Don’t let mold grow inside your home or office!
If you live in Wake County, the chances are that you have a crawl space. However, if you have vents rather than crawl space insulation, many issues can come along with it. You must seal your Crabtree Valley, NC crawl space to keep out things that could damage your home.
Moisture is one of the worst factors that can enter your crawl space. To keep your crawl space safe from water and moisture, you need crawl space encapsulation. Do you know what crawl space encapsulation is and why it’s so essential? Also, do you know the dos and don’ts of encapsulation? Luckily, Sealed Solution is here to help you through this journey of protecting your crawl space. To learn everything you need to know, keep reading below and call Sealed Solution for additional information.
What Is Crawl Space Encapsulation?
You first need to understand what crawl space encapsulation in Wake County is before you can learn the dos and don’ts. Encapsulation is an extra layer of protection against moisture. You may wonder if you need encapsulation if you already have crawl space insulation, but encapsulation can help keep your home safe. While insulation helps, there are other ways you can continue to protect your home. For example, vapor barriers also keep moisture from entering your crawl space. Encapsulation provides an extra layer of protection.
Completely sealing your crawl space makes his heavy-duty barrier most effective in blocking moisture. But what else do you need to know about encapsulation? There’s a lot to learn.
Do: Address Issues With the Crawl Space First
Before you can add crawl space insulation in Crabtree Valley, NC, you need to ensure that there aren’t any issues with the space. The last thing you want to do is accidentally seal damages into the crawl space. You need to address any repairs, or the issues can persist.
For example, you need to ensure no moisture has already built up in your Wake County crawl space. If you encapsulate your space without removing the water source, you can create a space conducive to mold growth.
If you already have mold inside your crawl space, you need to remove it before encapsulating. If you fail to remove the mold, it can continue to grow. Mold growth won’t only harm your crawl space. Since this space circulates air throughout your whole home and regulates your temperature, the spores can enter your living space. Also, mold can cause wood to deteriorate, so you can also harm your foundation by forgetting this step. For your health and safety, you need to keep mold out of your crawl space.
Don’t: Encapsulate Without Sealing
You should never encapsulate your Wake County crawl space without sealing it first. Before installing encapsulation, you should have crawl space insulation added. This will act as the first barrier against moisture. Failing to insulate your crawl space can let moisture or pests inside.
Do: Seal the Space
However, what should you seal before crawl space encapsulation? As we previously mentioned, you need insulation in your Crabtree Valley, NC home. You should also install a vapor barrier in your crawl space to keep moisture from accumulating.
Also, if you have any vents in your crawl space, you should have them sealed and closed. Vents let outside air inside. Often, the air outside your home is a different temperature than that inside your house. When these different temperatures meet, condensation can form. So even if you have encapsulation, you can risk mold growth if you don’t seal the crawl space.
Don’t: Insulate With Fiberglass
When you plan on installing a crawl space encapsulation, you shouldn’t use fiberglass for your crawl space insulation. That’s because fiberglass absorbs moisture. When the whole goal is to prevent moisture, you waste your time installing the encapsulation.
While fiberglass insulation once reigned supreme in crawl spaces, it has gone out as the most popular crawl space insulation. Instead, you can choose spray foam insulation for your crawl space. Therefore, if you plan on encapsulating your crawl space, keep fiberglass out of it. If you already have fiberglass in your crawl space, you should call Sealed Solution to replace your insulation before you move forward with encapsulating.
Do: Control the Moisture
The most important step is to control moisture. You can do this in many ways, such as ensuring you remove any pooled moisture or damage before sealing and closing your vents. Lining the walls and floors with a vapor barrier can help control moisture and temperature.
Controlling the temperature can also help you keep moisture from getting into your crawl space. When you ensure the air in your crawl space is the same temperature as that in your home, you know you can keep out moisture. That’s why controlling these aspects is essential for the safety of your home and crawl space.
Don’t: Skip Drainage
Finally, you should never skip adding drainage to your Wake County crawl space. Don’t fall into the misunderstanding that encapsulation alone will keep moisture out of the space. While it can help keep moisture down, it cannot get rid of it forever. Installing a water drainage system that will keep water away from your crawl space can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in repair.
Also, ensure you maintain the drainage system around your home. As long as you keep your drainage system working fine, you can stop water from entering your crawl space.
Can You Benefit From Crawl Space Encapsulation?
So can you benefit from crawl space encapsulation in your Crabtree Valley, NC home? After considering the many advantages of encapsulation—and the damages of ignoring your crawl space—you should install encapsulation as soon as possible.
You should always have a professional install your encapsulation. There are so many factors that can go wrong if you don’t make the right move. If you forget about crawl space insulation, vapor barriers, or accidentally install fiberglass, it can ruin everything you did to protect your home. Mold is dangerous, and you don’t want to risk letting it into your home.
That’s why you should call Sealed Solution at 919-302-1081. We can install your encapsulation, so you never have to worry about your crawl space again.
Crabtree Valley Mall is a regional shopping mall located in Raleigh, North Carolina. At 1,343,109 square feet (124,778.9 m2), it is the largest enclosed mall in the Research Triangle area. Crabtree Valley contains over 200 stores and is anchored by Belk and Macy’s.
Crabtree Valley Mall opened in August 1972 at the intersection of US 70/NC 50 (Glenwood Avenue) and the I-440 Beltline. Original anchors were Hudson Belk, Sears, Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimer’s.
From the start, the mall pulled shoppers from all over central and eastern North Carolina. Many of them came to the 251,000-square-foot (23,300 m2) Hudson Belk, which is still the largest store in the complex and serves as a Belk flagship. The mall was remodeled in the mid-1980s and added many specialty stores and a food court. It faced little competition in its market until the 1990s, when in nearby Cary doubled in size and spawned a companion mall, Crossroads Plaza.
In response Crabtree embarked on a major expansion starting in 1993. G.C. Murphy, Miller & Rhoads, and Piccadilly all closed down during this period. Thalhimer’s converted to Hecht’s, and began planning for a new, larger location at the mall. In 1993 a 40 by 110-foot (34 m) section of the parking deck collapsed just three months after it had been completely rebuilt. Sears closed its Crabtree store in 1994 and opened a new location adjacent to it that August. The old Sears became small shop space and connected to a new, larger Hecht’s which opened in August 1995, and the former Thalhimer’s/Hecht’s became a Lord & Taylor which closed in 2006, and the upper level is now a Belk Men’s store since 2007 and the lower level became more shops and an H&M in 2010.
Learn more about Crabtree Valley.
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