Wet. Damp. Moldy. Musty. Debris. Dirty. Critters. Remnants. No longer does it need to be a nasty place you avoid. There is hope and we love to transform crawl spaces into a clean, dry and conditioned environment that helps improve the air quality and value of your home! Our team takes a Craftsmanship approach as they perform a customized scope of work, specific to your situation, with an attention to detail, thoroughness and with intuitive problem solving skills to ensure that our solution will be the final one, one which lasts for the duration of the home.
Click here if you have a Crawl Space with a dug out Mechanical/Storage/’Basement’ area
Standing Water and Leaks:
- We will evaluate your home, interior and exterior, to determine the source of the water problem and prescribe a customized solution to solve and control the issue for the duration of the home. Our evaluation is focused on what is the best and most effective way to solve your water problem once and for all. We take a Solutions, not ‘systems’, approach. Who wants to see their Waterproofer more than once?
- Please refer to our DIY recommendations page.
- If your exterior DIY efforts are not effective, then you will need a custom Interior Drain Solution to control the water problem. Although we believe it is best to stop the water on the outside, where a theoretical dig up and re-waterproof would often accomplish this, it is very uncommon that the proper access is possible on an existing crawl space home nor is there often a way to gravity-daylight a drain at the footing level of the foundation. If we cannot access all possible entry points of water, then the $ spent on exterior waterproofing work becomes a waste/loss since an Interior Drain Solution will still be required to solve the problem.
Vapor Barrier:
- We can install a basic 6-mil vapor barrier or upgrade to our Bilar encapsulation liner if greater effectiveness is desired or if future encapsulation is a possibility.
- Our vapor barrier installation, no matter what liner is utilized, is always thorough and detailed, designed to last. We will remove all trash, debris, rocks, concrete, nails etc. that can lead to wear and puncturing of the liner over time
- We perform any necessary grading to ensure the liner is on solid, continuous ground for uniformity and being able to withstand traffic from those who need to perform work in the crawl space
- We sufficiently overlap and staple the liner to the ground to ensure effectiveness, maintaining integrity over time and that it will not move when there is worker traffic in the crawl space
- As long as don’t utilize an Aerator in the crawl space, our vapor barrier installation is installed to last a long,long time
Encapsulation:
- If you do not have any standing water/rain leaks (or after we have solved the leak issue) but are experiencing any problems with: Mold, Smells, Air Quality Issues, Humidity, Buckling Hardwoods, Allergies, then encapsulating (which is sealing off and conditioning your crawl space) is the only solution to solving all of these issues.
- We transform your crawl space so dramatically that once we are done, you’ll want to have lunch down there just to celebrate! By improving the air quality in the Crawl Space, you improve the air quality of your entire home (Stack Effect) and those that live in it. You also protect yourself from mold/mildew growth, your hardwoods from buckling because of excessive moisture in the crawl and have eliminated the musty, moldy, dampness and dirt smells. General scope of work for sealing the crawl:
- Debris removal and grading is performed to ensure the tough, long lasting quality of the vapor barrier is realized
- Sealed – stop uncontrolled, leaky air that allows high humidity and the moisture problems that result. High quality, extremely tough and durable Class 1 vapor barrier is utilized to seal the ground, walls and piers; other detailed stop gap measures are taken to seal penetrations, vents, holes, seams etc.
- Conditioned – We install a high performance, long lasting Dehumidifier to automatically control the humidity and create a clean, dry environment
- Optional but important: Insulation – If you do not have existing insulation, then there is a lot of energy loss and therefore lost $, that comes from the crawl space due to uncontrolled temperatures throughout the year. We can provide new insulation which is installed to the inside of the exterior walls of the crawl space, inside of the encapsulation, which is the most energy efficient way to insulate. You control the temperatures at the outside of the crawl space envelope, and do not allow uncontrolled hot/cold temperatures to invade the crawl and make the first floor heating/cooling work harder…
STRUCTURAL ISSUE? We provide some structural stabilization services at AKME Waterproofing. And for the services we don’t provide, we have great references to companies that have similar customer focused, integrity lead philosophy that we have used to built AKME Waterproofing.