How To Install Moisture Barrier in Crawl Space

hey good morning Chuck here with Apple drains today we are putting a moisture barrier down in the crawl space in this home right here you can see our our six mill plastic this is what we use as a moisture barrier what we're doing is we're unfolding it right now so that we can actually cut it up before we take it down into the crawlspace this crawlspace is very tight not a lot of room in there so we want to do as much work outside getting it prepped and ready to unroll inside before we take it down inside the crawlspace so not a lot of tools required to cut you know our plastic you can see we've got it laid out this is a 2,000 square feet 100 by 20 they've got right at 2,000 square feet inside that house the hard part of course is you know getting it cut to the specs of inside the house which we're going to do right now not a lot of tools required couple pairs of scissors utility knife that cuts it really quick we're going to use these fabric staples to push it down and hold down the fabric to hold down our membrane so today we're going to put on a suit see if it actually makes any difference for less getting all muddy down in there I don't think it's gonna make much difference this is just a painter suit but give it a try so we'll call so we'll call this our hazmat suit we're just going to give it a try it has a hood to so you can like put on the goggles and your mask be all safe and sound inside the crawlspace so what we're doing is we're making some measurements down the crawlspace from the wall to the first set of peers and then we'll make a cut out here on the plastic cut this off roll it up take that in and we'll be able to unroll that let it hit you know fit perfectly between those sections and then we'll pin that bring another section in so on and so forth until we've covered the entire crawlspace so we're cutting right through it just take your Sears your scissors just hold them open you'll be able to cut right down through there no problem at all we need to cut the entire piece of plastic take your time try to keep it straight so you can see that we've cut off about a 10-foot section here we're rolling that up we'll take that down into the crawl space so you can see that we're unrolling our moisture barrier we just got it pinned here where I'm at a lot of light down there where they're at but we're gonna unroll this stretch it out make good and tight then we'll go ahead and pin it and we'll cut around the piers to pull install it so again here's a pier what you do pull it straight up to the pier bring it up the wall so you've got a nice flush surface at the bottom slide down with your shears we're going to do the same thing on the other side pull it tight push a pin in it that sides done let's do the other side pull that tight with the shears to slide it straight down through your plastic at the bottom now we've cut now we've got this area covered really well remember moisture barrier is not encapsulation it doesn't have to be perfect of course you can make it look really good which is what we're trying to do but it's just stopping the moisture from rising up and going into the joist above encapsulation is much different that's a 20 mil plastic it's all sealed you're actually turning your crawlspace into a basement but this is moisture barrier so real straightforward doesn't take long secret is scissors and your pins cut your cut your pieces outside the best you can because once you're in the crawlspace pretty tiny okay so again pure wall scissors pull it tight pull it flush just slide your scissors right through your plastic down to the bottom a little fold right over do the same thing on this side pull it tight it's real simple holds right over you take this piece leave it alone I like to just tuck it up under take a pin go ahead and push it into soil that was done another one over here that was done move on to the next spot so now we're down here with the sump pump you can see here's the riser and a good amount of the roll here I'm just going to guess that two feet coming across the sub pit so somewhere in here will slice across here just cut it right straight across take the excess will use that'll never move it out of the way and if you guess correctly if you guess correctly you'll be able to lay this right out perfect let's go ahead and cut a spot for the top basically you're just making a slice straight down to let it come around the riser and you can see how quick and easy that really is so basically we've covered this whole section let's get a couple of pens and we'll go ahead and pin that really quick I like to start in the corners always nicer to keep it tight in your corners best you can find a good spot for maybe one right here in front of the pit move on in the next spot a couple more pins pull the tight end in the corner tuck it under and we're ready for the next piece of moisture barrier but real simple as you saw to cut around a post like this a riser you just make a slice and it will fold right around it real simple good pens stick them down in the soil we're going to do this side over here next hey this is Chuck with Apple drains reminding you that if you believe you can do something I guarantee you can do it have a great day you

Channel: Apple Drains

Views: 196,795

Keywords: Moisture Barrier, crawl space, waterproofing, tips, How to install moisture barrier, 6 mil plastic moisture barrier, encapsulation, Apple Drains, French Drain, sump pump, check valve

Id: imrHTXtHi0k

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2016