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Welcome again to the volunteer repairs podcast. I’m your host, Mike Stewart, and today here with Chattanooga, Pest Control expert, Eric Gardner. Eric, are you ready to have another great podcast? I am raring to go. All right. Well, it’s my understanding that crawlspace encapsulation is a new piece of business and services that you’re doing volunteer router pest. And there’s got to be a whole lot of benefits. So I am a complete. don’t totally understand I know what it is. In fact, our home here in Nashville has that. But I want to hear all of the types of homes that need it. What is it? How does it benefit me as a homeowner? Tell me all about crawlspace and capsulation.
All right, well, crawlspace encapsulation is a relatively new process where you turn a damp, musty crawlspace into a clean, healthier Face by coming down the walls with a thick plastic membrane, turning it out over the dirt floor of the crawlspace sealing around all of the support piers, any penetrations like pipes and things, you securely tape around it and you just make a waterproof membrane that separates the house from the dirt floor of the crawlspace. And in that you can also install a dehumidifier that will pull all the moisture out of the air and take it from it. You know, we found some crawl spaces as high as 40% you know relative humidity with wood moisture content in the wood really high, which leads would indicate fungus mold and a lot of other things you don’t want your crawlspace so this is a method to handles all that you know if you have standing water in your crawlspace we can install a sump pump, put an in total encapsulation in there that way if any water does get in your crawlspace it goes Under the membrane is pumped out through the sump pump, and it keeps your crawlspace nice and dry. So a lot of good benefits crawlspace encapsulation, there’s a lot of different ways to do it some better than others. But that’s the basic of a crawlspace encapsulation.
And so what are the big benefits and protections as a homeowner? I mean, does it help with pests? Does it help with termites does it help with with vermin and rodents? Does? Is it all just about moisture? What all can this do for me?
Well, it is mostly for the most part about moisture because the majority of crawl spaces, I’m going to say in my personal history, probably 80% of the crawl spaces I go under have inadequate ventilation and they’re too wet. We use a moisture meter when we do inspections just to see the wood moisture content. Anything above 15% mold and fungus can grow. And the majority of what we see like I said over 80% is in that range and you From 15 to 40%, so we want to get it dried out. Now we do other things other than encapsulation. So we try to find the most affordable solution to that particular problem. Not everyone needs an encapsulation. But if they have an underground water source, it’s coming up under their house if they have water seeping around their foundation if they have fungus growing on their floor Joy’s fungus and mold release spores and those spores become airborne. And the when your heating air unit turns on up in the house, it creates suction through where the filter goes that air return. And you probably noticed sometimes it’ll pull your doors closed in the bedroom or something you know when there turns out that suction will let suction also pulls air from the crawlspace around pipes, wires, little cracks in the floor cracks around the baseboard. Any little opening they can find that air will come up through and it can contain those mold and fungus spores. A lot of people Have runny noses and costs and respiratory distress and don’t really know why. And it’s because of that unhealthy air being pulled into their home. Recently we had a lady compensated when she was in her bedroom. She kept having this musty smell but it was only when the heat was on. So went and investigated sure enough for crawlspace is really wet and musty. And I noticed some light coming into the crawlspace from under the bathroom, I could see the pipes coming down, crawled under and looked there was a hole that was about 12 inches wide and 14 inches long, where the plumbing came down from a jetted tub that was in the bedroom or in the bathroom rather adjacent to her bedroom. So I went back up in the house and I opened up the doors under the jetted tub and I could see right down into the crawlspace and when the heat turned down, it would pull air from the crawlspace up into the bathroom into her bedroom, and she got that musty smell along with Whatever else came up the spores and all kinds of things. So we seal that opening, and did air sealing all under crawlspace and solve that problem cost a couple hundred dollars. So there’s all kinds of solutions that don’t cost a lot of money. And we’re all about that we want to help our customers we don’t want to take anybody to the cleaners we want to solve their problem is in as affordably as we can. Sometimes though, encapsulation is the best solution to solve the problem.
Well, I know, people with crawl spaces, and the homes I’ve owned over the years, didn’t have that, in fact, probably when I bought my first home, never heard of it. And it’s so right. I know, I have a friend and a client who’s in mold remediation, and mold and especially black mold, can can be harmful to people’s health harmful to everybody in the house and it can destroy the home. So that moisture is something you can ignore now You go out and inspect and put together a quote for somebody interested in getting a crawlspace and encapsulation absolutely, if you’ve got any moisture issues at all, we can come out and do a free evaluation we can check out the house take moisture readings and let you know exactly what’s going on in your crawlspace and then come up with the most affordable solution to solve that problem. So there’s no no obligation just give us a ring we come out we check it out. And and we’re perfectly honest with you. We don’t try to upsell you on something you don’t need. We want to give you the best solution for you that fits with your budget and will permanently solve your problem.
Well, it sounds like the pest experts in Chattanooga, Eric Gardner are the moisture and and the other type of pests so spores and mold and all the things that people don’t think about it but you know, most people have their air units in their crawlspace. A lot of people have the whole system down there and it is just pulling off Have those horrible things into your breathing space? And you know what if you don’t if you ignore it, it could be the reason that you’re having all these challenges. So call Eric at volunteer at a pest Chattanooga pest Termite and Pest Control calm. And be sure to subscribe to this podcast where you’re going to get helpful tips every month, absolutely free from the pest expert Eric gardener at volunteer at a pest. You can subscribe to us on Apple, Google, Spotify and any places where podcasts are published. We are there. We’re online. And we want you to share our content and our information to help you more importantly, you got any problems you get in touch with Eric Gardner at volunteer rinderpest until next time, Eric. Have a great month.
