Insulation of a Crawl Space in Dayville, CT

Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 by Nivia Easterling

Challenge

Did you know about the long term challenges you could face with your crawl space?

Condensation, mold, rot, pest, and odors, cold floors, drafts, uncomfortable home, higher fuel and electric bills.

Millions of homes were built with vented dirt crawl spaces. Now all building scientist agree - that was a big mistake. Now building codes are changing. In the winter, vents let cold air directly into our home. Floor insulation sags away from the sub floor and the cold air gets above it - rendering the insulation useless. In the summer the vents let warm humid air in which is cooled by the subterranean crawl space. This caused relative humidity to go way up and condensation to form all over the crawl space surfaces including floor joist and ducts. Mold grows and wood rots, while insect and other pest flourish. Musty odors can be noticed upstairs as mold spores travel upwards into the living space. Eventually rotted floor joist must be replaced and mold must be remediated. An unending stream of water vapor comes up from the ground adding to the moisture load in the crawl space and house. The damp air is harder to hear and cool.

Solution

Fogarty's Home Services & Dr. Energy Saver™ has the solution. We can turn your crawl space into a CleanSpace.

Much lower humidity, much warmer floors upstairs, less drafts, more comfortable house, lower fuel and electric bills.

Your vents and other air leaks to the outside are sealed, often using our insulated vent covers. Walls are insulated with SilverGlo™ insulation with a reflective radiant barrier face. SilverGlo™ foam has graphite infused into the foam to increase the R-value by 24% over standard foam. A dimpled plastic drainage matting is installed across the floor to create and airspace thermal break, and TerraBlock™ floor insulation is installed over it. Finally the heavy duty, 20 mil thick cleanspace™ crawl space encapsulation liner is installed permanently across the dirt floor - sealed with mechanical fasteners to the walls and spiked to the floor. CleanSpace™ features UltraFresh™ antimicrobial ingredients in the product.

Fogarty's Home Services sealed and insulated all the rim joists to help aid in keeping outside air from entering the crawl space. We also added a SaniDry Sedona™ which is a recommended air purifying system to consider after the treatment.