Crawl space spray foam insulation in Westlock is nearly always under something that was added on. With roughly four out of five local homes built before 1991, this town has a great many bungalows and farmhouses that grew a back room, a porch or a whole wing at some point, and the addition went on a crawl space rather than a full basement. The original house has a basement, the addition has a crawl, and the cold floor is always in the addition.
The vented crawl space does not work in this climate
The old practice was to put vents through the crawl space wall to let it dry. That logic assumes outdoor air is drier than the air inside, which holds for part of the year and fails badly for the rest. In a winter north of Edmonton where the ground freezes deep and stays frozen with no thaw, those vents simply deliver subzero air into a space with water lines and a bare floor above it. We find them stuffed with rags, insulation or a board, which is the homeowner's correct instinct arriving decades after the fact.
The current approach is to treat the crawl space as part of the house: seal the vents, insulate the perimeter wall and the rim rather than the floor above, and let the space sit at close to house temperature. The ground below gets a sealed ground cover so soil moisture cannot evaporate up into it.
Why the wall and not the ceiling
Insulating the underside of the floor leaves the crawl space itself cold, which keeps the plumbing at risk and leaves the perimeter wall losing heat into frozen ground. It also puts the insulation in the one orientation where batt falls down. Spraying the inside of the perimeter wall and carrying it across the rim brings the whole space inside the thermal envelope, so the floor above is warm because the room below it is warm. That is the difference between a floor that is tolerable and a floor nobody notices.
Frozen lines are an air problem
Almost every frozen water line we see in a crawl space is within a metre of a leak: an open vent, a gap where a duct or a hose bib goes through, the space behind a dryer vent, or the point where the addition's wall meets the original foundation. Cold air is not diffusing in; it is pouring in at a specific place and washing over the pipe. Sealing those paths does more for the line than wrapping it does, and foam reaches the irregular junction between an old foundation and a newer one, which nothing cut to size ever fits.
The crew on your job
For crawl space spray foam insulation Westlock, we quote and manage the whole job and our own installers do the work. The free quote comes from the people who will be on site.
Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Westlock: Common Questions
Should the crawl space vents be closed? In this climate, yes, as part of sealing and insulating the space properly and putting a sealed cover over the ground. Closing vents on their own without doing the rest is the one sequence to avoid.
Insulate the floor above or the crawl space walls? The walls and the rim. That brings the space inside the heated envelope, which protects the plumbing and warms the floor at the same time.
There is standing water down there in spring. That is drainage and grading, and it comes first. Foam is not waterproofing and spraying over a wet crawl space only conceals it.
How much does crawl space spray foam insulation cost in Westlock? It prices per board foot of sprayed area on the perimeter wall and rim, and headroom matters: a space with eighteen inches of clearance takes considerably longer per square metre than one you can kneel in.
How do I choose a crawl space spray foam contractor in Westlock? Ask whether they are insulating the walls or the floor above, and what happens to the vents and the exposed soil. Those three answers tell you whether the space is being brought inside the house or left as it is.
Size the assembly with the R-value calculator, then get a free Westlock quote. More on Crawl Space Spray Foam Insulation Alberta province-wide.