Everything true of a foundation wall is true here, only on your elbows. Too little headroom, bare ground beneath, a difficult way in, and all of it directly under a floor people walk on.
Air in a house travels upward. Whatever is in the crawl space air arrives in the rooms above it, which is why a damp crawl space is something you notice on the main floor without ever going down there.
Call +1 902-201-3017 and we will get underneath and look.
The old method pushed batts up between the floor joists. It does not survive. They sag, drop out, take on water, and the crawl space stays cold and wet, so the ducting and the pipes down there stay cold and wet with it.
What works is sealing the perimeter and bringing the space inside the heated envelope. Closed cell on the foundation, carried across the band above it, over a taped sheet on the ground.
The space then sits close to the temperature and humidity of the house. The floor above stops being cold and the plumbing stops being a January emergency.
Bare earth in a crawl space releases water continuously. Insulate the walls perfectly and leave the ground open, and it will still be damp.
A proper sheet goes down first, lapped, taped at every seam and carried up the wall far enough that the foam ties into it. That is what makes the assembly continuous rather than merely thorough.
We do not leave this out, and a quote that does is worth asking about.
Crawl spaces are awkward in ways that vary enormously. Some have a hatch you can barely get a shoulder through. Some have services running the full length. Some have under two feet of clearance.
All of that changes how long the work takes and therefore what it costs. We look at the access before quoting rather than finding out on the morning, so the figure you are given is the figure you pay.
Full protective equipment and supplied air are standard for us in a confined space. That is not a preference, and it is worth asking any contractor to confirm.
Vents went into older crawl spaces on the theory that outdoor air dries a damp space out. Beside the Atlantic that theory inverts across much of the calendar: warm humid air entering somewhere cool condenses on the first cold surface it touches.
Closing the vents and sealing the space is the current approach, and everything above depends on it.
We get underneath, measure, assess the ground and the way in, and put a single price on paper.
Call +1 902-201-3017.
Cape Breton Spray Foam Insulation covers attics, foundations, crawl spaces, garages and new builds right across the island.
More heat leaves through the top of a house than through any other single surface, and the top of a house is also the cheapest place to intervene. Warm air rises, finds the openings around fixtures, hatches, plumbing stacks and wall plates, and departs.
View Attic Insulation
Three separate problems meet in a basement. The wall touches wet ground, masonry moves heat readily, and the joint where framing lands on the foundation leaks air right around the building.
View Basement Insulation
The garage is the space people most want to be warmer and least often have treated properly. It is also the space whose insulation decides the comfort of a room you are already paying to heat, because whatever sits above it shares a floor with it.
View Garage Insulation
A building still open is the one chance to get the envelope right with everything reachable and nothing to dismantle first. The air barrier can be continuous by design instead of assembled from patches.
View New Construction Insulation
Two products share the name and they are not substitutes for one another. Getting that choice right is most of what separates a lasting installation from an expensive lesson.
View Closed Cell and Open Cell Spray Foam
Some insulation has to leave before anything else can begin. Saturated batts, contaminated loose fill, material rodents have been through, and foam that went on badly the first time.
View Insulation Removal and ReplacementArrange a visit. Measurements taken, substrate read, and a price on paper that will not shift.
What it is, roughly how big, whether it is heated at the moment, and what is going wrong. Prefer to talk it through? Call +1 902-201-3017.
