How Can I Tell If My Crawl Space Was Done Well?

By Matthew “Jacko” Jackson  |  CrawlSpace Ops  |  Aprilaire Certified  |  20 years US Army Special Operations

Look at how the materials sit together. A good crawl space job looks flat, smooth and tidy. A bad one looks like somebody threw plastic around under there and left.

You do not need any technical knowledge to run that test. You need a flashlight and about two minutes at the access door.

Why appearance is not a vanity thing

We pride ourselves on making every crawl space as flat, as smooth and as pretty as possible, for two reasons.

The first is that you should not be scared to get in there. It is part of your house. You ought to be able to open that door without dreading what is behind it.

The second is the real one. It shows we cared while we were doing the work. Nobody is watching a contractor under your house. What that space looks like when he leaves is the most honest signal you will ever get about how he worked when nobody could see him.

Sloppy barrier is rarely just sloppy barrier. It usually means corners got cut in places you cannot see at all.

The single fastest tell

Look at the dehumidifier.

If I walk into a house and find a reasonable looking encapsulation with a very cheap or clearly underperforming dehumidifier attached to it, I know immediately that work was not done by a crawl space specialist.

Here is why that combination happens. The barrier is the visible part. It is what the homeowner sees in the after photos. So that is where a general contractor puts the money. The dehumidifier is the part that actually does the work, and it is the part that is easiest to cheap out on, because almost nobody knows how to tell a good one from a bad one.

That mismatch is the signature of somebody who does crawl spaces occasionally rather than somebody who does them every day.

Three more things to look at

• Is there barrier on the walls and the piers, or only on the ground? Ground only is a vapor barrier, not an encapsulation.

• Are the seams tight and sealed, or are there gaps and loose edges where pieces meet?

• Is there any smell? A musty or sharp ammonia type odor in a space that was supposedly encapsulated usually means inferior material is absorbing moisture and breaking down.

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If you find something you do not like

It is fixable. Almost always.

And it is not your fault. Most homeowners have no way to evaluate this work, which is exactly why some contractors get away with it. Finding out later does not mean you were careless. It means the job was sold to you on the assumption you would never look.

Want somebody to actually look at what you have? Call me at 910 580 1836 and I will get under there and show you photos.