What Is Crawl Space Waterproofing?

Waterproofing is a system designed to redirect groundwater that is entering your crawl space, either straight out of the crawl space or to a sump pump where it can be pumped out.

It is not the same thing as an encapsulation. A lot of people confuse the two, including some crawl space contractors, and that confusion costs homeowners real money.

Why an encapsulation will not stop your water

When we install an encapsulation, for all intents and purposes we are building a Ziploc bag underneath your house.

But nobody manufactured a custom Ziploc bag shaped to fit your home. So we bend, cut, form and piece together multiple sections of vapor barrier to fit around your foundation walls, your piers and whatever else is down there.

Those seams and small gaps can let bulk water in. An encapsulation helps. It solves a humidity problem completely. But it does not eliminate groundwater and it should never be sold to you as waterproofing.

What a waterproofing system actually is

An internal French drain. It is a channel that catches water entering your crawl space and gives it somewhere to go, either directly out or to a sump pump that pushes it out.

The product we install is ProFlow 2000. It moves seventy percent more water eighty percent faster than traditional corrugated pipe. It also carries a lifetime guarantee that it will not deteriorate and will not get clogged with roots or dirt.

That last part matters more than the flow numbers. The common failure with a French drain is not that it stops working on day one. It is that three years later it is packed with roots and silt and nobody knows, because nobody goes under there. Once this one is installed it will be there for the remainder of our time on this planet.

How to know which one you need

It depends on where the water is coming from.

• Humidity condensing on cool surfaces. An encapsulation solves this, because we isolate the environment and then control it with a dehumidifier.

• Bulk groundwater coming in under your footer or through the foundation walls. You need waterproofing. This is hydrostatic pressure, which is a fancy way of saying water takes the path of least resistance.

• Water coming straight in through vents that sit low to the ground. Usually a grading and drainage conversation before it is a crawl space one.

• A broken or leaking pipe. That is a plumber, and I will tell you so.

  
  

Plenty of houses need both

If you have bulk water and a humidity problem, the water comes first. There is no sense controlling an environment that is still filling up.

That also means the work can be split across your budget if it needs to be. French drain now, encapsulation later. Each piece is complete on its own.

If you have water under your house, call me at 910 580 1836. I will find where it is coming from before anybody talks about price.