Every person who is a homeowner knows how important it is to regularly maintain their homes. When you don’t do that, you risk spending thousands of dollars on damage assessment and restorations, and in addition to this, you risk the safety and health of everyone who lives in that house. We all want to cut costs on different things, but in the long run, we realize that we’ve cut costs on the wrong things that lead to spending a lot more money. The crawl space is one of the places we rarely think about, even though they are a part of almost every home. We tend to forget about them, and we realize that when it is too late. It is said that most homeowners don’t encapsulate this space, and they realize their mistake once serious problems start to appear. In this article, we are going to give you some reasons why the process will save you money, and how it will protect you and your family.
Protect your home from pests
When we think about protecting our homes from pests, we usually think about making sure the windows and doors are closed, checking the roof for damages and holes, and making sure that they cannot get in through the basement.
Even though these things are a great way to protect your home, you cannot be checking the roof or the basement every week, and sometimes there can be small holes that you don’t notice, and pests and small animals can easily get inside your home through them.
The reason why small animals choose the crawl space is that it is the easiest way to get inside a warm place, and they can even breed there, or lay their eggs. Chances are, you won’t notice them until it is too late, and calling the exterminator can cost hundreds of dollars. In addition to this, they will do a lot of damage, even if we are talking about just one small bird managing to get inside your crawl space.
When you encapsulate it, you will make sure that you won’t have to deal with rats, birds, stray cats, and even snakes or raccoons that managed to find their way into this space. By adding an additional layer of protection, you will know that you won’t risk any diseases, or your home getting damaged by them.
Prevent water damage and mold
Now let’s talk about something that will suck the money out of your wallet – water damages. When there is a leak in your home, chances are, you won’t notice it until it’s too late. Sometimes the leak can be so small that only a few drops of water get dripped every hour, and we don’t notice them at all.
When it finally appears on your walls, it is already too late. Chances are, the water made huge structural damage in your crawl space, and it has been gathering there for weeks, maybe even months. In the warm months, that water may get dry before it does the damage, but in the cold months, when the temperature drops below the freezing point, that water will freeze, expand, and do even more damage. According to Elite Moisture, the water trapped inside your crawl space will lead to extremely high humidity that will affect your air quality, and that will lead to serious structural damage.
It is said that where there is water, there will be mold as well. There are some types of mold that will not affect your health, but there are also those types that can cause serious health conditions. You may not even see it, and you will think that the reasons why your head hurts, why you feel like you cannot get enough air, and why you are getting nose bleeds is because you are catching a cold, or because that your blood pressure has changed.
The way the encapsulation process will save you money is that you will prevent structural damage, you will prevent water from getting inside your home, and you will prevent mold from ever appearing on and inside your walls. If we calculate the costs of seeking medical help after allergies and serious breathing conditions, including asthma, appear, these costs can rise up to tens of thousands of dollars.
Save money on utility bills
If you want to save money every single month, then you should cover and protect the space between the ground and the first floor. When the house is not insulated and when the crawl space is not encapsulated, your bills are going to continue to rise.
Once again, you may not notice this that much in the warm months, even though you may feel like the AC takes a lot more to cool your rooms down. However, in the winter months, you will feel like there is a constant draft, and you will feel that no matter what you do, you still feel the cold.
Many people think that their heaters are not working properly, or that there is something wrong with the windows, but chances are, the unfinished space under your home is the reason why all of this is happening. If you use electric heaters all the time just to be able to keep a normal temperature in your home, you need to rethink your choices.
When you insulate this space, and when you protect it, you will notice that the bills will instantly drop. The heat will stay trapped inside the house, and you won’t have to keep the heater on at all times. It is said that in some cases, you can cut your bills in half just by finishing this project.
These are some of the reasons why encapsulating the unfinished space will save you a lot of money right away and in the long run. Note that you also won’t need to invest in humidifiers that make the air better, you won’t risk structural damage, and you won’t risk your floors, doors, windows, and even your roof getting damaged and moldy. You will make sure that your home is protected in case there is a natural disaster, including earthquakes, and you will know that you’ve done everything you can to keep your family healthy.
Note that even though you need to pay for the project to get done, you will get your money back right away when you cut the costs on the utility bills. Choose the right service that will help you do this, and know that this is a fast and easy project that will prove to be the right choice.