Cold Winter in the Southeast Ahead

Winter weather with its cold temperatures and biting wind comes whether we like it or not, and this winter is predicted to be a cold, snowy one in the Southeast.  As homeowners, we have our Autumn checklist of things we need to do to prepare our homes for winter, things like making sure windows are sealed, checking attic insulation and scheduling preventive maintenance for our heating units.

But with the anticipation of a colder than normal winter, this may be the year to take it a bit further to ensure your home stays toasty warm.  Rooms of your home that are over a crawl space, specifically one that is not encapsulated and adequately insulated, often have very cold floors in the winter.  The cold winter air from outside is coming in through the crawl space vents and into the crawl space area where it is making the ceiling of the crawl space cold.  This ceiling is the exact same sheet of plywood that makes up the subfloor in your living area.  In an unsealed, poorly insulated crawl space, what separates your feet from the cold winter temperatures is a sheet of plywood and your floor covering. No wonder why your feet are cold in the winter!

It is not wise to just close the vents and throw some fiberglass insulation up under the subfloor.  That creates a whole different problem in the summer in the hot, humid south.  In short it causes a humid swamp-like environment in the crawl space where the lumber that is holding up your home lives.  Lumber doesn’t like humidity, but mold does, so the prolonged end result is a moldy environment where the wood that holds up the structure of your home softens, rots and fails.

CleanSpace Crawl Space Encapsulation System plus perimeter insulation is the right solution for the problem of cold floors in the winter and it also solves the summer problem too, so fixing your crawl space right is good for your home all year round. Not sure if this is a problem in your home or where to start?  Give us a call, we can help.