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Crawl Space Inspection | Tips for Inspecting Your Crawl Space | Find Crawl Space Problems Like This - YouTube
Channel: Crawl Space Ninja
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Michael Church: OK, so we just got this call
from a homeowner, and they want us to come
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take a look at their crawl space.
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She's got high humidity, she fears mold, she's
got some odors coming out of the crawl space,
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so come along with me, and we'll show you
how crawlspace ninjas do a crawl space inspection.
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Oh, by the way, stick around to the end of
the video and I'm going to give you a special
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tip on some Crawl Space Ninja gear that every
crawl space ninja should have in their toolbox.
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OK, so we just got to the house that we're
going to take a look at, so I'm going to put
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my gear on, and we'll jump in the crawl space.
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Just so you know, normally I have on coveralls,
but it's a standup crawl space, so not really
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too worried about the coveralls today.
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OK, so this is a unique crawl space because
it has this pad here for the HVAC, and their
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water heater to sit on, but ninjas have already
been here and taken out the insulation.
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They had insulation and foil up in the crawl
space, up in the subfloor.
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You can see this foil right here.
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This was left.
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They used to put this in crawl spaces back
in the 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s.
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They thought this was some kind of vapor barrier
that they would put up there, but the problem
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with it is it would actually trap moisture
up against the subfloor and can cause mold
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to grow, so if you have this foil that's installed
up in the subfloor, make sure you take this
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out.
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OK, I want to show you this that I just found.
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Basically, it was kind of hard to see the
subfloor because of all the fiberglass insulation,
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but now you can see that we've got some mold
growing up in the subfloor, and maybe that's
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a better way for you to see.
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You see all that white raised mold on the
subfloor and the joist, so we're going to
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soda blast all of that off, that way it'll
be almost like a new piece of wood.
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If you come over to this side, you can see
more over here.
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A lot of times, what you'll find is that around
a heating and air duct, you'll see more mold
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because the heating and air system is condensating
more in this area around the duct, and especially
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around the trunk line.
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As you can see as you go a little bit further
away from this, you have less, and then here's
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some more.
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This just popped up here, but most of the
time, if you look, if you pay attention, you'll
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see more mold and more wetness around the
duct system.
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One other thing I want to show you is this
right here.
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That's not mold.
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That's cricket poop.
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It's amazing that that cannot come off with
a soda blaster.
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If you see this in your crawl space, don't
be concerned.
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I don't know if the save crickets drill a
hole, poop in it, and then cover it up, but
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that stuff won't come off.
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It's amazing.
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It's sticky.
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NASA needs to figure out what to use that
for, because it's amazing.
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Then, you got more mold over here.
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See all this?
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More cricket poop.
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If you got a lot of cricket poop in your crawl
space, you probably got a lot of moisture
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in your crawl space.
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Look at all that back in there.
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There's some of that foil I was talking about.
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We're going to remove that foil up there in
the subfloor, make sure that the dehumidifier
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dries all that out, as well.
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I'm going to show you the dehumidifier we've
got running.
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This is the Aprilaire 1830.
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This bad boy will do up to about a 2,200 square
foot crawl space.
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Just work horse.
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Pulls moisture out, moves about 70 to 75 pints
a day.
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If you've got a bigger crawl space than that,
you want to go with the Aprilaire 1850.
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Great, great dehumidifier we've got sitting
up on blocks, drains into the condensate pump
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right here, and then the condensate pump pumps
the moisture out of the crawl space.
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We're going to trench and sump pump this crawl
space because they have some standing water
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coming in.
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We're also going to put down an underlayment.
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That our platinum package with a lifetime
warranty, so that's what they decided to get
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with us.
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We're going to do the platinum with the lifetime
warranty on the encapsulation process.
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We're going to have the underlayment with
the 12 mil vapor barrier on top.
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The trench with the EZ flow all the way around,
and we're going to show you all that in a
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couple later videos.
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We're going to do the whole project on video
for you, so make sure you subscribe to our
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channel if you want to see how this project
goes about.
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But, this is the first step.
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We got to get this place dry so that we can
soda blast, and that's why the dehumidifier's
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been installed.
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OK, so this is our R10 termite resistant foam
board.
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We install this foam board with a Hilti [inaudible
00:06:00] nail.
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As you can see, it's a two and a quarter inch
thick foam board.
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It's OK to get wet.
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That's the nice thing about this product is
that it's OK to be up against the foundation.
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You can even have it touching the ground.
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It's not going to cause any issues with termites,
or be damaged by any kind of moisture, unlike
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fiberglass insulation, or rock wool insulation.
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If it gets wet, it has to be removed.
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Great product.
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Got a 50 year R value warranty on it, and
we also use the foam board right here to seal
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up the vents, and we put a little bead of
spray foam around it to make sure we try to
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keep as much humidity out of the crawl space
as we can, plus with the borate that's located
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inside the foam board, it actually discourages
pests, even kills them, so that way we don't
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have to worry about pests, and termites, and
things like that trying to climb up behind
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the foam board to get to the wood.
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A couple of other things I want to show you.
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If you look right here, we've got some penetrations
coming through the subfloor.
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You want to make sure if you've got any major
penetrations like this, that you air seal
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them with a spray foam.
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If you use the great stuff that is located
at Home Depot and Lowe's, if you're inverted
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like this and you're trying to spray it up
here, it'll actually fall on you, because
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it doesn't stick real good, so we use the
Fomo product by ICP, so it's a really good
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product.
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Once you put it in, it expands real nice.
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We also use it to seal our vents.
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We don't have to worry about it falling on
us, because if this stuff gets stuck in your
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arm hair, it doesn't come out.
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You got to rip it out or cut it out, so great
product available on our DIY page.
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Watch your wire right here.
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OK, if you notice this right here, we've got
a little bit of subfloor damage.
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This is the front of the house.
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They were getting some moisture coming in.
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There's actually a really high traffic road
in front of the house, so the moisture slopes
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really nice ... so the ground slopes really
good towards the house.
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That's partly why they have this painted right
here, too.
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They were trying to stop the moisture by painting
the cinder block, and it didn't work.
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Painting cinder block does not work.
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If you're thinking about waterproofing your
basement or your crawl space using paint,
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it typically fails.
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You've got to do a lot of prep work, you've
got to install it right.
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Anyway, even if it had worked, it's still
not high enough.
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Look, we've got moisture damage up in here
in the subfloor, so we're going to try to
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get this addressed as well.
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We're going to soda blast it first, dry it
out, and see if we're still getting active
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moisture.
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This could also be a flashing issue from a
deck or something like that, that needs to
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be addressed, so we'll take a look at that
and see what we can find to make sure we don't
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have more moisture coming through.
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OK, now you can see we got a little bit of
raised fungus, mold, whatever you want to
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call it, right here off the joist.
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The other thing I want you to notice is look
how the discoloration is from here down.
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It's because the fiberglass was up here, so
it was kind of keeping a little bit of that
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from creeping up, but it still holds moisture
up against the wood, so we had more mold growth
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down at the bottom than we do at the top.
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We had to remove all that fiberglass in order
to soda blast all of this.
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One other thing I want you to notice, in this
corner, this is the area that has the most
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water penetration.
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Do you see the water marks in the far corner?
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It was kind of hard to see it because we had
a foam board covering it, but this is where
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most of the moisture was coming in.
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You can see the ground's pretty wet, so we're
going to trench all of this, put a sump pump
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in, make sure in the future when it rains,
if water's coming through the foundation,
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that we are redirecting that water through
our EZ flow pipe, into the Flotec 1/2HP Sump
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Pump.
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By the way, there's a great unboxing video
about that Flotec sump pump if you want to
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check it out.
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Here's what that video looks like.
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Let's see what else we can find.
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OK, they installed these 4X4 posts to help
support the foundation.
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They put these nice pillars and all that.
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These are pressure treated, which is OK to
be touching the ground, as long as they are
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pressure treated.
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There's some pressure treated wood that is
OK to be touching the ground, and then there's
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some that isn't, so you want to make sure
you get the right kind, but typically with
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this type of install, we would use a post
jack sitting on top of a poured footer.
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As you can see, this is going directly into
the ground, so if there was any kind of weight
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on this, it's not really doing a whole lot
of good, because the ground is going to give
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way.
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They didn't really install this properly,
and you never ever want to have any wood touching
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the soil if it's not pressure treated, or
designed for soil contact.
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Make sure that if you're doing something like
this with a post jack, or whatever, if you're
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allowing it to touch the soil, make sure it's
pressure treated.
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If you've got wood in your crawlspace that's
going from the subfloor to the ground that
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is not pressure treated, you need to remove
it, because it's a great way for termites
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to move up into your house.
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OK, I want to show you this duct work.
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This is a flexible duct, and it's connected
to their metal supply, and the only thing
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I want to point out is it looks like this
duct work has been done properly, but it's
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a little misleading, because they taped it
up really nice on the outside, but the most
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important thing is, did they actually air
seal it where the metal of the flex duct touches
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the metal of the supply?
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If you want to know that, you've got to take
the tape off and move the insulation bag,
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and make sure those tabs are air sealed.
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There's a collar right here that they install
on this, so if you're concerned about your
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energy, maybe you feel like you're burning
a little bit too much AC and heat, you might
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want to check this area, because they estimate
25% of your AC and heat is lost in the crawl
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space because of leakage, so you want to make
sure you check all that out.
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This is a great place to start.
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If you got a solid duct, there's actually
about every 12 to 18 inches, there's a collar
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that you're supposed to do, but this one,
the only place you have to make sure it's
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air sealed is at the boot where it goes into
the house, and then here where it touches
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the supply line.
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Those are the two air seal points of a flex
duct.
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One of the reasons why I wanted to come here
today is see how to crawl space is actually
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drying up, how it's progressing along, to
make sure we can soda blast it.
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I got my meter here, and we're going to put
it on the wood, and it says it's about 14%,
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which is pretty good.
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I think when we were here before, before we
removed the insulation, it was about 19, 20%.
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It is drying out in spite of us not having
a vapor barrier installed.
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The dehumidifier is strong enough to dry out
the wood.
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Once we get the vapor barrier installed, it's
going to be much better, but this is just
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part of our process.
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The subfloor itself is around 10%, so that's
really good.
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We are low enough, moisture wise, to go ahead
and start addressing the mold.
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OK, this is the Lomanco PCV1 foundation vent
fan, and we put this in to put the crawl space
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under negative pressure, because in our part
of the country we have a lot of radon around
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here, so according to the Environmental Protection
Agency, you are supposed to remove one cubic
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feet of air per minute for every 50 square
feet of crawl space, and this basically will
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do about a 5,500 square foot crawl space based
on that calculation.
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Now, we don't leave it hooked up to an extension
cord.
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We're still in the process of making this
a platinum package ready for the home owner,
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so that they have a dry, clean, healthy, and
efficient crawl space.
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We just temporarily hooked it up so that we're
already removing the soil gasses, because
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we sealed all of the other vents except this
one.
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This is the one that's going to blow the air
out, while the dehumidifier over there in
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the corner dries up the crawl space.
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If you're concerned about soil gasses and
radon, this is a great addition to your crawl
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space.
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All right, let's look at this.
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One last thing I wanted to show you, I talked
about air sealing the boot, basically, is
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the little metal piece that they use to go
through the subfloor into the house.
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Your register sits on top of it, but I want
you to notice that we're air sealed around
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the boot.
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That is for energy efficiency, but also to
help keep the soda from going up into the
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house, so that's another energy efficient
tip for you in the crawl space, whether you're
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soda blasting or not, if you'll just spray
foam around this boot, it keeps the crawl
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space air from going up into the living space,
or vice versa.
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OK, I wanted to show you a rim joist.
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Some people call it a band board.
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Depends on what part of the country you're
in.
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The only piece of pressure treated wood in
most crawl spaces is this piece right here.
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This is called the sill plate.
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S-I-L-L, plate.
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This piece sits on the cinder block, and it's
pressure treated, and then all the other wood
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in the house sits on top of it.
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This is where the weight of the house sits
along the foundation wall.
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Now, in Tennessee, you have to leave a three
inch gap between any vapor barrier, or foam
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board, or whatever, this direction.
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Our vapor barrier will stop right about here,
because the state requires that we give the
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termite people a viewable area to make sure
that there's not termite tunnels going to
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the sill plate.
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That's why you have to leave this gap.
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Now, if you're in a part of the country that
doesn't have termites, check with local codes,
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but chances are you could probably go all
the way up with your vapor barrier.
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But, in the south, where we have termites,
we have to leave that gap.
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That is part of code.
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If you're hiring a crawl space professional
that is not leaving that gap, you may want
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to ask them to do that.
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The other thing is the rim joist right here.
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According to buildingscience.com, this is
called a critical area to insulate, because
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believe it or not, this gap right up here,
air will move through that gap up into the
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wall of your house.
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This, by air sealing this area right here
... and here's a picture of what one air sealed
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looks like.
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That will actually stop air infiltration from
going up into the house, plus we use an R10
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termite resistant foam board on this, in order
to thermally insulate.
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If it's cold outside, the cold weather will
not transfer into the crawl space, because
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if you got a warm crawl space, and it's 15
degrees outside, you could actually develop
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some condensation right here, especially if
you don't have a dehumidifier.
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If you got a dehumidifier, you probably won't
develop condensation, but if you do not have
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a dehumidifier, this could condensate if it's
not properly insulated.
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Anyway, there's your rim joist, your sill
plate, your subfloor, and then the three inch
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termite gap right here.
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OK, now I'm going to show you the door.
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Now, this is a great door.
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Not all the crawl spaces we do are this tall.
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Normally they're this tall, but no matter
if they're this tall or this tall, you want
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to make sure that you got some good weather
stripping around the door, because if we install
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our platinum crawl space encapsulation system,
and there's this air moving right through
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here, it's going to make the dehumidifier
work harder.
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If you can, make sure you weather strip around
these doors, whether it's a full size door
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like this, or a crawl space door that you
decide to build, maybe a 3X2 door.
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Also, another important thing to do would
be to insulate this door.
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We could put a piece of R10 foam board right
here.
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This one may already be insulated, since it's
supposed to be an exterior door anyway, but
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most small crawl space doors are not insulated,
so you could use the R10 foam board that we
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used on the walls in order to insulate the
door.
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I appreciate you sticking around.
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Now I'm going to show you that one tool that
I mentioned at the beginning of the video
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that every crawl space ninja should have in
their toolbox.
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It's this, a moisture meter that checks how
much moisture is located in the wood of the
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crawl space.
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Its' important to know that, because if you
don't get the crawl space wood dry before
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you address the mold, you're going to have
issues in the future, so make sure you check
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out this little guy on our DIY store.
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This would be a great crawl space ninja gear
to add to your toolbox.
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