We had Live Green seal and encapsulate our crawl space approximately 5 years ago, I believe it was in Sept 2014. Originally we had moisture problems, several/many of the floor joists had more than 40% moisture content, and most joists had at least 20% moisture content. The moisture problems developed into rodent and mildew problems. Also we would occasionally smell a musty smell inside the house, I believe it was from poorly sealed AC registers in the floor. During the summer and winter, doors in our house would jam in the door frames. In summer some doors would jam, but in winter those doors would free and different doors would jam. In the summer, we would have a depression in the hardwood floor in our dining room. In winter that depression in the dining room floor would flatten out.
I do mostly DIY projects, but I knew I would never be able to finish a crawlspace encapsulation in a time frame which would make my wife happy. To deal with moisture entry I installed drainage around the outside of the foundation. Then I dried out the crawlspace with a large shop fan. Afterwards I hired Live Green to encapsulate the crawl space and replace all the AC ducting and plenums (rodent problem). Prior to Live Green encapsulating, the drying efforts brought the crawlspace down to less than 15% everywhere.
During encapsulation Live Green removed all the old joist insulation, sprayed and physically scrubbed mildew from the joists, added vents to the crawl space plenums to condition the crawl space, and placed the foam board and vapor barrier on the block walls. They also pointed out some water intrusion in the crawl space due to leaks in siding and flashing, which I was able to fix. Immediately upon completion, we noticed that the musty smell was mostly gone. Within about 6 months, we noticed that the doors were not jamming the same way they had always been, and also that the depression in the dining room floor was different. Within a year, the doors which jammed were consistently jamming and not changing at all. Also the dining room floor depression became consistent (the fact that there is a depression is because the builder did a lousy job). What this means is that the crawl space continued to dry out after the encapsulation was completed, and since it encapsulated, the different conditions of winter vs summer are not effecting the crawl space. The consistency made the door jams easy to fix.
We have a 330 gallon propane tank. In the last 5 years we have noticed that we now only use about 2.5 tank fulls of propane per year, where previously we had used at least 3 tank fulls of propane. There have been no other changes to our consumption. I never would have believed this would happen if we had not tracked it ourselves. The floor is much warmer in the winter, but I really don’t notice a difference in the summer. I measured the floor joist moisture content recently, and many joists would not register any reading on the moisture meter. My moisture meter will not read below 7% moisture content, which means the crawl space has continued to dry over the last 5 years (they were about 15% prior to encapsulation).
If you are reading this review and doubt it because it all seems very specific, well you are correct, it is very specific. I am an engineer by profession and I am cheap by nature, so assessing before and after results via data is something I do all the time, especially when it’s my own money I’m spending. Writing the check was painful, but frankly, if I ever buy another house, I’ll have the crawl space encapsulated pre-emptively. This was one of the best improvements we have made to the house, and I am very happy with Live Green’s performance given the price.