Crawl spaces are typically found in the attic or in the basement and, as their name suggests, they’re a pretty tight fit; repairmen use them to get to your plumbing or electrical wiring. However helpful they are, heat and cold can radiate into a crawl space, which makes your heating and cooling systems overwork themselves in order to maintain temperature in the rest of the house. Crawl spaces tend to accumulate moisture as well, which allows mold to grow and will eventually endanger the health of residents. And, since there is nothing beneath the floor to absorb the sound, your floors can become noisy. The importance of crawl space insulation should be clear to you once you consider all this.
How you install crawl space insulation depends on whether your crawl space is ventilated or unventilated. Today, building codes usually require vents to be placed in crawl spaces to prevent moisture problems from developing. Most professional builders, on the other hand, know that they need to forgo ventilation altogether or to close the vents after they’ve given the crawl space enough time to dry post-construction. When a crawl space is ventilated, it is hard to heat in the winter, and the warm moist air of summer can actually cause moisture to accumulate rather than dry. Installing crawl space insulation is easier in unventilated spaces.
Then, you have to decide if you can handle the crawl space insulation project by yourself or if you have to bring in professionals. It’s important to be as safe as possible if you want to tackle this yourself. Wear safety gloves, protective eye gear and a shirt with long sleeves. The insulation material is obviously important: Batt insulation is the cheapest, its R-value at 20 for unventilated spaces and 10 if you’ve got vents. A material’s R-value is a measure of how effective it insulates; the higher it is, the better.
Before you begin to install crawl space insulation, make sure that the space is air tight by sealing any gaps to avoid drafts; also make sure that any access to the space from outside is tightly sealed. A smart move would be to seal any way in that leads outside and instead make an access point that leads to the house. Remember that keeping control of your moisture levels is important. A layer of vapor barrier applied to the ground should hold back any moisture from the soil.
For an unventilated crawl space, insulation only needs to be installed in the walls of the foundation. If your crawl space is ventilated, then you will probably need to get some insulation in spaces under the floor. Also, wrap any pipes that may be in your crawl space with insulation to prevent freezing or heat leaks.
The installation of crawl space insulation can be a crucial improvement to your home. Crawl space insulation can make your house more comfortable, and it can also save you a bundle on energy expenses.
