"Crawl Space Vapor Barrier Basics"," While you probably don't think about your crawl space, and you may have never even seen your crawl space, it's part of your home.
Water can enter into your crawl space in three different ways: through the earth (or concrete) around your home, from a plumbing leak, or through the air entering your crawl space vents.
Moisture collects in anything organic - including wood floorboards, support beams, and some types of crawl space insulation.
What you have beneath your house is no longer a crawl space.
The area is filled with humidity, mold spores, and dust mites.
And there's nothing more attractive to a termite colony looking for a new place to live than all that damp, rotting wood!
Ignore the monster lurking below while you can, but remember that even before your rotting floor and support beams are significantly damaged, you're already being affected.
As it's pulled up, nothing is stopping the humidity, mold spores, dust mite waste, and odors coming up with it.
During the winter months, cold air vented into the home hammer away at anything it can reach- including the water heater, hot water pipes, and heating ducts.
If you don't have crawl space insulation, then there's no line of defense keeping humid summer air and cold winter air away from your floorboards.
If it's wet or lying on the ground, what can it do for your home?
The first step to solving a crawl space moisture problem is to remove any standing water issues.
It simply has to go.
Water can be directed to the sump pump via a drainage swale, or in some cases, a modern French drain system.
Cut this problem off at the source by sealing off all crawl space vents and installing a crawl space vapor barrier.
A quality crawl space vapor barrier will allow access for you and service workers without tearing your line of defense
.
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