Behold the humble crawl space—about 3-4’ high, running underneath the full first floor of the typical Richmond house, pocketed with little vents ever so often, and maybe a small door so someone can literally crawl inside.
A typical house crawl space combines the worst of two worlds. On the one hand, it is essentially open to the outdoors, since it is uninsulated and has vents placed around its perimeter, meaning outdoor temperatures and humidity conditions are essentially brought immediately up against your house’s underbelly. On the other hand, it also acts likes a dark enclosed space, since it receives very limited light and air movement to dry and ventilate the space.
Despite these inhospitable conditions, the typical crawl space is only partially sealed off from a house’s floor, usually with haphazardly installed fiberglass. And the typical crawl space serves as the location for the majority of a house’s heating and cooling equipment, where indifferently assembled and insulated air ducts struggle to bring conditioned air to the interior of the house while the unconditioned crawl attempts to keep this expensive air for itself.
The combination of these features translates into the mold risk, colder floors, and inefficient heating and cooling equipment—in other words, worry for you the homeowner and less money in your pocket.
Naturally, we at Bellevue believe you deserve a Smarter crawlspace, even a Beautiful one. So we treat the crawlspace as a small basement by sealing it off from the elements, insulating it thoroughly, and providing it with a small amount of conditioned air to ensure even temperatures and humidity levels.
The bottom line for the homeowner is peace of mind—your house is exposed to less risk of mold and other moisture related problems—and more money in your pocket, as your heating and air conditioning equipment runs more smoothly when it is running in conditioned space.
Creating a Smart and Beautiful crawlspace costs a bit more, but the real challenge for the homebuilder is delivering the necessary workmanship and attention to detail. Some of those details include…
- Rigid fiberglass insulation around the entire crawlspace interior
- Thick polyethylene plastic laid over the crawl space “floor” and tacked to the crawl space wall, providing a barrier to ground water
- Dual perimeter foundation drains—inside and outside of the crawl space—to keep the entire area as dry as possible
The crawlspace is a critical area that is too often “out of sight, out of mind.” However, in this area of your home, as in many others, “quality doesn’t cost, it pays.”
