Cold floors, a musty smell or damp dirt under the house? We cover the crawl space ground fully so less moisture comes up.
A crawl space vapor barrier is a plastic ground cover laid over all of the dirt under your house. In Rochester we put them in to help keep ground moisture and soil gases such as radon from working up into the rooms above.
Most people call because of something they notice upstairs. It might be cold floors, a musty smell that comes and goes, or a crawl space that looks damp every time someone opens the hatch. Bare dirt keeps giving off moisture, and that damp air ends up in your floor framing, your insulation and the air you breathe, so covering it is usually the simplest fix that reaches the cause.
The price moves with the size of the crawl space, how much stuff and debris has to come out, which sheet you pick and how much wall gets covered. The schedule mostly turns on what I find down there, because water or high humidity can mean another job goes first. The estimate I write up after my visit gives you your own number.
This job depends on what's under your floor, so the first step is someone going down there and looking. Here's who does what.
I come out for the estimate myself, and I've been working in lived-in houses since 2017. I check the humidity, the ducts and pipes and any sign of water, because those decide whether a ground cover is the whole job or just part of it.
You get a written estimate that says what I found and what I'd do about it. If water needs fixing first, it says so, instead of pricing plastic over a puddle.
We're licensed and insured. Once you say yes, our install crew does the work, I'm on the job to check the seams and edges before they're hidden, and we walk you through what we did before we leave.
We start by reading the humidity and looking at the ducts and pipes. A ground cover handles damp air coming up from the dirt, not standing water, so if water's the trouble I'll tell you it needs fixing before we lay anything. When the space checks out, we clear it, cover the ground and seal the edges, in that order.
Some houses need more than the crawl space. If you want moisture control somewhere else in the house, that's our vapor barrier installation work. Damp air from below tends to rise through the house and leave through the top, so attic air sealing is often the other half of the fix.
Once you've said yes to the estimate, the work goes in this order.
Stored items and debris come out as needed, because the cover only works if it reaches all of the ground. If you plan to put things back down there, tell us, since that changes which sheet makes sense.
One trade writer suggests a thicker sheet may be the better choice when you keep storage below or have equipment that gets serviced there, because knees and boxes are hard on thin plastic. Federal weatherization guidance calls for at least 6-mil plastic, so ask what thickness each quote you get includes.
We lay the plastic over the whole floor, tape the seams and run it up the walls. When humidity stays high over a cover that's already in, a gap, a tear or a bare wall is more likely the cause than the plastic itself, which is why I check those spots before we're done.
We haul out the scraps and whatever debris came off the floor, and we keep the dirt out of your rooms going in and out. The crawl space is the only part of the house that's supposed to be dirty.
Send the form or call (507) 512-1787, and we'll reply within one business day to set up a visit. I come out, look over the crawl space and write up an estimate that's free, done on site, and comes with no pressure and no obligation. It helps if you can tell us about any water, sweating ducts, humidity readings and what you keep stored down there.
(507) 512-1787Across the US, a crawl space vapor barrier on its own usually costs about $1,200 to $4,000 per job. That's the market's range, not our price, and it covers the ground cover alone, not a water repair or full encapsulation. Your own figure comes from the estimate after I've been down there.
No, a flooded or always-wet crawl space needs its water source fixed first. Plan the water repair as the first job and the ground cover as the second, once the ground is damp rather than wet.
If your ducts and pipes show condensation or the humidity reads high, full encapsulation, which seals the vents and adds a dehumidifier, usually does more than a ground cover alone. A humidity reading and a look at the ducts tell you which of the two jobs to price. If the readings are fine, I'd put the money into a good cover and stop there.
Rochester requires homeowners and occupants of single-family houses to get permits for work they do themselves, and the city's code requires residential building contractors to be licensed with the State of Minnesota. When you hire us, we check with the city or county office that covers your address before work starts, and if our part of the job needs a permit, we take care of it. For your own questions, the city's Community Development office has Permit Guides at 507-328-2600.
We're based in Rochester and also work in Byron, Stewartville, Kasson and other cities around it. A lot of the crawl spaces we see sit under older houses, additions and porches, and many of them have bare dirt and a few decades of somebody else's storage.
Since a sealed ground cover helps cut down soil gases such as radon, it's worth knowing that the city's building permits page lists free radon test kits from Olmsted County Public Health. If your job is permitted, the city's Building Safety Department reviews it and inspects the work.
Call (507) 512-1787 or use the contact form to book a visit, because it's satisfaction guaranteed on every job.
If you're not sure what's going on under your floor, call or send a message and I'll come take a look.
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