Do you encapsulate the crawlspace beneath your home now or later?
Previously, we have discussed the health and energy saving reasons for encapsulation of your crawlspace (Springy Floors & Crawl Spaces & I Have a Dirt Crawl Space). Vented crawl spaces let in moist air, pests and are the perfect breeding ground for mold. That moist air does a lot of damage!
Would you want to buy a house with stinky, moldy, wet unconditioned air coming 
from the crawl space below?
Three Detailed Reasons to Repair your Home’s Crawl Space:
- First, it attracts creatures large and small. From mold and mildew all the way up the food chain to termites, to larger insects to rodents to snakes and mammals all hunting the food chain in there. All of which leave droppings and dead carcasses behind. Even radon gas can accumulate. Of course, with 40 % of the air that is exchanged with the livable space above that is not a good thing for the inhabitants.
- The second thing to remember is that your energy bills are much much lower with an encapsulated crawl space. You are bringing in wet air in. During the summer you, bring in wet hot air and during the winter you bring in wet cold air. As mentioned above, you are still exchanging 40% of it with the livable space above. Because it is wet, the air is harder and more costly to cool down or to warm up. You are paying a heavy penalty for trying to condition it and in between cycling of the air conditioner or heater, you are uncomfortable.
- The third thing is the cost to the structure of your home. Wood his hydroscopic, meaning it absorbs moisture from the air. If you have wet air you surely will have wet wood. Wet wood results in not only mold and mildew that eats it, but the wood itself will rot. Over time you may end up with an astronomical bill to replace it… not to mention the inconvenience of being disrupted, moving everything out during the work and back in again. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me.
Now, let’s talk about the additional costs associated with delaying a crawl space repair and encapsulation. When asked, Homeowners often justify not making needed repairs, citing cost or trivializing the need for the repair.
We often hear:
“Well, it’s been this way for quite a while, it can wait…”
“Maybe we can just let the new buyer deal with it.”
Let me ask you: would you want to buy a house with stinky, moldy, wet unconditioned air coming from the crawl space below?
Not likely. The crawl space problem will have to be dealt with one way or another. It might even take a few failed closings and a rushed (often more expensive) repair and even a heavily discounted home sale price to get it done. In the end, delaying a crawl space repair may cost you more in the long run.
In the end, you end up living with the stinky, moldy, wet, hot, or cold air - perhaps even air with deadly radon - with high energy bills all those years. It seems to me that the better plan is to fix the crawl space now, live with the benefits and then have a stress-free closing on the sale in the future!
