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In these two photos, you will find two different vapor barriers underneath the same home. The first, is a standard, flimsy barrier that obviously did not hold up very well. You'll find barriers like these under many homes, and they are unfortunately not really doing much to prevent moisture or humidity. Even with the barrier, this home was still dealing with a damp crawlspace and buckling floors. The second, is our heavy-duty 20-mil CleanSpace Liner that we installed under the home. This durable barrier lines the ground, walls, and supports and permanently separates the crawlspace from the ground. This is one part of our encapsulation system, designed to keep homes like this one, safe from moisture.
Here is a photo of the state of this homeowner's crawlspace when our design specialist, Corey, first did his initial inspection and estimate. Its your typical messy crawlspace with a moist ground floor. This moisture was playing a large part in the sinking floor problem the homeowner reached out to us about. In the second image, you can see the crawlspace after Corey designed a system for the home and one of our talented production crews made it a reality. The mess is gone, and more importantly, the moisture will no longer be a problem. The white CleanSpace liner you see all throughout the crawlspace is acting as a barrier, keeping out ground water seepage. Unseen in the images, is our energy efficient crawlspace dehumidifier and our perimeter drainage system. Both working alongside the CleanSpace vapor barrier to stop moisture, water, and humidity from affecting this home.
Mold and moisture plaguing the crawlspace prompted this homeowner to give us a call. The home is 1900 square feet of crawlspace. He knew his problem would only get worse if he didn't address it immediately. With previous knowledge of our encapsulation system, he knew he was calling the right people. Ransom Ford inspected the crawlspace and found it was something we could easily rectify.
We sealed off the vents and openings, installed a sump pump in the lowest spot, lined it with our 20 mil liner, and finally placed a dehumidifier inside the crawlspace to regulate the humidity. Now his home is moisture free and it would be impossible for mold to grow on his joists with our system.
At a height of right over two feet, this crawlspace was holding moisture due to visqueen being put over the ground. This plastic, because it's not sealed off and air tight, ends up hurting the crawlspace more than helping it. It traps water under the plastic and creates musty smells that may not have been there before. Melissa Johnson inspected this crawlspace and proposed our well tested solution. We were able to remove the visqueen and apply our encapsulation system to the crawlspace. We do this by cleaning out the crawlspace, installing a sump pump, drainage matting, CleanSpace liner on top of the matting and sealing it off around each wall of the crawlspace, and putting a dehumidifier in on top of it. These products work together to keep moisture out and dry air in.
We can never get enough of seeing dirt crawlspaces transformed into clean and protected areas. Here is an example from one of our customers in Yazoo City. The damp, dirt floor is now covered with out durable CleanSpace Liner. This will work in combination with our Crawlspace Dehumidifier to make sure the underside of this home stays dry and ready to combat all forms of moisture.