Houston Crawl Space Encapsulation

Needed to encapsulate a crawl space on a new home. The owner was very knowledgeable about building science and prescribed a solution that was exactly what I needed. I cross referenced his proposal with several leading authorities online, and he was spot on. The operations staff were also excellent and did great work.

I was recommended by Nature's Own Pest Control for them to come out to cover our crawl space vents around the exterior of the home. They came this morning, gave me a quote and had the entire project done by the afternoon. They covered our crawl space with HardiePlank and painted it to match our brick exactly. It looks great, and it's wonderful to have it checked off the to do list.

Very reasonable quote for a variety of work. Chose the priority projects & was able to schedule on a convenient day. Dennis started, then Mike came to help finish the jobs. Organized & clean work. Very happy with the quality. Mike even gave referral for attic insulation.

I first discovered the idea of lining a crawl space about a year prior, from a website operated by "Clean Space Texas" (Olympic's previous name). I contacted them via phone, and Darrin Saffell set up an appointment to come out and look at it. He arrived on time for the appointment. He spent a length of time explaining the process and the benefits, answering many of my detailed questions. Then he whipped out a Tyvek suit and actually crawled under my house with a flashlight and a camera. He spent about 20 minutes down there. A week or so later, he emailed me a detailed bid, which several options and a surprisingly detailed map of my crawlspace. He had identified the low spots and devised a drainage plan. Due to high cost, and other construction, I called Darrin to let him know I was still very interested, but needed to put off the project. He was kind and did not apply any pressure. A year later, I called him and we agreed to keep the same price and commence work. We set up a start date approximately 2 weeks later. On that day, Darrin and his crew (2 workers) showed up exactly on time. They started by removing a lot of debris left from years of neglect, repairs and construction (including abandoned cast iron and galvanized plumbing pipe, abandoned electrical wires, lumber scrap, concrete chuncks, etc.). Then they dug a trench around the perimeter of the house and buried a perforated drain pipe. Finally, they laid a liner on the floor, up the walls, and up the piers to seal off the space, and installed a sump pump (piped into a drain) and a dehumidifier. Total job took 3 days, and Darrin kept in contact via phone and email the whole time. They did not ask for payment until work began (down payment at start, full remainder upon completion). The crew worked long, hard days, and cleaned up behind themselves each day upon completion. Highly, highly recommend.

The Basement Kings finished their LARGE job this morning, and I can’t praise them enough! They had a long, difficult job, but no complaints. When they discovered a problem, they fixed it. No problem, that’s their job. They found the water problem had a lot to do with drainage, so they worked outside in cold & rain & developed a system to carry water away from the house. That, to me, was over & above, but they said their main objective was to get & keep the basement dry, so they did what they had to do with no complaints. Now you can’t ask for better than that - they give their all! I am totally amazed!!

Very well. Robert cut a window through the ceiling, retrieved the duct in a very small crawl space. He then reattached it to the vent exit and sealed the exterior flapper valve assembly to the wall to stop ingress of critters. He than repaired the opening that he had cut in the sealing. He returned later to complete the ceiling repair.

The job was superbly done and the mess was meticulously cleaned up. Darrin was very professional and explained everything well. Since the wood frame was not affected by mold, Darrin did not need to use the encapsulation product as anticipated in the quote, therefore saved me about $83. That is honesty and integrity, something difficult to find these days! Although Darrin was hard to get hold of, the quality of service and his professionalism were worth the wait and patience!

I had spoke with John about other projects when he completed my last job in March. Just like last time as he got into the deck repairs that we discussed he found extensive damage to the framing. His repairs consisted of replacing main support columns anb beams building new steps in place of the old damaged ones, repaired, grouted and replaced slate on deck as needed, pressure washed and sealed entire upper and lower deck, pressure washed and repaired front steps, added ventillation to crawl space to allow moisture to escape, replaced Hardiplank as needed and painted. Just as in the previous job John was prompt courteous and professional and kept in contact at each phase of the repairs.

I wanted to install a kitchen exhaust vent for an over-the-range (OTR) microwave oven. Space in my kitchen is limited so a range hood was not an option. I had to work with my existing OTR microwave configuration which made the best possible use of the existing kitchen space. The blower in my microwave oven was currently operating in recirculate mode - meaning nasty fry odors from the stove were just being blown back into the kitchen. You could tell what was cooking from the second floor! Fortunately, the microwave oven is attached to an outside wall - which made it feasible to install the ducting necessary for an exhaust vent to the outside. After seeking some quotes I decided to go with Walker Home Improvement for the project. With advice from Robert Walker, I bought duct parts (6" round) and an exhaust vent cover (with critter guard) from Home Depot. I had even bought an exhaust vent adapter for my GE microwave ([*** Link removed ***] ahead of time (in case it was needed). Installation was tricky due to unanticipated obstacles - there was gas pipe hidden in the wall that the duct had to go around, and an electrical outlet abutted the transition from microwave to duct. The shortest path to the outside was a horizontal route which I wanted to avoid because it would require making a hole in brick veneer. So the duct first went vertically up into the ceiling crawl space for a short distance before emerging horizontally through the siding and terminating at the exhaust hood. An access panel had to be cut into the ceiling crawlspace to route the duct. Robert did an excellent job navigating every obstacle. The drywall was cut to shape, replaced, and re-textured. All gaps were sealed and caulked. The work was completed in two days (I had not required priming and paining). I highly recommend Robert Walker, especially for similar projects. His work is thorough and professional, and he knows what he is doing! After the project was completed I installed the "microvisorhood" ([*** Link removed ***] which greatly enhances exhaust effectiveness when using the front burners! ([*** Link removed ***] It is also easy to remove when not required.

The job went well. Mr. Anderson ended up doing a lot of work around my house that needed to be done.