Crawl space spray foam insulation in Redcliff is mostly work under additions. About 62% of the town's homes predate 1991, and in a town where people have extended the house they already own rather than buying a different one, the crawl space is usually not under the original building at all. It is under the kitchen that was pushed out the back, the bedroom added on the side, or the porch that got enclosed. And in almost every case it was built as a separate hole in the ground with no connection to the basement next to it.
An isolated crawl space is outdoors with a lid on it
That is the whole problem. A crawl space that opens into the basement shares the basement's temperature and is part of the house whether anybody insulated it or not. A crawl space walled off from the basement, with vents to the outside and no heat, is an exterior space sitting directly under a finished floor. The floor above it is then an exterior floor, and it was almost certainly built as an interior one: a few inches of batt pushed between the joists, sagging out of half of them, and nothing sealing the perimeter.
The symptom is specific and recognisable. One room in the house has a cold floor and will not hold temperature, and it is always the newer room. People assume the addition was badly built. More often the addition was built exactly as additions were built, and nobody decided whether the space below it was inside or outside.
Pick one and build it
An insulated crawl space is either sealed and brought inside the envelope, or vented and left outside with the floor above insulated. Both work. Half of each does not.
Bringing it inside is usually the better answer in this stock. Closed-cell goes on the interior face of the crawl walls, carried up over the rim and down onto the footing, the vents are closed, and the ground is covered with a sealed vapour membrane. The space then runs at close to house temperature, the floor above stops being cold, and the plumbing in it stops being at risk. Leaving it outside means spraying the underside of the floor and sealing the perimeter band, which is the right call if the space is too shallow to work in or is wet.
Dry belt does not mean dry ground
Semi-arid weather tempts people to skip the ground cover. It should not be skipped. Soil moisture evaporates into the crawl space continuously, condenses on the coldest surfaces up in the joists, and does it out of sight. Irrigated landscaping right against the foundation makes it worse, and around here that irrigation runs all summer by design. The membrane is cheap and it is not optional.
The junction nobody closes
Where the addition's crawl meets the original foundation wall there is a joint, and it leaks. Often there is a gap, a service penetration, or a ledge where two different foundations meet at two different depths. That junction is the single most useful square metre of foam on the job and it takes a crew that goes looking for it.
Who quotes it and who sprays it
Crawl space spray foam insulation Redcliff gets handled by us from the walk-through onward. We quote and manage it, and our own installers apply the foam.
Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Redcliff: Common Questions
Why is only the back room's floor cold? Because the back room is over an isolated crawl space that is effectively outdoors, while the rest of the house is over a basement that is not.
Should the crawl space be sealed up or left vented? One or the other, decided deliberately. In this stock sealing it and bringing it inside the envelope usually gives the better result and protects the plumbing.
Do we need plastic on the dirt floor? Yes. Soil gives off moisture whatever the weather is doing above ground, and in a sealed crawl space that water has nowhere to go but up into the framing.
How much does crawl space spray foam insulation cost in Redcliff? Priced per board foot of sprayed area, so it follows wall perimeter and height for a sealed crawl, or floor area for a vented one. Headroom is the other factor, because a very shallow space is slow to work in.
How do I choose a crawl space spray foam contractor in Redcliff? Ask whether they intend to seal it or vent it, and what they will do where the addition's foundation meets the original. Both answers tell you whether they have been under the house.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Redcliff quote. More on Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.