When Tom and I bought our house in 2020, we didn’t think much about it having a crawl space.  Our home in Mogadore had a partial basement with an attached crawl space.  The house inspection didn’t show anything wrong with it.  Tom and I noticed a slight musty odor when we first went into the house, but the owner said it was because the house had been closed up for a while.

The house did, however, have a radon problem.  When we called radon mitigation companies, they said they couldn’t do anything until the crawl space was encapsulated.  It sounded expensive, and Tom and I didn’t want to spend more money at the time.  So Tom rigged up a radon removal system that has worked pretty well with a couple of fans.

Then last summer we found mold all over the kitchen and in several other rooms of the house.  We had been gone for a couple of months and turned off the air conditioning.  July had been particularly wet and the dampness in the crawl space caused the mold to grow, particularly in cabinets and closets.  I cleaned and bleached all of it and we left a fan on when we went back to Cumberland Gap.  But we knew it was time to take care of the crawl space.

Building on a crawl space is the least expensive method of building a home.  A basement adds costs as does a concrete slab.  Our home was owner built – and it has good bones – but one of the cost saving measures was building on a crawl space.  Although our crawl space was mostly dry, it was bare dirt under the house.  Tom was the only one brave enough to go down there and it was very nasty.  Moldy and damp insulation and a light layer of plastic that had degraded over time.

When Tom and I were watching television one night, we saw a commercial for Mid-State Basement Systems in which they encapsulated a crawl space.  It looked beautiful when they were done.  I read their reviews:  600 five-star reviews on Google!  I especially like their motto, “All things basementy!”

After some discussion, and some good advice from my dad, I called them.  Jacob, their estimator, came out the same day.  He did a thorough examination of the crawl space and printed out an estimate, a diagram, and a list of items to address while he was there.  We were really impressed with his professionalism and care.  Tom and I talked about it, made a few modifications, and then signed on the dotted line.

The first week in May, bright and early and exactly on time, the crew showed up.  The first challenge with our crawl space was the trench around the edge.  It was much deeper than most crawl spaces.  The team from Mid-State needed to fill in the trench until it was a more standard height.  This meant they had to haul in gravel one bucket at a time.  Although they cut an egress into the side of the crawl space, there wasn’t enough room for a wheelbarrow.  They ended up putting in 12 tons of gravel but they got it all done in one day.  I’m sure the team was exhausted afterward.

While they were filling the trench, they also installed pipe and a sump pump.  This way, if the crawl space gets water in it, it will flow through the pipe to the sump and be pumped out.  They also tore out the old insulation and a few other odds and ends that had found a home in the crawl space.

On the second day they installed new insulation on the concrete block walls.  Then they added a dimpled polyethylene membrane that will allow water to move from the dirt to the pipes.  The third day they laid down a 20 mil plastic liner and sealed it to the basement walls.  The team covered all the vents, installed the new door to the crawl space, and plugged in the sump pump.

Tom and I could tell a difference almost immediately.  The slight musty odor was gone, even on the rainiest days.  The house feels drier and it holding its heat better because the vent covers have sealed off the outside air.  Tom is even willing to get down in the crawl space and crawl around because it isn’t nasty and dirty anymore.  The radon has been significantly reduced, so we are just running one fan instead of two.

Getting the crawl space encapsulated was an expensive proposition, but the team at Mid-State Basement Systems made it as painless as possible.  The crew that worked on the crawl space were cheerful, friendly, and explained each step carefully.  You can bet that I left my own five-star review!  This will make our home better now and in the future.