Crawl Space Repair Before & After Photos

The grated, open vents seen at the bottom of the house in the before photo of this West Branch, MI summer home were allowing a lot of moisture to enter the crawl space. The home was built near a lake, and as a result, the soil around the house was very damp. Even the well surrounded well wasn’t much of a match for the damp soil. So much moisture had gotten into the crawl space that the existing vapor barrier was starting to fail. There is really no need for open vents in crawl space, so when the homeowners called us for a solution, our crew went out and installed 6 of the vent covers seen in the after photo. Our vent covers are installed with an airtight seal that won’t allow moisture or humidity to get inside of the crawl space. Not only will they help keep the vapor barrier in the crawl space in better condition, they will also help in the fight against mold, humidity, and even pests that may try to use crawl spaces as homes. 

The owners of this home knew they had to do something when the walls of their crawl space started leaking. The best solution for combating moisture in the crawl space and preventing mold growth is a CleanSpace liner.  This liner is 20mil thick, made of many layers of polyester cord reinforcement, making it durable and virtually resistant to tears. CleanSpace is also manufactured with an antimicrobial additive, so no matter how wet the back of the liner gets, no mold will grow. The liner is fixed to the walls, providing a permanent solution to keeping moisture out of crawl space, giving these homeowners peace of mind.

Christopher & Christine, homeowners and past clients of ours from West Branch, MI had been struggling with a constantly wet crawl space. They knew that living right near a marshland and having an old unreliable sump pump was not helping their crawlspace concerns. After having their cement Poly-Leveled by Ayers the couple was highly impressed and began planning for our return trip to address their crawl space.

Upon scheduling an appointment and assessing Christopher & Christine’s crawl space needs, we recommended our CleanSpace crawl space encapsulation system to help resolve the issues in their crawl space. The CleanSpace encapsulation product is a super thick durable plastic lining that fully seals off the crawl space from the harsh elements it faces below. To supplement the CleanSpace, we also installed the CleanSpace drainage mat to ensure maximum water drainage to the sump pump. With the couple having a broken sump pump, a Triple Safe sump pump was also highly necessary. TripleSafe is a safeguard feature that includes the use of three pumps to ensure this basement will stay dry, even in power outages and severe weather events. In the case of heavy water or primary pump failure, the second and more powerful pump will kick in, if there is a power outage the battery powered UltraSump will take over.

Additionally our friends elected for us to install SilverGlo wall paneling. SilverGlo panels are constructed very differently than other types of insulation. These panels contain tiny graphite particles that permeate its foam insulation; this is what gives the panel that silver shine. These tiny particles serve a functional purpose besides just looks; they reflect heat and lower the material's conductivity for superior R-value insulation. Thanks to this complete crawl space renovation, living near a marshland is no longer a sweat for Christopher & Christine.

A system design specialist of ours met with a Hale, MI homeowner over a year ago, but he wasn’t ready to commit just yet. As you can see in the before photo, the crawl space already had a tarp floor encapsulation and wall insulation, but unfortunately, those two weren’t getting the job done. When the crawl space showed no sign of improving, the homeowner called us again – ready to go ahead with the installation.

The solution seen in the after photo is our CleanSpace vapor barrier. CleanSpace is an inorganic, plastic liner that is impenetrable by moisture or vapor. The liner is tough enough to protect both the floors and wall without tearing from regular use. This crawl space now has a system it can depend on.

At Ayers no job is too big and in this case, no job is too small either. When Gail gave us a call concerning the smell rising from her 3-feet tall crawl space, our team of specialists were able to tackle the task in a matter of hours. 

We were able to combat the problem by installing CleanSpace liners in combination with the SaniDry Humidifier. The CleanSpace liner is a thick, durable white liner that resembles that of a pool liner. It traps any moisture in the air from penetrating the ground ultimately keeping it dry and mold-free. Pests and other bacteria are also blocked from entering through the liner. 

We also installed the SaniDry Humidifier, a high powered system that keeps the crawl space dry by sucking any remaining moisture out of the air.