How Can I Prevent Freeze-Thaw Damage?

The freeze-thaw effect is something that causes a lot of harm to the interior of your crawl space. The moisture that saturates your concrete, wood, and soil, expands when freezing and tears up your crawl space over time. The damage that results from the freeze-thaw cycle can lead to foundation failure and structural problems like wall cracks, uneven floors, and higher energy bills. To prevent the freeze-thaw effect from ruining your crawl space, there are a few waterproofing solutions you need to invest in: 

Vent Cover and Encapsulation 

Crawl spaces are built with vents, but they really shouldn’t be. Crawl space vents allow water, humidity, and snow into the crawl space, which leads to freeze-thaw damage. In Charlotte, there are 59 days a year that fall to or below freezing, which means that your crawl space is subjected to two months of the freeze-thaw cycle. By closing the vent with a vent cover, you guarantee that rain and snow won’t get through that way. 

Encapsulation entails putting up a vapor barrier that completely covers your crawl space. From the walls, to the floor, to the support columns that underpin your joists, the vapor barrier will cover the crawl space so that it’s completely sealed. This will prevent moisture and water vapor from permeating through. 

Insulation 

To keep the temperature in your crawl space controlled, proper insulation is needed. Many crawl spaces are insulated with fiberglass, but this is a poor insulation material for crawl spaces. Fiberglass is absorbent, so it takes in all the humidity in the crawl space. Over time, the moisture begins to wear the fiberglass down, causing it to deteriorate and leaving the crawl space vulnerable. 

Instead of fiberglass, consider a reflective insulation material like ExTremeBloc™. Instead of absorbing the humidity and heat in the crawl space, it reflects it and causes it to bounce around in the space. It will keep the crawl space warm during the winter and prevent moisture from freezing in your foundation.