Reliable Woodinville Waterproofing & Home Repair Experts

Being able to protect your home is a huge responsibility for every homeowner. Whether that's keeping it clean or having annual maintenance done, prolonging the health of your home helps to ensure it's protecting its occupants too. One of the places of homes that often gets overlooked for annual inspection is the crawl space. This is important because serious issues can occur to the home if the crawl space isn't in safe condition. Things like mold, wood rot, air quality, and damage to the structural integrity of the home are all at risk if the crawl space has water damage. 

At John's Waterproofing, one way we ensure to keep homes dry and healthy is with encapsulations. This is the process of sealing the crawl space off from the earth and controlling its environment so that it can stay healthy. The first step of the encapsulation process involves removing everything from the space that is no longer serving its purpose of protecting the home. Things like falling fiberglass insulation and ripped vapor barriers end up doing more damage, so we clear all those out before beginning. Then, we install a drainage system using a perforated pipe and a SmartDrain. The pipe goes along the interior perimeter of the crawl space to collect water and offer it a safe passageway to flow through to the SmartDrain to be sent out. Next, we install a thick insulation foam to the base of the space. The TerraBlock insulation is designed to seal the crawl space off from the earth and help promote better energy efficiency in the home. On top of the TerraBlock, a new CleanSpace vapor barrier gets installed. This 20 mil thick liner helps to prevent any water from being able to seep over top and is backed by a 25 year warranty against rips or tears. A SaniDry dehumidifier gets installed to filter the air by pulling out moisture and particles. Lastly, Spray Foam gets applied to the foundation walls to air seal and insulate the space. After this entire encapsulation is installed, the home is properly protected against water intrusion and can remain dry and healthy for the years to come.

Getting your crawl space inspected is a good way to understand what's going on beneath your home and how it affects the living spaces. Most of the air we breathe inside our home actually comes from the crawl space so it's important that it stays dry and healthy. But, without a proper vapor barrier to protect against water intrusion, that opens up the risks of mold, wood rot, and high humidity. This homeowner decided they wanted to know that state their crawl space was in and reached out to John's Waterproofing. Upon inspection, it was discovered they had virtually no vapor barrier left due to years of damage from water. We recommended that if they weren't ready to fully encapsulate, that getting a new vapor barrier would be necessary. 

Vapor barriers are important because they help to protect the home from the earth. Its a liner that goes along the base of the crawl space to help keep unwanted intrusions out. This can include standing water, rodents, and help control moisture. When installing a new vapor barrier, we use a 6 mil liner that is overlapped at each seam to prevent water from being able to seep over top of it. It is placed along the base, up the foundation walls, and between the footing and wooden posts to isolate and protect. This new vapor barrier gets anchored to the foundation walls to ensure it stays secure and can guide any moisture from the walls down below the liner. By keeping water beneath the vapor barrier, this helps to reduce the amount of moisture in the air and lower humidity. As a result, that helps reduce risks to mold and mildew growing or wood rotting. Now, this homeowner can feel safer in their home knowing their crawl space will stay dry and healthy.

This homeowner recently discovered their crawl space wasn't in good condition. Water was seeping through and their vapor barrier was completely covered in dirt and debris. Wanting to know what could be done to save the space, they reached out to John's Waterproofing to see what their options were. We suggested that doing a full encapsulation would offer the best long-term solution to their problem.

A full encapsulation is the process of sealing off their crawl space from the earth and helping to prevent moisture damage. The first step is to remove all the damaged fiberglass insulation and the debris covered vapor barrier. After, we would install a drainage system using a perforated pipe and a SuperSump Plus sump pump. These two work together to collect water that tries to enter in the crawl space and offers a safe passage for it to flow through. Then, the sump pump takes that collected water and pushes it out and away from the homes foundation through a discharge line. Then, to seal the earth off from the space, we would install TerraBlock. This is a thick and durable insulation foam that goes along the base of the crawl space to help control the environment and regulate the temperature. Over top of the TerraBlock, a new CleanSpace vapor barrier is installed. This goes on the base, up the foundation walls, and between the footing and wooden posts to isolate and protect the space from water seeping through. It is made of thick woven fibers and is backed by a 25 year warranty against rips and tears. Spray Foam is applied along the foundation walls to air seal the space and insulate. Lastly, a SaniDry dehumidifier is installed that filters the air by pulling out any moisture or particles. Once the entire encapsulation is completed, the homeowner gets to enjoy a new and clean crawl space that will offer numerous benefits to their homes health.