Crawl Space Repair and Encapsulation

The crawl space is one of the most important spaces in your Colorado home. Its main purpose is to store your home’s vital systems, including but not limited to your electrical wiring, plumbing, insulation, HVAC system, floor’s support beams, and the foundation itself. Your home relies on all these systems to run efficiently and smoothly. None of these systems will function very well if they are wet, much less if they are forced to operate within a flood. You need to seal off the crawl space to ensure that this does not happen.

Peak Structural can completely encapsulate your crawl space so that no moisture, mold and mildew spores, or pests will infiltrate this space ever again. This process consists of four main components: waterproofing with an interior drainage system and a sump pump, vapor barrier, vent covers, and a dehumidifier. The sump pump itself is the heart of our thorough drainage system, which we will also install around the perimeter of the crawl space. Once enough water has entered its system, the pump will then work to redirect this water away from your home. The vapor barrier covers your entire crawl space and makes it extremely difficult for no mold, mildew, or pests to break through. It also ensures that no groundwater can well up to flood the crawl space from below.

The vent covers will seal up any open vents around your crawl space. This ensures that the crawl space will remain dry no matter how harsh the outside weather is. Before we completely seal this space, however, our experts will then install a dehumidifier inside the crawl space. Should any humidity manage to slip through our other solutions, the dehumidifier will filter it out and circulate clean air around this space.

Crawl spaces are often neglected by homeowners. Basements at least often contain washing and drying machines and have sufficient space to be used for storage. Crawl spaces, however, are not places homeowners spend much of their time in. Even if you understand the importance of a sump pump in your crawl space, you might be wondering why you should encapsulate it in the first place. A basement you might understand, but what’s the point of applying white sheets to a crawl space you’ll never spend time in?

Encapsulating your crawl space is more than just closing off your crawl space and making it look nice with white sheets. Those white sheets are actually vapor barriers that serve a very important purpose in the fight against humidity in your crawl space. Proper reflective insulation can also be installed along with the vapor barrier, even if your crawl space has already been insulated with another material. High quality reflective insulation like our patented thermal insulation panels makes sure that the warm crawl space air stays in the crawl space. This improves the energy efficiency in your home, reduces energy bills, and keeps the air in your home fresh at all times.

High levels of humidity or the presence of standing water in your home can cause many different issues, but one of the most common and insidious is the formation of mold and mildew. That’s especially true during summer, which follow the spring rains and give mold an ideal environment to form and thrive. Mold has a lot in common with wood rot fungus, when you break it down to the simplest terms. There is one key difference between the two, however: while wood rot fungi are generally not harmful to people (unless ingested), certain species of mold can be actively toxic. Learning to spot the difference between benign forms of mold and potentially lethal ones is not always easy, however.

Thankfully, mold is fairly easy to spot in any home. Mold causes discoloration, changes in texture, and will produce a musty, often sweet smell when it really flourishes. So, if you notice this musty smell, you should check areas of your home that are rarely used and hidden corners in rooms that are often humid (like your kitchen or bathroom). Mold can thrive almost anywhere, but it favors dark, rarely disturbed corners. As for the formations, mold can be white, gray, pink, brown, black, or even green-ish in color.

It is black mold that you should be most concerned about. Many other forms of mold are benign or only mildly damaging, but black mold can be seriously damaging to the health of anyone who has contact with it. Even if the contact is limited, the consequences can include infection, rashes, dizziness, issues breathing, and even fainting or seizures. Of course, those who are already vulnerable are the most at risk of serious and lasting repercussions from mold exposure. So, yes, in many cases mold can be dangerous and, as such, should be dealt with quickly.

For a place as cold as the Denver area, it can be surprisingly humid in the wintertime. Excess humidity can prove to be a huge issue in the crawl space considering how small and compact it is. Indeed, mold and mildew spores and certain pests tend to thrive more in humid climates than colder, drier areas. Your humid crawl space might therefore be rife with all these moisture issues without your knowledge.

For reference, a healthy humidity level should range between 30 to 50% at the most. Winters throughout Colorado have around 53 to 61% humidity on average. Mold and mildew grow quickly at any percentages above 60%, though sometimes they are known to start growing at 55% humidity levels as well. Unfortunately, this is not the only problem excess humidity can create in your home.

If you notice that your home seems to feel a lot warmer than it usually is in the summer, then you might then turn up your air conditioner higher as a response. Additionally, your home might be much colder in the winter than it used to be, which means you will then crank up your heater. Both of these are a direct result of the stack effect. Warm air is lighter than cool air, so this humidity gathering in your crawl space then will rise up to the rest of your home in the summer and cause it to feel muggier indoors. In the winter, however, this warm air is then pushed out by the denser, frigid air that seeps into the crawl space, making it feel freezing in your home. Your energy bills will skyrocket as a result of this misuse.

Think of your house like a chimney – air enters at the bottom, rises through the structure, and is expelled at the top. Air pressure also is a factor. Air flows from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. When there is a greater difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures, the more significant this airflow becomes. 

More than 50% of the air you breathe in your home comes from the crawl space. If mold is present in the crawl space, you and your loved ones likely are breathing in these unhealthy spores. 

Here are some other problems that result from open crawl space vents and the stack effect: 

• Water intrusion
• High Humidity
• Wood Rot and Sagging Floors
• Energy Loss

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 you encapsulate 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.