From Mold To Market Value: The Real Reasons People Fix Crawl Spaces

The air you breathe and the floors you walk on both depend on what’s happening under your feet. We take you beneath the house to reveal the three real reasons homeowners choose crawl space encapsulation: healthier indoor air, a stronger structure, and smoother real estate transactions. Along the way, we cut through common myths, explain why quick patches often backfire, and share the steps that turn a damp, musty space into a clean, controlled foundation for your home.

First, we focus on indoor air quality and moisture control. Mold and dust mites thrive when humidity climbs, and the stack effect pulls crawl space air into living areas. We walk through how a sealed vapor barrier, proper air sealing, and a right-sized dehumidifier work together to hold relative humidity near 50 percent. We also dig into soil gases—radon, methane, and other vapors—and why a poorly installed liner can trap contaminants. You’ll hear how sub-membrane ventilation, sump pumps, and drainage upgrades prevent standing water and the odors it brings.

Next, we turn to structure. Wet wood invites mold, termites, and wood rot fungi, all of which weaken joists and subfloors over time. We outline practical steps to keep wood dry: fix exterior water routes, seal the ground and walls, insulate with the right materials, and maintain stable conditions year-round. This approach preserves load-bearing members, reduces bouncy floors and cupping hardwoods, and can prevent thousands in future repairs.

Finally, we tackle the real estate reality. Inspectors and appraisers scrutinize crawl spaces, and unresolved moisture or microbial issues can stall or kill a sale. While encapsulation doesn’t automatically raise appraised value, it removes red flags that lead to delays, concessions, and failed closings. We contrast cosmetic band-aids with durable solutions and share the documentation buyers and agents respect: moisture readings, photos, and service plans.

Chapters

• 0:00 Three Reasons People Encapsulate
• 0:44 Air Quality And Moisture Control
• 1:41 Soil Gases And Standing Water
• 1:58 Foundation And Wood Protection
• 2:42 Resale Reality And Inspections
• 3:36 Avoid Band-Aids Fix Root Causes
• 4:20 Fix Now Benefit Now And Later

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey, Michael Church, Crawl Space Ninja. Today I want to share with you what I feel is the top three reasons that people invest in crawlspace encapsulation. And of course, most of the reasons why people call us out to their home is because of indoor air quality issues, whether that's mold, high humidity, the number two reasons perhaps they have a structural problem or they're trying to prevent a structural problem. And believe it or not, the third reason we get a lot of calls out is because of real estate transactions. People want to fix the crawl space in order to sell their home, but there's also those people that feel like that fixing the crawl space will increase the home's resale value. And I go over that with you as well. So hope you like this video. Let's get started. And if you're new to our channel, I suggest you subscribe to our channel, ring that notifications bell. We talk about air quality, crawl space, encapsulation, basement waterproofing. So crawl space and indoor air quality. A crawl space free of mold will lower indoor air pollution and improve or should improve your indoor air quality. High humidity affects mold and dust mic growth. Keeping dust mic colonies in check and minimizing mold growth will improve your indoor air quality. The crawl space ninja encapsulation system not only addresses these things, but also addresses soil gases. You know, you hear about radon and methanes and all these other things that are out there that can build up when a crawl space is not repaired properly. In other words, you can encapsulate the crawl space and actually create a soil gas problem if it's not done correctly. Crawl space odors and standing water can also affect indoor air pollution directly or indirectly. The second thing that we talked about is the foundation integrity. Much of the crawl space is made up of wood, which supports the rest of your home. I mean, think about it. If you got wet, moldy wood, your entire house is sitting on wet and moldy wood, it can affect the rest of the home. Wet wood grows mold, which can affect indoor air quality, as I mentioned before, but also the structure. Wet wood can sustain termites and wood rot fungus, both of which love to feed on soft, wet wood. Making sure your crawl space is dry could prevent thousands of dollars in structural damage in the future. This is the preserving integrity of your home from the joist to the subfloor to the roof. If you think about it, if you're uh new in your home and you go ahead and take care of that crawl space now, you're gonna have the benefits of good air quality in the future, as well as creating a peace of mind where you don't have to worry about the structural integrity of the home being eating away, subfloors being destroyed by humidity problems and things like that. And then, of course, as I mentioned, the third reason is the home resale value. Now, I want to be clear about something. There's not a lot of information out there saying that encapsulating your crawl space or waterproofing your basement makes your home value go up. If people are saying that, we're not seeing that on our end. But more importantly than that, it does prevent the loss of sale of the house. So let's talk about that for a moment. Many homeowners who have sold a home with a crawl space recognize it can sometimes be difficult, especially if you got a home inspector that's pretty adamant about checking out the crawl space. Home inspectors and even appraisers can ding crawl spaces and cause unexpected expenses and delays, if not a complete killing of the real estate deal. Imagine you you got you go through all of this and everything's going good. They do this inspection and then boom, you got this crawl space problem. A properly encapsulated and maintained crawl space may possibly add value, possibly add value to your home at the sale, but more importantly, will certainly prevent the loss of the sale if you had a bad crawl space previously. Just try to sell a home with a mold or damaged floor joist, and you'll understand. Imagine you got a roof that's leaking, and your fix is to put a tarp, a blue tarp on the roof. Well, that's what a lot of contractors do in the crawl space. A lot of it is temporary cosmetic fixes. It's not really fixing the root cause of the problem. They put a band-aid on the crawl space just to get you to close. And and hey, I've I've sold a home. I don't want to spend more time and energy and money on that home that I'm selling than anybody else does. But if you're in your home now, don't plan on selling it, go ahead and get the crawl space fixed, then you have the benefit of having the encapsulation. Then someday down the road, when you and your family do decide to move, it's a non issue, is what I'm trying to say.