Sealed Crawl Space Encapsulation, Spray Foam Insulation, Radon Testing & Mitigation

Crawl space encapsulation seals your crawl space off from the outside instead of leaving it open to the weather. We close the foundation vents, line the dirt floor and foundation walls with a heavy-duty vapor barrier, seal the rim joist and any other gaps, and then deal with whatever moisture is left in the air. The crawl space stops being an outdoor space under your floor and starts behaving like part of the house.

It is not the same as laying plastic on the ground. A loose ground cover slows evaporation from the soil; encapsulation controls the whole space. See how our sealed crawl space systems are built.

Published industry guides put a typical North Carolina crawl space encapsulation between roughly $4,400 and $8,300, with the state average landing near $5,100. Jobs that involve drainage, structural repair or significant remediation run higher — published ranges top out around $13,500.

Those are industry-published ranges, not our price list. We quote after going under the house, because access, standing water, the condition of the existing insulation and whether the crawl space needs drainage move the number far more than square footage does. Read the full Raleigh cost breakdown, or request a free quote.

Usually, because the smell is usually coming from below. Air moves upward through a house, so a meaningful share of the air you breathe on the first floor started life in the crawl space. If the ground down there is damp, that air arrives carrying humidity and mold odor with it, and every air freshener in the house is treating the symptom.

Sealing the crawl space cuts off the source. Here is how we trace a musty smell back to the crawl space.

Yes. North Carolina recognizes closed (sealed) crawl spaces in its residential building code and was one of the first states in the country to do so, following field research carried out here in the Triangle. Vented crawl spaces are still legal — they are simply no longer the only approved way to build, and in our humid climate they are rarely the better one.

Not on its own, and anyone who tells you otherwise is overselling it. A sealed liner reduces how freely soil gas moves into the house, but radon mitigation is a separate system: a sealed suction point under the barrier and a fan that carries the gas up and out above the roofline.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, it has no smell, and levels vary house to house on the same street — a new home is not exempt. The only way to know where you stand is to test. Learn about radon testing and mitigation.

Often, yes. Sealing stops new moisture from getting in; it does not remove the moisture already held in the soil, the framing and the air, and it does not cover what a plumbing leak or a wet Carolina spring adds later. Some crawl spaces hold steady on the liner alone. Others need a dedicated crawl space dehumidifier or a small supply of conditioned air from the HVAC system.

We tell you which one your house is before you pay for it, rather than adding equipment to every quote by default.

Days, not weeks. A straightforward Raleigh-area crawl space is typically a two- to four-day job. Debris removal, tearing out sagging fiberglass insulation, adding drainage or repairing damaged framing all add time, and we will tell you which of those your house needs before we start rather than in the middle of the week.

It should, and the reason is mechanical rather than magical. Damp air is harder to heat and cool than dry air, and in a vented crawl space your ducts and floor insulation are sitting in whatever the weather is doing outside. Seal the space and the HVAC system stops fighting that. Homeowners typically notice warmer floors in winter first, then a quieter, less overworked system.

If you want the savings measured rather than assumed, we also do blower door and duct testing.

It helps. A sealed, dry, well-lit crawl space is a favorable feature at inspection time, and it removes one of the standard negotiation levers a buyer’s inspector reaches for — moisture readings, mold odor and rusting duct work under the floor. It is also documentation that the house has been maintained, which matters more in older Raleigh neighborhoods where buyers expect crawl space problems.

No. We are headquartered at 5001 Old Poole Road in Raleigh and we serve all of North Carolina, residential and commercial. The bulk of our residential crawl space work is in Wake County and the surrounding Triangle — Raleigh, Garner, Knightdale, Clayton, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Wake Forest, Durham and Chapel Hill.

Live Green Inc. is bonded and insured. We are an ABAA Certified Air Barrier Installer through the Air Barrier Association of America and a member of the SPFA, the spray polyurethane foam industry association. Our owners, Roland Blaise and Bruce Eickhoff, started sealing Triangle crawl spaces in 2003, which makes us one of the longest-running sealed crawl space specialists in the region.