About Clean Crawls

The best way to ensure crawl space insulation (sub-floor insulation) holds steady over time is to use the proper installation technique depending on the bay widths.

When the width equals 4 feet or greater, building code calls for wood lath to ensure the stability of the insulation. This should be common sense since there is no feasible way that twine can hold up to the weight of that much batted insulation. Utility companies that provide rebates for insulation upgrades have much more stringent criteria, often calling for wood lath when bay widths meet 32 inches and greater. To be on the high-quality and conservative side, Clean Crawls installs them for anything greater than 24 inches in span.

Wood lath is also a sturdier option overall and is a superior way to hold up the insulation under your floor. In this case, it has become common practice to buy the cheaanimal material that is at shorter lengths and then staple it together to attempt to stretch the distance of the bay. This obviously results in a weak point where stapled and results in a flimsy apparatus that is mediocre at best.

Clean Crawls again goes above and beyond by purchasing specially-cut thick lath that is also longer than what others use. The thickness of the wood lath Clean Crawls uses is typically 50% to 100% thicker than the standard wood. Although getting high-quality materials like this can cost more, Clean Crawls uses them because it is the best for the customer and is the right thing to do.

Most vapor barriers that are installed in crawl spaces are done by simply laying the plastic on the ground and then quickly forgetting about it. This can even occur in new construction buildings. This creates problems if anyone (or any thing – like a rodent) goes into the crawl and moves around. The vapor barrier quickly gets messed up and compromised as the shifting occurs and the dirt underneath is exposed. The vapor barrier then becomes useless and ceases to do its job, exposing the home to moisture, as well as gases and potentially harmful ground-swelling vapors.

To solve this problem, Clean Crawls stakes the vapor barrier down throughout the entire crawl space using thick wire stakes that resemble giant staples. They also put extra stakes near access points, since these tend to be higher traffic areas that lead to more shifting.

This practice is time-consuming, and yet Clean Crawls has developed systems to streamline the process, while their crews have the hard work ethic required to accomplish this additional service with the homeowner in mind. Again, it’s the right thing to do, and most people don’t want to go through the additional expense and added time to do it.

If your home lacks a crawl space door that fits properly, you are inadvertently inviting pests into your home. Rodents, as well as, larger animals such as opossums and raccoons can easily enter your crawl space through an improperly installed crawl space door. Animals that enter your crawl space will tear down your insulation, damage your ducting, chew on your electrical, and cause general mayhem.

Every crawl space access is different. That is why Clean Crawls custom builds solid access doors out of pressure treated wood and quarter inch steel hardware cloth. At Clean Crawls we make sure that on every job the work we perform is to industry standard or better. We want to make sure that your investment is protected because we know, the most expensive home improvement project is the one that you have to do twice. That is why Clean Crawls now includes a 10-year transferable workmanship warranty on every contracted job. Clean Crawls is the only insulation contractor in the Pacific Northwest that offers a decade of protection.