Bare dirt or torn plastic under your house? We seal plastic over the ground so less moisture and soil gas rises into your home.
Vapor barrier installation lays plastic over the dirt floor of your crawlspace, and for West Lafayette homeowners a well-installed one helps keep ground moisture and soil gases from rising into the house.
Most people call because the crawlspace smells musty, the floors over it feel cold, or they finally looked down there and found bare dirt or old plastic shoved into a corner. The price mostly follows how big the crawlspace is, how low and tight it is to work in, whether the old plastic gets repaired or covered, and how heavy a plastic you pick. The schedule turns on what has to be fixed before any plastic goes down and whether a permit comes into it, and when I come out for the estimate you get the figure for your house. If the floors still feel cold once the ground is covered, crawl space insulation is usually the next thing to look at.
I'm the one who comes out to look at your crawlspace and give you the estimate, and I work alongside our crew on the install. So the person who spotted the loose seam by your furnace is the same one under your house when it gets taped down.
We've been at this for 3 years, and we're best known for attics and air sealing, the parts nobody sees. I care about doing the work in the right order, and I'd rather tell you a job isn't worth doing than sell it to you.
We're fully licensed and insured, which matters when a crew is working under your house next to the pipes, wiring and ductwork. When you're ready, call (765) 250-8264 or send the form, and I'll set up a time to come take a look.
We reply within one business day, and I'll set a time to come out, look at your crawlspace and give you a free estimate with no obligation. It helps if you know roughly how big the crawlspace is, whether there's plastic down there now, and any standing water or mold you've seen.
The city's Building Department issues permits for new construction, structural changes and electrical work, and vapor barrier work isn't on that list, so whether your job needs one isn't settled there, and the Building Department is the place to ask. We check which office covers your address, since city limits change who you deal with, and we handle the permit side with that office when your job calls for one. If a city permit does come into it, the city won't issue it until the contractor's bonds are on file, and in the New Chauncey Historical District the plans also go to the Department of Development and the Historic Preservation Committee before the Building Department reviews them, so plan for that extra step.
We're based in West Lafayette and do the same work across the cities around it, including Lafayette, Crawfordsville, Frankfort and Monticello. A lot of the crawlspaces we get into sit under older houses, where somebody laid thin plastic long ago and it has since been pushed aside by plumbers, cable installers and storage boxes.
A basic vapor barrier, plastic over the dirt floor only, usually costs about $0.50 to $1.50 per square foot across the US. That's the going rate for plain coverage, not our price, and heavier plastic, a tight crawlspace or water and mold to fix first will move a job past it. I give you the figure for your house after I've been down there.
Yes, the plastic ground cover belongs in a crawlspace whether it's vented or not. Vents move air, but they don't stop moisture coming up out of the dirt, so if yours has no plastic, plan on putting some down.
If the old plastic is 6-mil and only unsealed at the seams or loose from the walls and piers, taping and fastening it may be enough. A new sealed and secured layer laid over it is the more durable fix, so it's worth comparing both before you pick.
Standing water, mold, rotten wood or anything hazardous down there should be dealt with before the new barrier goes in, so if you've seen any of it, build that work into your schedule and budget. Stored items and debris come out too so the plastic can cover the ground, and clearing what you can before we arrive helps the crew.
Not on its own, because a barrier helps keep soil gases like radon down but it isn't radon reduction. In Indiana, anyone doing radon testing or radon reduction in a home has to be certified by the Indiana State Department of Health, so that work goes to a certified tester or mitigator.
