Conquer Your Cold Winter Crawl Space

Cold floors are one of the most common wintertime complaints amongst Indianapolis homeowners with open crawl spaces. Cold outdoor air can make the floors icy and uncomfortable and lead to a constantly running furnace and high energy bills.

You don’t have to live with these problems any longer. Our complete guide explains the cause of your crawl space troubles and how to handle them for good.

Learn the best way to keep crawl space warm this winter and how to insulate a crawl space with trusted professional solutions.

The stack effect is the movement of air due to thermal differences. Naturally, warm air is less dense than cool air. When cold air enters your crawl space through vents and gaps in the foundation walls, it pushes the warm air out of the house before infiltrating your home. As a result, your home cools down and becomes colder. This explains why floors, walls, and surfaces feel cold.  

Other than pushing in cold air, the stack effect also allows mold spores, dust mites, and nasty odors to travel to your living space, contaminating the air that you breathe.

Closing Off Vents 

While codes encourage homeowners to vent their crawl spaces, studies show that these fixtures are better off sealed. Blocking vents ensures your crawl space stays warm. Best of all, it also enhances the effectiveness of your furnace, heating ducts, water heater, and hot water pipes. 

• Use Effective Insulation Materials: Typical fiberglass insulation can easily get wet and fail to work effectively. Instead, install insulation panels on your crawl space walls. Additionally, spray foam insulation also can be used along rim joists. 
• Seal and Insulate Hatchways: If your crawl space has a hatchway, it must be air-stripped or fitted with an airtight entry system. Make sure you seal all gaps along the rim joists.  
• Seal and Insulate Ducts: Damaged air ducts in the crawl space allow conditioned indoor air to escape outdoors and unwanted crawl space air to circulate through the rest of your home. You can solve this by air sealing and insulating the supply and return ducts in the crawl space.  
• Seal and Insulate Plumbing: Your water pipes need some TLC. Insulating them prevents freezing, bursts, leaks, and floods in winter. 

Now that you know how to insulate crawl space areas, the next important step is encapsulation.

This all-encompassing solution includes the vent sealing and insulation we mentioned above, as well as installing waterproofing solutions, a vapor barrier, and dehumidification.

Interior drainage, drainage matting, and a sump pump intercept and remove leaking water from your crawl space. A heavy-duty, 20-mil vapor barrier liner covers the crawl space floor and walls and is taped down to the seams. An energy-efficient crawl space dehumidifier improves air quality by controlling humidity levels and cleaning and filtering the air.

Don’t let the crawl space cold dampen your mood and cause you sleepless nights this winter. Insulating crawl space areas that are cold not only improves the condition of your crawl space but your entire home.

Get in touch with our crawl space encapsulation experts at Indiana Foundation Service. We will provide you with a free crawl space inspection and quote along with recommendations to keep this space dry, clean, and mold-free. Your home will stay warm and comfortable all year round, not just in winter!