of your lawn but can also harm your foundation, & create water damage in your crawl space.
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Crawl Space Repair Solutions
Crawl space problems need the best repair and crawl space encapsulation solutions to solve them. Our crawl space systems come with long-term, nationally backed warranties and are proven to permanently protect your home. Below are some of the solutions your inspector might recommend.
Crawl Space Insulation
Crawl space insulation creates a healthy, energy-efficient home. Learn about our exclusive ExTremeBloc™ insulation.
Crawl Space Dehumidifier Installation
Achieve optimal crawl space humidity control and moisture management with JES Foundation Repair's AquaStop™ Crawl Space Air System.
Crawl Space Sump Pump
Keep your home dry with a reliable crawl space sump pump from JES Foundation Repair. Get your free quote today!
Crawl Space Vapor Barrier Installation
Tired of a wet crawl space? Protect it with JES' vapor barrier for effective moisture control and encapsulation.
Is Crawl Space Encapsulation the Right Solution for Me?
Homes in southern coastal areas like Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks typically have crawl spaces. Crawl spaces buffer the house from the ground, and they often contain essentials like plumbing pipes, ductwork, and HVAC equipment.
Since the mid-20th century, crawl spaces have been built with open vents and dirt floors which cause a lot of their problems. Moisture and pests can enter through them and damage your crawl space.
You don’t have to live with these crawl space problems. Our crawl space expert at JES help you create a safer, healthier living environment with permanent crawl space encapsulation solutions.
Call us today or fill out this form to get started!
FAQs
Humidity, unfortunately, is not a harmless visitor in your home. If you allow humidity to gather in your crawl space, then you may find yourself contending with unwanted damage in the days, weeks, and months to come. Humidity, after all, does more than make your space uncomfortable to live in. Unwanted moisture in the air can cause significant damage throughout the whole of your home, such as:
- Unpleasant smells
- Mold growths
- Warped door frames
- Damaged windowsills
- Sagging floors
- Rotting floor joists
- Wood rot
- Foundation sinkage
If you find yourself contending with crawl space humidity, you can reach out to a professional contractor in your area to schedule a home inspection. During a home inspection, you can find the source of a leak and determine how best you can resolve the damage done to your home. You can also discuss what waterproofing measures might help you protect your home from unwanted moisture after repairs have been completed.
The stack effect is a condition in a home describing the behavior of air based on its density. Air that is warmer has a less significant density than cooler air. As a result, warmer air tends to rise to the top of a home. However, if the air in your crawl space takes on an excessive amount of moisture, the density of the air can increase significantly. In most cases, you’d assume that’d mean air would remain in the bottom of your home. However, if the moisture from your crawl space starts to leak into the rest of your home, that dense air can spread, exposing all belongings and other structural supports to conditions that might result in damage.
There is no getting away from the stack effect, unfortunately. No matter what steps you take, the warmer air in your home will always rise to the top of your home. However, if you work to eliminate the excess moisture in your crawl space, you can prevent wood rot and other moisture-induced damage from appearing in the rest of your home. It is in your best interest to see what you can do to seal off the entirety of your crawl space. Even if you haven’t taken any preventative measures yet, you can keep the vents in your crawl space closed and blocked off while also making sure your crawl space door fits well in its frame.
The process of encapsulating your crawl space allows you to protect your home against unwanted moisture. A professional will cover the walls and floor with a dense layer of plastic-like material. In doing so, they create a tight seal within your space, preventing both water and most gas particles from making their way inside. It’s important to maintain the health of your crawl space and the function of your protective measures. So you will need to keep an eye on your encapsulation materials over the years to ensure that none of them are wearing thin.
The cost of encapsulating your crawl space will vary based on the types of materials you want to purchase, as well as the size of the space you want to protect. If you let your crawl space suffer from damage for an extended period of time, however, the cost of eventual repairs will vastly outstrip those protective measures you might invest in ahead of time. Additionally, encapsulating your crawl space can help lower your electric bills, as they can improve your ability to control the temperature throughout your crawl space and the rest of your home.
Crawl space encapsulations help you create a sealed area within your crawl space. In doing so, they make it easier for you to prevent unwanted humidity and, in turn, to deal with it accordingly. If something breaks the seal you have on your crawl space, you might find yourself contending with a spread of moisture throughout the rest of your home.
An ill-fitting crawl space door will let moisture into the rest of your home. You’ll want to work with the professionals in your area to first identify the source of moisture in your crawl space and fix it. With a leak fixed, you can then go about removing the rest of the unwanted moisture from the rest of your crawl space. Only once your space has dried out should you go about replacing your crawl space door and its frame. Once you’ve reached that point, you can make sure that the door fits well into its frame and benefits from another waterproofing measure you may have installed in your space.
Crawl space encapsulation will almost certainly help you lower your energy costs. In fact, some people suggest you could save up to 15-25% in energy costs when you encapsulate your crawl space. It can be more difficult to cool your home when the air is humid, and the same holds true whether you’re cooling your crawl space or the rest of your home.
When encapsulating your crawl space, you’re removing all ability for moisture to enter the crawl space. When moisture can’t enter your crawl space, it also can’t rise up through the rest of the home. That means you have to use much less energy to condition the air in your crawl space and in the home in general.
On an aesthetic level, an unlined crawl space tends to smell unpleasant. These types of smells tend to arise as a result of precipitation and the unprotected dirt or materials you’ve left unlined in the space. The smells coming from your crawl space can rise up through your home along with unpleasant, moist air and permeate otherwise clean spaces. It can be extremely difficult to get rid of these smells, even if you make a point of clearing out the rest of your home. Leaving a crawl space unlined can also result in:
- Warped door frames
- Damaged windowsills
- The stack effect
- Sagging floors throughout your home
In short, by lining your crawl space, you protect that space from extensive damage. You can reach out to professional contractors in your area to determine what kind of crawl space lining might help you protect your space against the aforementioned problems. Note that not all linings are waterproof, but that you can invest in waterproof lining when you’re first installing the protective measure. Some other types of linings are merely aesthetic, but they can still provide tentative support in your fight against unwanted moisture.
That “musty smell” that many people think of as being indicative of a regularly functioning crawl space is actually not an intended crawl space feature. The musty crawl space smell actually occurs because of mold growth, which feeds off moisture to grow.
This is exactly why a “musty smell” should be a sign that you need to fix something. If your crawl space smells musty and stale, there’s something wrong. You can fix it and avoid potentially permanent damage from mold and moisture, but you have to take the first step. Don’t wait to check out your crawl space; there’s a decent chance that there’s something happening you can fix.
That “musty smell” that many people think of as being indicative of a regularly functioning crawl space is actually not an intended crawl space feature. The musty crawl space smell actually occurs because of mold growth, which feeds off moisture to grow.
This is exactly why a “musty smell” should be a sign that you need to fix something. If your crawl space smells musty and stale, there’s something wrong. You can fix it and avoid potentially permanent damage from mold and moisture, but you have to take the first step. Don’t wait to check out your crawl space; there’s a decent chance that there’s something happening you can fix.
Some people seem to think that fixing bouncy or sagging floors can be a DIY project that you may be able to fix with the addition of a brick or a stack of wood. However, you should always consult an expert if you’re experiencing issues with bouncy floors.
It’s true that this method of providing additional support, also called “sistering,” can be beneficial in some cases. However, this additional support will only last for a short period of time. If the floor joist is bouncy because it’s over-spanned or full of wood rot, you’re just putting a bandage over the problem rather than addressing it head-on.
Incorrectly supporting the floors can sometimes be worse than not supporting them at all. Cinder blocks can tip or crumble, which can damage your home when they fall. Jacking up floor joists very quickly can cause the floor to buckle and drywall cracks to form. Using any pieces of wood may just add fuel to the fire and allow mold and wood rot to spread.
Clearly, the only answer is to contact a crawl space expert to fix your bouncy floors. You want the job done right the first time, and the only way to do that is to contact a JES expert for help.
For a long time, people thought open crawl space vents were actually a benefit in a home. The idea was that crawl spaces needed ventilation because the ventilation would help “dry out” the crawl space. In fact, many building codes required ventilated crawl spaces, with minimal exceptions for unventilated crawl spaces.
Although this was a popular idea for many years, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny nowadays. Because of the different temperatures of outside air and air in your home, open crawl space vents may actually increase the amount of humidity in your crawl space, rather than reducing it. Clearly, it’s not a good idea to leave your crawl space vents open.
The good thing is that there are many ways to return your crawl space to an encapsulated state. JES offers crawl space vent covers that you can add to your vents to avoid the entrance of water, moisture-laden air, or anything else into your crawl space.
Dehumidifiers can serve as effective waterproofing measures in your crawl space. Whether or not a dehumidifier can help you solve your crawl space problem, however, will depend on the extent of damage you’re seeing in your space. Dehumidifiers help pull moisture from the air and can run fairly consistently, as long as you cycle them regularly. If a contractor believes that the extent of your damage can be confined to high levels of humidity and not, for example, mold growths or standing water, dehumidifiers can help protect your space against immediate damage while also preventing a build-up of air pressure that might, later down the line, circulate moist air through the rest of your home.
However, note that dehumidifiers are not fix-all devices. If you’re contending with more significant moisture levels in your crawl space, it may be in your best interest to pair a dehumidifier with another set of waterproofing measures, like a vapor barrier, interior drainage system, and a sump pump. This way, the multiple waterproofing measures can support one another as they draw unwanted moisture out of your space.
Wet insulation will not do its job in your home, but it can also become a host for mold spores. You can again work with a professional to inspect your crawl space and reveal any insulation that might have suffered damage as a result of a leak. Should you find wet crawl space insulation, you may have to hire a professional to effectively remove it and replace it.
You can remove that moisture, dispose of it in accordance with your county’s regulations, and install new insulation material. We recommend rigid, waterproof panels called ExTremeBloc™ that also are treated to resist termites. Above all else, be sure to check over the space where your insulation used to be for signs of mold growth. You’ll want to do what you can to remove all such growth from your home before they have the opportunity to spread further.
Why Crawl Space Repair and Encapsulation Are Needed
Just as crawl space problems have a variety of impacts, crawl space repair and encapsulation offer your home and family countless benefits. Here are just a few of them:
Improves Energy Efficiency
Vented crawl spaces allow the unconditioned outside air inside your crawl space and home. This can make your floors feel cold during the winter and warm during the summer. Thus, you would be constantly fighting with your HVAC system to find a comfortable temperature. This not only strains your HVAC, but its constant operation can drive up utility bills. But with airtight vent covers, a vapor barrier, and a dehumidifier, your home will be more comfortable and energy-efficient.
Helps Deter Pests
Bugs and other pesky critters can easily make their way inside through the ground, cracks in your crawl space, and open or faulty vents and doors. They are attracted by the isolation, darkness, and moisture your unconditioned crawl space offers. But by deploying moisture control methods, you can decrease their interest in the space and make it more difficult for them to get inside. This can be done with vent covers, a thick vapor barrier, rigid insulation panels (that are integrated with a termiticide), and an energy-efficient dehumidifier.
Offers Positive Impact from the Stack Effect
Nearly half of the air you breathe in your house comes from your crawl space. That is largely due to the stack effect, the natural movement of air throughout your home from bottom to top. This means that anything in your crawl space like mold spores, pest waste, and unpleasant odors also circulates elsewhere in your house. This is unhealthy and unsafe, especially for people with existing breathing conditions. But once your crawl space is properly encapsulated and dehumidified, the cleaner, conditioned air within this space is circulated.
Common Crawl Space Encapsulation & Repair Tips & Mistakes
We’ve seen pretty much everything during our 30 years as crawl space encapsulation experts. To equip you with knowledge and advice, here are some helpful dos and don’ts:
Tips to Consider:
- Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts: While crawl space encapsulation systems are internal, you also need to protect your crawl space from the outside. Your gutters and downspouts are your first line of defense against excess water around your home. Regularly inspect and maintain yours at least twice a year in the spring and fall. Check for any holes, remove clogs and debris, and ensure the downspouts and extensions drain away from the house.
- Correctly Grade Your Yard: Having a positively graded yard also prevents excess water from collecting near your crawl space. A yard with a positive grade slopes down and away from the house, draining water away from it.
- Add Backup Waterproofing Protection: Our region experiences a considerable amount of precipitation, and flooding is prevalent in coastal areas. Along with encapsulation solutions, having waterproofing measures, such as an interior drainage system and a sump pump, is critical. In the event of a power outage, be sure your crawl space sump pump has a battery backup pump to ensure continuous operation when you need it the most.
Mistakes to Avoid:
- Enter Your Crawl Space Without Proper Protection: Your crawl space may be full of mold, and it might even be caving in. We recommend you don’t go in there without proper protection. In fact, you should leave it to professionals if you haven’t been down there in a while and don’t know what to expect.
- Waste Money on Partial Solutions: When your crawl space needs repairs, it can be tempting to address them with quick, partial solutions. Pumping sand into the crawl space to try to sop up water, placing fans or conventional dehumidifiers inside to try to dry the air, and laying a thin, 6-mil vapor barrier liner on the crawl space floor—these are all partial solutions. And they can end up making crawl space problems worse.
- DIY Your Crawl Space: While it may be tempting to repair your own crawl space with solutions from big-box stores, most of those solutions simply won’t cut it and you may make crawl space issues worse. You may also be putting yourself at risk of exposure to mold and other hazards. Leave it to the pros!
Find a service area near you
Northern Virginia
Cracks and water intrusion impact your home’s safety, health, and appearance. Repair and protect your home with trusted solutions only available from JES Foundation Repair.
Washington, DC
Weather conditions in Washington DC can cause problems for your foundation and lead to structural damage around your home. JES has industry-leading solutions designed to repair this type of damage and keep your foundation protected from it in the future.
Charlottesville, VA
We understand that keeping your home protected is of the utmost importance, and Charlottesville’s rainy and humid environment can make that challenging. That’s why JES has world-class solutions and knowledge to keep your foundation permanently protected.
Hampton Roads, VA
The Hampton Roads region is home to several cities in Virginia, including Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach. All these cities share similar weather and soil conditions, with sandy soils and an above-average amount of rain – a combination that causes damage to your foundation.
Northeast North Carolina
Northeast North Carolina’s heavy rain and unstable soils can lead to water, excess humidity, cracks, and unevenness around your property. JES has the best solutions to combat these problems and permanently repair and protect your home.
Lynchburg, VA
Muggy summers, above-average annual rainfall, and clay soils make Lynchburg a challenging place for your home's foundation. These environmental conditions quickly lead to crawl space, basement, or concrete damage on your property, and JES has world-class solutions to fix the problem
Roanoke, VA
Situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, Roanoke has wet summers with weekly rain. When winter rolls around, the area gets plenty of snowfall too. All this moisture damages your foundation over time, but JES has world-class tools and experience to repair and prevent issues.
Danville, VA
Danville’s native soil has a sublayer of clay that expands during frequent summer rains. This combination causes serious problems for your crawl space, concrete, or basement foundation. JES has world-class solutions to protect your property in any situation.
Richmond, VA
The sandy soil and wet climate of Richmond will wreak havoc on your home's concrete, foundation, basement, and crawl space. JES is here to help tackle the problems causing your foundation to falter!
Baltimore Metro
Your home in Baltimore is plagued with foundation problems thanks to environmental problems like climate and soil type. JES Foundation Repair has the knowledge and high-quality products to repair them permanently.