I spent hours laying out this stuff. While doing this I proceeded to roll and crawl all over it to anchor it to the walls, tape seams and cut around posts. There wasn't a single tear in the material after all of this. I feel fairly reassured that this will hold up pretty well.



Despite the material's resistance to my movements, it was still relatively easy to cut with a pair of regular scissors (no fraying at the ends either) and the drill bit went right through when it came time to put the anchoring pins in. As long as you aren't making a habit of throwing your sharp tools carelessly around on it then everything should be fine.



The material is still easy enough to fold and bend around corners. There was a little more bend resistance than the usual 6-mil material but it didn't cause me any trouble.



I do like that this was available in a smaller size. I was only dealing with a 12'x16' addition crawl space and didn't need anything more than the 4'x80' roll. It gave me plenty to work with in case of mistakes without leaving too much excess left over.

This is an exceptionally strong product. I tried to tear a piece and found it not only would not tear but even getting it to stretch was very difficult. It lays out nicely and looks great. I am very happy.

The Silverback vapor barrier seems to be very durable and easy to work with. I did a lot of leveling of the gravel in my crawlspace which made everything relatively square. I can see how an irregular surface may lead to a more difficult installation.

I was considering 20 mil vapor barrier on the recommendation of a spray-foam contractor, but after reading the specs and knowing that I was installing on plain dirt and won't be storing anything on top of the barrier I decided to go with the 12 mil. The 12 mil silverback is really durable, but easy to cut with a razor knife and easy to work with in a confined space as long as you cut it to size and fold it correctly prior to taking it into the crawl space with you. I cut the pieces to size (piecing together where needed with the tape, since the roll was 13'4" and my crawl space is 17x21. I cut it 1 foot longer and wider than the crawlspace dimension to allow it to go up the foundation wall by 6" all the way around. (The spray foam insulation will seal the edges to the foundation block). When folding it, I chose to fold it from the outside edge towards the middle - with the two long edges meeting in the middle. Then I repeated the process and folded the resulting long, narrow piece in about 3-foot squares. Using this method allows you to position the folded barrier in the center of one end of the crawlspace, unfold it length-wise, then kneel in the middle and fold each side out to the sides. The whole process was pleasantly much simpler than I anticipated, with the exception of getting covered in spider webs.

 

Even tho it wasn't the easiest installation because of the issues with this old house, it ended up great. Product is durable and simple to install overall. Just installed it, so we don't have any history with it. If if works as well as the installation went, we will be very happy.