BENEFITS OF A CONDITIONED CRAWL SPACE®

When our heating and cooling expenses get out of control, we may turn to insulation to help give us some relief. This can sometimes be the right call,
but homeowners shouldn’t stop there. There is most likely another culprit being overlooked, and it is often the number one cause of high cooling costs.

As our homes become hot and uncomfortable during the summer months, we seek ways to cool them, often opting to do so using air conditioning. Though the primary component of “air conditioning” is the actual mechanical unit, the word "conditioning" itself is often defined as: a process that brings (something) into the desired state for use. So by that definition the mechanical device known as an “air conditioner” is just a part of the process that brings the air into a desired state for use. There are other things that need to happen in order for the process of air conditioning to be successful. It is not actually as simple as just adding cool air to an area.

The first part of the conditioning process would need to be taking control of the environment. I think everyone knows that we cannot cool a house during the summer with the windows open. That is why this part is the number one, first thing that must be done. So closing windows and doors and making sure that they are properly sealed would be the first and top priority.

The next part of the process for successful conditioning of the air is to control the moisture in the home. This means identifying any source of moisture that may cause high humidity within the home and ridding the home of it to prevent more moisture from being introduced to the inside of the home. Right along with that would be the third part of the process, removing moisture from the air within the home. Homeowners have three options for removing the moisture. They can choose to do so by installing a dehumidifier in the crawl space, by installing a whole-house dehumidifier (which requires supply and return in the crawl space or basement), or by using the home's central air conditioner. The air conditioner, by design, must remove the moisture from the air before it can cool it; this is why there is a condensation line on your A/C unit. Air conditioners will continue to run until they can remove enough moisture to cool the house. In situations where there is high moisture, you may notice that the A/C unit will run constantly on really hot days due to the endless supply of hot air and an endless supply of moisture. Nonetheless, if the A/C unit is large enough and runs properly and long enough, the home it's in will eventually reach its desired temperature.

So what exactly does this have to do with the crawl space? If you take a look into your crawl space and it has vents in the foundation walls, a dirt floor, and insulation in between the floor joists or on the walls, then you basically have a major leak into your conditioned air. The hard truth is, the crawl space is the number one moisture generator in homes that are built on crawl spaces. If you are using air conditioning in your home but your home’s crawl space is not conditioned, then your AC unit is really running a race to nowhere, and you’re unfortunately just giving the energy company money that you really don’t have to. With an open or unconditioned crawl space, cooling your home is a bit like trying to heat it with the windows open in the middle of winter. Encapsulating your crawl space, sealing up the space, and closing it off from air that you don’t want your family or yourself breathing just makes sense, and it is just one of several good reasons to move forward with conditioning your crawl space.

Encapsulating your crawl space sets the stage for you to have a Conditioned Crawl Space. This type of crawl space uses all of the positive parts of the other crawl space designs and leaves out the negative ones. A Conditioned Crawl Space is part of the home, finally leaving the outside out and taking the final steps beyond the other options to create a healthy, comfortable home. It completely takes care of the first two parts of the process on the list above for your home; it will allow you to take control of the environment and the moisture in the crawl space to keep unconditioned, polluted air from seeping into your living area. Here is a round-up of some of the benefits of making your crawl space a Conditioned Crawl Space.

Clean Air

When the crawl space is cleaned up and finished, your home will no longer be subject to the contaminated air that once seeped into your home. By circulating the air on all levels of the home, the wood structure will be protected as if it were in a basement. There will no longer be an incubator under the floor causing allergies, asthma, and/or other respiratory issues to develop or worsen.

Energy Efficiency

Adding conditioned air (either heated, cooled, or dehumidified) to the crawl space will help maintain the desired temperature inside the home's envelope. The new clean, dry, and insulated Conditioned Crawl Space will make the floors in the home warmer in the winter and eliminate foul smells in the warmer months. The ductwork in the crawl space will no longer be exposed to the dramatic temperature changes that it once was in the open crawl space. This improvement alone will shorten the heating cycle of the furnace and warm your home faster. In the summer the home can take advantage of the free cool air in the crawl space to take a load off the air conditioner unit.

DIY Project

Many larger franchise companies would have homeowners believe that crawl space improvement is a “science” and that it is far too complicated for homeowners to fully grasp, and so it must be done by a professional. However, that is absolutely not true. In the past few years our SilverBack®, GuardianLiner®, and other high-quality vapor barrier products have been installed by several husband-and-wife teams, couples of friends, and even homeowners as young as 71 years old! We at CrawlSpaceRepair.com are here to support DIYers and are always glad to provide help throughout each phase of the project; be it design, layout, material estimates, answering questions, technical support, and/or problem solving, we’re just a phone call away.

Cost

Most homes can have a conditioned crawl space® for less than $1500 if they do it themselves. Hiring a professional to install it may cost somewhere between $4,000 and $20,000 depending on the professional and the size of the crawl space. The differences between DIY and hiring an installer are that you will basically save a family vacation's worth of money, in addition to knowing the project was done just the way you wanted. Though there are costs incurred at the time of installation, the resulting savings that follow making your crawl space a Conditioned Crawl Space will certainly total above and beyond those initial installation costs.

In closing, we want to remind those considering conditioning their crawl spaces to certainly not skip out on the most important part, that being the "conditioning" of the air. After all, being able to control the air in your crawl space is the very reason you would have the vents closed and the crawl space liner installed. To not condition the air in that space after you’ve spent the money conditioning the space itself would be like building a swimming pool but then not filling it with water. Who would build a swimming pool but then choose to try and save money by not filling the pool with water?

DIY may not be your cup of coffee (or tea if you're from across the pond), but we can still help you as well. We work with hundreds of contractors around the US who install our SilverBack®, GuardianLiner®, and other vapor barrier liners, and we would be happy to introduce you to some of them. If we do not know any contractors near your location, we are more than willing to work with and train a contractor that you already know and trust to do the work for you. We are always at your service; just let us know how we can help!