Your Crawl Space
Getting the Right Answers

It’s likely that several people have gone online to read articles about crawl spaces, problems discovered in them, how to repair them, etc. The internet is full of advice on how to do repairs in a crawl space. Unfortunately, a large amount of this content is not written by people who have actually done research or who have actual hands-on experience in remediation. These writers often just rehash existing articles and add in things they’ve been told are the correct methods. This widespread, unchecked information has increasingly made getting the right answers people need more confusing and complex.

There are many different factors that come into play when repairing a crawl space. What is right for one home may not be right for another. The crawl space location, age, size, problems, and the repair budget all affect getting the right answers. Some companies will attempt to sell homeowners everything related to a crawl space, regardless of whether the home actually requires it. It’s when the salesperson doesn’t know what a crawl space actually needs, so their solution is to try selling the homeowner all of their products, thinking that should solve the problem of their lack of knowledge about crawl space problems and repairs. The fact of the matter is, this buy-everything-to-cover-all “solution” just blatantly puts on display their ignorance, incompetence, and/or sleazy sales practices. Some salespeople will even go so far as to mislead homeowners by presenting a certificate with that salesperson’s name on it that implies to the homeowners that they are qualified and trained to inspect a crawl space. However, it is most likely that they were only trained to sell the companies’ products. There is a big difference, and yet it is something that can be easily missed if the right questions are not asked.

The true, factual reality is that if someone wants to repair a crawl space, they will need to encapsulate it. Although “encapsulation” is still a relatively new term with regard to crawl spaces, more and more homeowners are beginning to learn about the process and what it entails. The process essentially involves sealing the crawl space off from the moisture outside.

The next thing homeowners looking for answers need to be wary of is…the pitch! While answering questions and giving advice, many salespeople are going to try to weave in the wind-up to their sales pitch. So the question becomes, how can someone tell the difference between solid advice and a sales pitch? The answer is to get more educated about crawl spaces. Although, honestly, this task can be much easier said than done. Researching the topic online is often so overwhelming that many probably eventually feel they just need to take a break to clear their minds of all of the different information and opinions they have run into online regarding crawl space repairs. Then, depending on their experience with the research so far, they may or may not decide to go back to it, unfortunately.

When researching, many run into the experience of where one article will tell homeowners to put in more foundation vents, and the next article will say not to put in more vents but to use their “patented power vent” system at $500 or $1000 each! This is just crazy, right? Next, another article will say to close all of the foundation vents, and then another article will say all of those other articles are just wrong and that the vents should be open in the summer and closed in the winter. By this point, the only thing anyone has learned is how much time it takes to get completely confused and frustrated.

The next subject that many people are often seeking answers about is the crawl space vapor barrier or moisture “retarder.” When searching for info about this, someone may find an article telling them to use a 6 mil plastic, while another one may say to use a 10 mil barrier. Then they may come across one article stating that everyone needs to use a 20 mil vapor barrier, another saying homeowners could get by using a 12 mil vapor barrier, and yet another recommending nothing less than a 14 mil vapor barrier. Then there is even one website that promotes use of and sells a “non-woven material,” which makes no sense at all. Then of course, researchers will likely also come across many articles with content about the cost of vapor barriers.

The underlying messaging in all of these articles is, “Our vapor barrier is the best and will do the job the best, and there is nothing else like it on earth.” While that may be a bit of an over-exaggeration, the narrative and messaging contained in many of the articles will certainly leave you with that impression. The other very common and incredibly ridiculous narrative contained within many of the articles people find when looking for information, particularly information about making repairs, encapsulation, and such, is that “this type of work is a job that should be left to the professionals.” Companies that publish such articles are bitter that most people won’t pay their high prices. They realize that the only way they can possibly justify their high pricing is by telling homeowners that they are not qualified to make the repairs needed in their crawl spaces. However, that is absolutely not true. CrawlSpaceRepair.com not only tries to squash that false narrative, but we also eagerly try to help anyone working on DIY crawl space projects.

Using yet another tactic to persuade people looking for honest, factual information, there are some companies trying to gain credibility by using blogs. The blogs they create look full and have many entries and comments. These blogs may even make it seem that these guys are the ones that others look to. However, we need to put on the brakes because some of these guys are trying to take folks for a “ride”! Unfortunately, it turns out that many of the entries (and comments) were simply copied and pasted from other websites, such as Yahoo Answers.

One of the most well-known examples of this deceptive tactic involves the previously mentioned company that sells the “non-woven material.” This company actually created 6 or 7 blogs and then proceeded to search the internet for questions and answers about crawl spaces. The owner of the company clearly found a gold mine of Q&As at Yahoo Answers, and then, unfortunately for him, he assumed that no one would ever realize what he was doing. He actually copied and pasted the other site’s information as his own and then proceeded to link these blogs back to his website that sells his “non-woven” material. He was essentially faking testimonials.

So for anyone checking out blogs for answers, just be wary. Blogs can sometimes offer valuable information and insight. However, it is highly recommended that anyone seeking advice from blogs first research the blog owner to determine whether they are credible enough to follow. Anyone wanting to know how to validate blog posts can use the simple method posted here:

1. Copy a full sentence from the blog entry
2. Paste the sentence into the search bar.
3. Look through all of the search results. 

The best advice is often to trust your gut; you will often know when something sounds “off.” Keep looking and don’t rush into any sales pitches. If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. A flashier presentation often serves as a distraction. Honest people will want to help, without pressure. Lastly, if anyone says, “Besides the price (cost), is there any reason you wouldn’t sign, purchase, commit, etc. today?” turn and walk away because they are most definitely pitching!