Should You Install Vapor Barrier on Crawl Space Ground

hey michael church crawl space ninja today we got a great ask a ninja question from john wells in linton indiana he's getting some conflicting information from his local contractor basically john wants to do encapsulation and the contractor says he doesn't need any vapor barrier or plastic on the ground let's get into it stay tuned great question and if you're new to crawl space ninja we talk about everything related to basements addicts crawl spaces and ductwork so we hope you'll subscribe to our channel and ring that notifications bell so here's the question john had from linton indiana i purchased plastic tape and fasteners from you on the diy store to encapsulate my crawl space my carpenter advises against putting down the plastic for fear of what might happen if the ground water were to come up underneath i have insulated the foundation and sealed the vents i have crawl space interior perimeter perforated perforated tile uh and two sump pumps so in other words he's put down probably like an nds uh pipe or some kind of piping around the perimeter of the crawl space and he has two sump pumps installed i plan to install a dehumidifier isn't all for not if you don't put plastic down your thoughts on the ground uh water concern and you know what john yes i would agree with your uh with your statement that i believe it is all for naught okay and the reason why i say that is there's a lot of competitors out there that will actually just do a a perimeter trench and a sump pump or two and not put vapor barrier or not redo the plastic okay and i think that's a mistake the plastic is part of the waterproofing okay just like if you have a basement if if you have concrete down right and the walls uh are are giving up moisture let's say the foundation is giving up moisture and you know a lot of waterproofing companies and basements will jackhammer around the interior perimeter they'll put a trench with a perforated pipe or sewer and drain pipe or something like that leading to a sump pump imagine if they didn't pour the concrete back okay and you just got this open trough in your basement well if the water comes in too quickly for the water to be discharged through the sump pump it can flood the concrete and then the concrete will have standing water on top of it i feel the same way about the plastic the vapor barrier that is in the crawl space okay not not just lay it down you can't just lay the plastic down on the floor loosely if you've got a standing water if you've got flooding problems in your crawl space part of the encapsulation needs to be or part of the the fix for that needs to be plastic overlapped taped and mechanically attached to the foundation wall because that way it'll keep the plastic from shifting and moving on you but the plastic becomes part of the resolution to get the water into the sump pump and to keep it into the sump pump okay not that the plastic may float it may float a little bit even if it floats some that's fine but if the water ever gets on top of the plastic it'll never make its way into the uh the sump pump and if you get water past the trench so let's say you did what your contractor says and water goes past the trench and gets on the center part of the floor in the crawl space well now you just got a huge humidity problem and your dehumidifier will never stop running remember part of the plastic's job is to keep that moisture underneath so that the dehumidifier can run and that that moisture eventually can be absorbed back into the ground if you do take on a lot of flooding so that's a great question i hope that answers your question but i've got a question for all of you out there and this is a little bit of market research but if you don't mind first of all if you got a comment about what i said about the standing water love to hear from you down below in the comments section i know we got a lot of professionals out there that are that are doing what we do and we got a lot of diy-ers that are doing what we do so we'd love to hear some of the comments to help john out in that but i got a question for all of you the the last major project that you hired a contractor for and you chose the cheapest price did you regret that decision choosing the cheapest contractor or did you have a good decision my name is michael church with crawl space ninja we hope you make it a happy and blessed day and we'll see you later

Channel: Crawl Space Ninja & Basement Ninja

Views: 44,343

Keywords: Should You install Vapor Barrier on Crawl Space Ground, Should You install Vapor Barrier on Crawl Space floor, crawl space vapor barrier installation, crawl space vapor barrier diy, crawl space vapor barrier installation diy, crawl space vapor barrier vs encapsulation, crawl space vapor barrier tape, crawl space vapor barrier plastic

Id: jLsWeqrCUM4

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020