Protect Your Crawl Space with CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier

Does your home have a musty odor or excess humidity? Have you ever found mold or mildew in the crawl space of your home? Has your crawl space ever flooded? Are the support beams in your crawl space sagging or buckling? Are your floors sagging, bouncy, or creaking? Do you wish your home had more storage space?  

If you have experienced any of these issues before, then your crawl space needs repair and encapsulation to preserve the structural integrity of your home. Luckily, our crawl space repair solution, CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier, will protect your crawl space from mold, mildew, excess moisture, pests, and wood rot while transforming it into a dry, usable storage space.  

CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier 

CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier is a durable, white crawl space liner that can be quickly and easily installed into the walls and floors of your crawl space with pegs. It is 20-mil poly-reinforced to prevent water vapor or humidity from penetrating your crawl space. Another excellent feature of the CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier is that it contains a mold-resistant additive called “Ultra Fresh” to safeguard your crawl space against any future mold or mildew infestations.  

Install CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier to convert your crawl space into a dry, clean, and bright storage space that protects your home’s foundation. The CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier is an integral part of our Crawl Space Encapsulation System that reduces crawl space repair costs in the long term by providing permanent solutions to crawl space damages.  

Threats to Your Crawl Space 

When a crawl space is damp or wet from excess moisture, humidity, leaks, or flooding, it becomes a breeding ground for: 

• MOLD 
• MILDEW 
• WOOD ROT 
• PESTS

Mold 

Mold is a type of fungus that grows in fuzzy patches that can range from black, green, blue, or gray colors on wet and damp surfaces. It can grow on any organic material and damages its host. Mold is even more likely to grow in a damp or wet space that is also dark. Since most crawl spaces are dark spaces that lack a light source, they are even more vulnerable to mold infestations than other parts of your home.  

Not only is mold a threat to the surfaces of your home, but it is a threat to the health of those living in the home. Mold exposure can cause allergies, colds, allergic reactions, asthma attacks, or even respiratory infections. Signs that there is mold growing in your crawl space are an earthy or musty smell, warping, cracking, or peeling, moist air, and or visible patches of mold.  

Mildew 

Mildew is a specific type of mold that appears as a thin, flat growth. In its early stages, mildew is white but turns brown or gray in its later stages. Like mold, it also thrives on wet and damp environments, grows on organic materials, and damages its host (although at times it can be easier to remove than mold). In your home, mildew most often grows in your bathrooms, kitchen, or crawl space.  

Mildew raises the same health concerns that are associated with mold. Signs that there is mildew growing in your crawl space are an earthy or musty smell, warping, cracking, or peeling, moist air, and or visible patches of mildew. Once the mold or mildew is removed, installing CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier to your crawl space will help to prevent future growths with its highly effective mold-resistant additive “Ultra Fresh.” 

Wood Rot in Your Crawl Space 

Wood rot is a natural phenomenon in which wood decomposes or decays. This process is triggered by the presence of moisture and fungus. There are three types of wood rot to look out for: brown rot, white rot, and soft rot.  

Brown rot occurs when fungi destroy the cellulose of the wood, causing the wood to shrink, become a deep brown color, appear dry and powdery, and break down into smaller pieces. It is often referred to as “dry rot” because of the dry appearance of the rotting wood. 

White rot occurs when fungi break down the lignin of the wood, leaving behind white or light-yellow colored cellulose and giving the surface of the wood a spongy appearance. 

Soft rot occurs when fungi slowly decompose the cellulose of the wood, creating a honeycomb-shaped texture on the surface of the wood. This is the rarest of the three types of wood rot. 

Signs of rotting wood in your crawl space are excess moisture and humidity, discoloration in the wood, presence of mold or mildew, soft or swelling wood, and earthy or musty smells. Unfortunately, if your crawl space is already suffering from wood rot, the wood may need to be replaced if it is severely damaged. CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier will keep excess moisture, humidity, and fungi out of your crawl space to prevent wood rot. 

Pests

In Texas, the pests that you would most commonly discover in your home are scorpions, ants, mosquitos, rats, wasps, termites, cockroaches, and spiders. It can be creepy and concerning to see any one of these critters in your home because a few of them are poisonous, some will chew or damage your things, and others carry bacteria and diseases. An unsealed, open crawl space is susceptible to pest infestations, which can infiltrate the rest of your home.  

It is important to keep your crawl space clean and dry with CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier because many pests are attracted to organic matter and most need moisture or water to survive. Additionally, sealing your crawl space will close off any gaps or obvious entryways, such as soil or gaps around your piping, for insects or rodents to sneak in from. Not only will CleanSpace® Vapor Barrier protect your home against fungi like mold, mildew, and wood rot, but it will protect your home from unwanted guests entering through your crawl space.  

Protect Your Crawl Space with Baird Foundation Repair

At Baird Foundation Repair, we use the best crawl space solutions available across the nation. We proudly service San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, Austin, and surrounding areas. If you want to protect and enhance your crawl space and the foundation of your home, then contact Baird Foundation Repair today.