Crawl space spray foam insulation in Sherwood Park turns up in two specific places. One is the addition built onto a bungalow at some point after the house went up. The other is out in Strathcona County, on the acreages and older rural properties beyond the built-up area. Very few of the main subdivisions have one.
The addition is where the crawl space usually is
A family room, a back extension or a converted porch added to a seventies house was frequently built over a shallow crawl space rather than a full basement, because that was cheaper and quicker. It was also built to whatever standard applied to an addition at the time, which is to say a vented void with insulation between the floor joists and not much else. That is why one room in an otherwise comfortable Sherwood Park house has a cold floor and the rest do not.
Insulation between the joists is not the same as a sealed space
The common existing condition is batt pushed up between the floor joists, sometimes held with wire, often fallen in places. With cold air still moving freely underneath it, that material does far less than its rating suggests, and where it is in contact with a damp floor structure it holds moisture against it. Moving the insulation from the floor above down to the perimeter walls, and closing the space off, is what changes the room.
Sealed, not vented, and the ground goes first
The old approach was to vent a crawl space year round on the theory that airflow keeps it dry. In this climate it does the opposite for most of the year: it brings cold air in all winter and humid air in all summer. The current approach is to seal it and bring it inside the building envelope, and that starts with a sealed barrier over the ground, because bare earth releases moisture continuously and closing a space over it without covering it produces damp instead of cold.
Freeze risk in a nine-month heating season
Plumbing in an addition is often run through exactly this space, and here that pipe is in a void open to the air for months at a stretch with no warm spell to relieve it. That is a different exposure from the same pipe further south, and it is why on several of these jobs the freeze risk rather than the comfort is the reason the work gets done at all.
Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Sherwood Park: Common Questions
Only one room in our house has cold floors. Why? It is usually over an addition built on a crawl space rather than over the basement.
Is insulation between the joists already enough? With cold air moving below it, it does little, and against a damp floor structure it can do harm.
Should the vents stay open? No. The space gets sealed and brought inside the envelope, starting with a barrier over the ground.
Is a vapour barrier the same thing? No. A ground barrier controls moisture; the thermal barrier over the foam in a Sherwood Park crawl space is a fire requirement and they are separate items.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Sherwood Park quote. More on Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Alberta.