Recently asked a question on our five crawl space encapsulation mistakes video that you should avoid. He was asking which do we recommend, insulation being put back into the subfloor, and I’m assuming a fiberglass insulation or a rock wool insulation, or is it best to insulate the walls? Here was the answer that I gave him. We prefer insulating the walls of the crawl space with our R10 termite resistant foam board. The reason why is, number one, our foam board is designed to be under the ground, so if it gets wet, if it gets dirty, it’s okay. It’s termite resistant. It’s not going to allow the termites to climb up the wall. It’s okay. If you ever get a leak down in the crawl space you don’t have to replace it. Unlike fiberglass insulation. If it becomes wet, you’re supposed to instantly replace it because it loses its R value. Number two is, fiberglass or rock wool insulation is a great place for critters to be housed.
If you got a potential possum or mice or things like that, they’re going to go to that insulation and live in there. The third thing is, we also like to be able to see the subfloor. Insulation hides a lot of things. I was just in a house yesterday where there was a condensation line coming from the second story of the house down through the main floor into the crawl space from the heating and air unit. There was a 45 degree elbow that was leaking and we didn’t even know it was leaking because it was hidden behind the insulation that was up in the subfloor. The fourth thing is, if you ever do get a leak the subfloor installation is going to keep tat water from being evaporated and dried faster.
If you get a toilet leak or some pinhole in the copper line or something like that, the insulation will hide that leak and can rot out the subfloor. Having the subfloor exposed will actually give you an opportunity to see the link on the vapor barrier, which is nice. Of course, the fifth thing that we run into is normally there’s less wall space than floor space, which means that it’s less expensive to insulate the perimeter or the wall of the crawl space versus the subfloor with any type of insulation.
Great question Lawrence. We really appreciate you writing us. If you have a question be sure to just ask us in our comments below or, of course, you can go to our website. We got our live chat going there. You can ask us questions whether we’re online or offline. I hope you like this video. I hope it answers some questions that you might have in the future. Thanks again and make it a blessed day.
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