Crawl Space Encapsulation in Dover, TN

The second factor is the shape of the county. Stewart County lies in a rugged section of the northwestern Highland Rim, ridges and hollows rather than flat lots. A house set into a slope rarely has a level crawl space. The downhill end is tight, dark and wet, and the uphill end is where the old fibreglass batts fall away first because the clearance is awkward. Dover also has older stock, as a county seat of around 1,826 people tends to, with pier and stem wall foundations vented to the outside and left that way for decades.

We start with drainage and bulk water. Water entering the crawl space is solved first, because a liner over active water only hides it. Then the ground and walls are cleaned so the liner lies flat and seals at every seam, pier and penetration. The liner itself is a heavy reinforced vapour barrier, run up the walls and sealed to them, seams taped and piers wrapped.

Next is sealing. The old foundation vents are closed, the rim and band joist are air sealed, and gaps at the sill are closed so humid outside air cannot be drawn through. Closed-cell spray foam seals and insulates the rim in one pass. Finally the space is conditioned with a small supply of house air or a dedicated dehumidifier, so it dries to a stable level and stays there.

A vented crawl space in Stewart County is working against the climate for half the year. An encapsulated one stops fighting it.

• Homes on sloped or hollow lots. The low end holds damp air, and encapsulation evens out conditions from end to end rather than only where it is easy to reach.
• Low ground toward the Cumberland and the creek bottoms. Where the water table and humidity are already high, sealing the ground and vents is the biggest single change you can make.
• Older county seat housing with vented foundations. Closing the vents, lining the ground and sealing the rim usually transforms cold floors and musty smells within days.
• Falling fibreglass under floors. Batts in a damp crawl space absorb moisture, sag and end up on the ground. Once the space is dry and sealed, the floor above behaves differently.
• Rural and farm properties across Stewart County. Larger footprints and longer runs of pier foundation benefit most from a continuous, sealed liner rather than patch repairs.

The liner also has to be tough enough to be crawled on later, because someone will go back down to service a pipe or a wire. Thin plastic tears the first time, and the tear is rarely found until the smell comes back. We fit the heavier material, seal every joint and leave the space clean enough to inspect, because a crawl space you cannot inspect gets neglected again.

See the detail of our crawl space encapsulation work, or the full service area.