If your home features a basement crawl space, then one aspect of maintaining your home that you’ll likely have to deal with is preventing moisture damage. There are many factors that can lead to moisture accumulating in these spaces, including excess moisture in the soil underneath and around the home. If your home is in a humid climate it makes it more likely that your crawl space will experience moisture problems.
In many cases there are ventilation openings built into the crawl space for the specific purpose of flushing out moisture from these spaces, but these vents often fail to get the job done. Instead, moisture is often carried by humid air into the crawl space, where it condenses on cold pipes and surrounding structures. This moisture eventually seeps into the wood framework of your home, causing mold, mildew and structural damage. If left unchecked this problem can result in wood structures, such as walls and flooring, being severely damaged by rot and mold.
A crawl space vapor barrier can help prevent moisture from soaking into the walls, ceilings and floor assemblies of buildings. Vapor barriers are also known as “vapor diffusion retarders” (VDR) and largely consist of polyethylene plastic sheeting, although many other materials can be used. A vapor barrier will block most of the moisture that comes into the crawl space, but does not completely block all of it. Most vapor barriers are measured by their permeability–a material that can achieve a perm rating of 1.0 or lower is considered to be a good vapor barrier. The best material for building a crawl space moisture barrier according to the perm rating is polyethylene plastic (with a rating of 0.06), followed by asphalt coated paper backing on insulation (with a rating of 0.40).
Crawl Space Vapor Barrier Installation
Having a professional home repair service seal your crawl space can cost anywhere from $3,000 up to $11,000, depending on the materials and the amount of work that needs to be done. The company may also have to remove existing mold from the crawl space before performing further work.
If you are thinking of doing the job yourself you are first going to want to remove all standing water from your crawl space and carefully clean the mold using a bleach solution. Seal any cracks or gaps in the walls with a waterproof caulk and then measure the area so you will know how much plastic sheeting you will need. The sheeting needs to be able to completely cover the crawl space floor from end to end. Once the sheeting is rolled out, use duct tape to secure all seams. You will now have a crawl space that should be free from moisture for years to come.
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