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CrawlSeal™ Vapor Barrier

Protect your crawl space from water with CrawlSeal™, a durable vapor barrier liner designed to keep moisture out of your home.

Crew installing vapor barrier wall seal.

Crawl Space Waterproofing with CrawlSeal

Keeping your crawl space dry and free of water means outfitting the space with a quality vapor barrier. Groundworks uses CrawlSeal, a 20-mil thick vapor barrier that prevents water from the surrounding earth from getting into your crawl space.

Equipping your crawl space with a vapor barrier is vital to keeping your home healthy. Frequent rainfall keeps the earth rich in water, and eventually, this water rises to the surface and evaporates. Crawl spaces are directly exposed to the damp soil, and as evaporation causes the moisture to rise, these spaces capture it.

Equipping a crawl space with a high-quality vapor barrier lining has many more benefits, even without full crawl space encapsulation. To learn if CrawlSeal is the right solution for your home, get in touch with our experts today for a free quote.

CrawlSeal Is the Best Crawl Space Vapor Barrier

Crawl spaces are the lungs of your home. Keeping them hygienic and clean is crucial for maintaining a healthy home.

In keeping your crawl space free of moisture, you preserve the air quality circulating through this space. Keeping moisture from entering the space will deprive mold, mildew, and wood rot from a vital source of water. Without water, these organisms can’t thrive and will barely be able to survive at all.

Further, encapsulation will provide additional protection. Other pests will evade the crawl space, not only because they can’t tunnel inside but because of the lack of water. Cockroaches need to live in damp environments, which is why crawl spaces with moisture problems are so attractive to them. Rodents similarly enjoy the steady warmth of a humid crawl space.

Keeping a crawl space free of these pests and growths ensures that they are unable to contaminate the air. It may not seem like it, but a large portion of the air you breathe in your home comes from your crawl space and basement. This highlights why keeping these areas clean matters so much. As an example to illustrate how quickly small problems can become big problems: Mold releases spores and pests that have a noticeable odor, which the warm air currents will carry up into your living space. Not only does this make your home unpleasant to live in, but it can affect your health.

CrawlSeal is a heavy-duty liner that stops this from happening at the very start. A 20-mil thick lining made from durable and resistant material prevents moisture from seeping into your crawl space.

Solutions that fit into your life

Are Vapor Barriers a Complete Solution?

Crawl space repair sump pump solution diagram

Vapor barriers can be a complete solution if you live in a dry climate that sees very little rain. In more humid areas, vapor barriers alone are not going to provide a complete solution to moisture in the crawl space.

A complete solution that we recommend has four elements.

  • Drainage and Sump Pump

Any home that sees its crawl space leaking needs either a gutter network to catch the water or drainage matting to direct the water outside. In homes where flooding is common or water frequently collects in the crawl space, a sump pump is also necessary. These pumps expel water from the drains and prevent it from lingering or stagnating.

  • Vapor Barrier

The vapor barrier is laid over the drainage matting. This element of the crawl space waterproofing encloses the crawl space fully.

Crawl spaces with dirt floors need a high-quality vapor barrier to effectively protect the space and home from moisture.

  • Vent Covers

Vent covers are a necessity because of another misconception about the best way to aerate and construct a home. What was once thought of as a solution for preventing moisture gathering in the home is a primary reason why moisture gets in the home.

Open vents need to be covered. This stops moisture-rich air from being sucked into the crawl space and causing even more problems. Vent covers also keep out pests, rain, and the heat in summer and the cold in winter. An air-tight vent cover is also another barrier against minor flooding events.

Vent covers are another step in creating a more energy-efficient home too.

  • Dehumidifier

A dehumidifier isn’t always necessary, but it is a big help in our humid climate. Installing a crawl space dehumidifier is useful for homes that see lots of humidity, even with a fully enclosed crawl space. Controlling this humidity is effective for keeping your home cool in warmer weather and lowers the energy usage of your home.

FAQs About CrawlSeal™

Vapor barriers are a simple and essential tool for all homes in our damp climate. An unfortunate reality is that many homes were built with open and un-encapsulated crawl spaces, as these were originally thought to be beneficial to aerating a home.

  • Correcting Old Mistakes

Now we know that the opposite is true and we have to correct the oversight with moisture control solutions like vapor barriers, drainage matting, and vent covers.

Vapor barriers are important not only for moisture control but for protecting your family. Unsealed crawl spaces can be a huge source of irritation for those with dust allergies or asthma. Certain pests, like cockroaches, are also known for carrying allergens that can be released into the air.

  • Mold and Pests

Spores released into the air have been known to irritate people’s eyes, throats, and noses and cause further health problems. Including headaches and breathing problems. 

Heavy cockroach infestations, in particular, will lead to your food being contaminated. Even if the pests don’t come in contact with the food, the musty, oily odor they produce will contaminate the food. This odor is so powerful that it can alter the taste of food. 

If anyone in your home has experienced any of the above, consider booking a free inspection with one of our experts.

A high-quality vapor barrier matters because it will last longer and handle more moisture effectively. Groundworks’ 20-mil vapor barrier, with its 25-year warranty, ensures your crawl space remains secure and dry for years to come.

CrawlSealTM vapor barriers work by acting as a lining between the open earth and your crawl space. This lining stops moisture from evaporating from the soil and getting inside the space. In completely waterproofed crawl spaces, this moisture would be directed into drainage matting or crawl space gutters. In crawl spaces equipped only with a vapor barrier, the water will typically dry out or be reabsorbed by the soil.

Even if the earth in your crawl space appears dry, dig down a few inches and you’ll find damp soil. Why? Because earth traps moisture. It can do this even more effectively beneath your home, as the house shelters the soil from sun exposure.

In keeping moisture out, vapor barriers also provide limited insulation for the crawl space as well.

  • Quick Results 

Vapor barriers can be a DIY installation. However, we would not recommend doing so. Improperly installed barriers will not be completely effective at combating moisture and will render your efforts moot. Groundworks recommends hiring a professional to retrofit your crawl space with vapor barriers.

Vapor barriers also need to be cut to the correct size and properly fitted to a crawl space’s unique layout. Where these two jobs are not performed correctly, it allows moisture to leak into the crawl space. 

  • Quick Installation

Vapor barriers don’t take overly long to install. Typically, most installation jobs take a day to complete, not including any other work being conducted on the crawl space. Our technicians will get right to work once on-site.

The length of a job also depends on the size and layout of the crawl space and if there is any other labor being conducted. For example, if the crawl space needs to be drained of water or is also having drainage matting laid down, the job will last longer.

Protect Your Crawl Space With Groundworks

Protecting your home from a damp crawl space doesn’t have to be difficult. Our team will be able to create the ideal crawl space solution for your home. Get in contact today and enjoy a free inspection!

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