Crawl Space Encapsulation: A Chat With Jay Eastland of Engineered Solutions

Who? What? When? Why? How?

TrustDALE Certified Partner Engineered Solutions of Georgia answers all your questions!

Here in the South, we have to contend with moisture in and under our homes. So you may have heard of crawl space encapsulation. But what is it? And do you really need it done?

To help us learn more, Dale spoke with Jay Eastland, owner of Engineered Solutions of Georgia. 

So, what in the world is crawl space encapsulation?

The best way to describe it is like a pool liner that goes underneath your house to help regulate the environment in your crawl space. Your roof and walls are weather-resistant, but crawl spaces are typically just raw frames. Encapsulation closes it in and gives some weather-proof structure to protect the bottom end of your home. 

How do you know if you need it or if you don’t?

Well, if you have a crawl space, you need it! The crawl space air is not conditioned, and the climate in the South is very humid and hot. So when that hot. Humid air enters the crawlspace through vents, it’s cooled, which creates moisture. 

Well, building scientists started looking into this, and they had many options to try. First, they sealed the vents. But that created a moldy, damp mess in the space. You can’t just stop that air transmission, you need to find a way to condition it. 

Crawl space encapsulation and de-humidification go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. 

The goal? Relative humidity around 50%. 

What are some other benefits?

It’s great for storage and overall protecting your property. Things won’t deteriorate at that humidity level. 

What should homeowners ask companies?

You could DIY the project by spreading some tarp under your basement. But the professionals will use a durable liner that will stay in place and won’t decompose. They’ll seal the seams and close the vents properly, and ensure that all the materials are fastened to the wall above grade to control the environment properly. 

While there are inexpensive hack measures, you could end up creating more of a problem but trying to cut corners. Components need to be the right quality and installed correctly. 

The after-effect can be quite breathtaking!