Noticing problems in your home, but you just can’t spot the source? The answer may be below your feet, in your crawl space.
How Do You Know If You Have Crawl Space Issues?
Musty Odors
If you sense a musty odor in your home but just can’t find the source, it could be coming from your crawl space. As moisture and water is trapped inside of your crawl space, the dark, dingy atmosphere provides an excellent environment for mold to thrive.
Buckled Hardwood Floors and Sagging Floors
Bouncing, unstable floors in your home can also indicate a crawl space issue, as mold and wood rot can eat away at the vital supports in your home. Your floor joists and supports may weaken and begin to buckle beneath your home, causing a bouncing sensation or sloping.
Increased Allergy and Asthma Symptoms
Much of the air that lives in your home rises up from your crawl space. When there’s mold, pest droppings, or other toxins brewing in your crawl space, it’s sure to affect your breathing at some point. This poor indoor air quality can affect your health over a long period of time, and the way to fix it may be to address crawl space issues.
Higher Energy Usage and Bills
Without regulating the temperature in your crawl space, cold or warm air from the outside can seep in and affect the temperature within your home. Especially during the cold, snowy Grand Junction winters, freezing air can easily creep into the confined crawl space area. This means that your heating and cooling units will need to work harder during the hotter or cooler months to balance the temperature interior of your home.
Pest Infestations
Every homeowner is bound to notice a bug or two in their home, but if you’re dealing with an excess or even infestation of bugs or pests, the source may be in your crawl space. Since many pests like rats, roaches, cave and camel crickets, and other critters are attracted to dark, dank environments, an unprotected crawl space may be a prime destination. Once they being to trickle into the home, it may be a sign you have crawl space issues.
These are just a few problem signs of crawl space damage. Explore below more ways that your home will warn you of trouble in the crawl space.
Why Do Houses Have Crawl Spaces?
So, if all these issues can arise from your crawl space, then what’s the point of having one? You may not be able to control the type of foundation your home has when you move in. But having a crawl space isn’t all bad. There are two main reasons that homeowners will opt for crawl spaces: to save money, and for extra storage space.
Saving Money
When it comes to the construction of your home, a crawl space is typically the cheapest, least labor-intensive option. Especially in rockier terrains like in the western slope of Colorado, digging out a full basement or completely leveling out soil for a slab installation is more costly than installing a crawl.
Storage and Convenience
A crawl space is the best place to tidily store your HVAC unit, plumbing pipes, dehumidifier, and other important home mechanisms. It also makes for convenient access as these are all in one place, and not hidden in a harder-to-reach area.
Additional Crawl Space Benefits
Crawl spaces can also act as a buffer for mother nature. If you spot problem signs or issues in your home’s crawl space, then you can stop it from advancing into the rest of your home. For example, in a flood, your crawl space will be the first area affected, as opposed to the first level of your home or finished basement.
It’s also a better place to detect termites; finding them in your crawl space and stopping them there is far better than finding them when they’ve already ceased on your home.
Why Crawl Space Encapsulation is Worth the Cost
While the investment may seem intimidating for some homeowners, it’s ultimately worth the cost in the long run, as encapsulation is a proactive measure. Protecting your crawl space now can mean saving money on even more expensive structural repairs in the future.
Crawl space encapsulation also gives you a unique opportunity to control the quality of air that enters your living space. Since up to 50% of the air in your home comes from your crawl space, fully encapsulating it using a vapor barrier, dehumidifier, sealed vents, and more can ensure that clean, moisture-controlled air enters your living area.
View more Crawl Space Repair Solutions
Encapsulate Your Western Colorado Crawl Space with The Experts
With over a decade of experience in foundation repair, Foundation Repair of Western Colorado has the longstanding knowledge and modern innovation to permanently repair your crawl space. Using customizable encapsulation options, we’re proud to work with you to find the solution that works best for you.
Set up a free inspection with Foundation Repair of Western Colorado today, to start your journey to a cleaner and safer home.
