To insure there is no confusion on what you are buying we have changed the look of the DrySpace vapor barrier. Now all you have to do is look at the back of the barrier and you will know you have a quality crawl space vapor barrier made by an American company that will last a life time without falling apart. We changed the look of the DrySpace vapor barrier, the back is now SILVER and is know as the SilverBack DrySpace. We made a few other changes to make it easier for you to identify our products by looking at them. The width is now 13' 4" wide instead of 12'. This helps meet the needs of crawl spaces that have supports 12-13' from the foundation wall, which is most crawl spaces. By making our product wider it leave the installer more options on how to best install the DrySpace with the fewest seams which strengthens the integrity of the installation.

The second change we made was to offer different three sizes; 13'4" x 100". 13'4" x 60" and 6'7.5" x 100". This also allows the installer to make the best choices for an install with the fewest seams, allowing less waste and limiting over bought material.

The third change we make was to the reinforcement. It is still as strong but now it has a new pattern to help identify the DrySpace vapor barrier from the rest of the pack.

All of these changes were made to help protect the customer, contractor and the DrySpace brand. Our vapor barrier products are made in the USA and we try very hard to source all of our products in the USA when possible. Products made in the USA are more expensive but are better made and have consistent quality. You will never have a problem with our products like the construction industry is having with the "Chinese drywall". That link is worth looking at!

In short, CrawlSpace Concepts is an honest company offering a quality product line that we are proud of . We are an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau with no complaints, ever and a member of 7 different Chamber of Commerce! It is very important to us to keep this reputation and we will continue to be leaders in the market.

The product NT-FR 2000 is not a 20 vapor barrier, unless you care how thick it is at the string reinforcement. If you measure the barrier at the string (which sticks up from the barrier) it may measure 20 Mil only because there are 2 layers of string, which makes it a 5 ply.
The DrySpace™ brand crawl space vapor barrier measures almost 24 Mil at the string reinforcement, but that does not matter to us. The vapor protection is in the thickness of the polyethylene; the string is only for additional strength and plays not part in moisture control. This deception is true with their NT-1600 and NT-1200 as well, take a look at the table below or click here --> 20 Mil vapor barrier to see the 20 Mil comparison.

Fire Retardant

Fire retardant is an additive put into the polyethylene to suppress flame spread. The first thing we need to understand is everything on earth will burn and polyethylene is no different. When a fire retardant is added to a vapor barrier the goal is to have the plastic extinguish on its own when the flame source is removed. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; The more fire retardant that is added the more smoke there is once the flame goes out. That is why the tests are designed to measure both flame spread and smoke development. The closer the product gets to a 0 flame spread, generally the higher the smoke development and the lower the smoke development the higher the flame spread. As you can see it takes trial and error to get a acceptable level of both. The manufacture did not design this product to be used in crawl spaces; it was designed for equipment storage, landfill covers, athletic field covers, crop protection etc. So you can see why it is far more important for this product to have a strong flame control than it is to have a strong smoke control with these types of outdoor uses. This product has a flame spread of 5 and smoke development of 80, which less than 50 is required for most building codes.
We can get this product for you at a better price if you feel it fits your needs better.
The company that renamed these products, NT-FR 2000, NT-1600, and NT-1200 buys them and then resells it. They mark up the real thickness, and then mark up the price to compete with our products and give free shipping. We are offering free shipping in February on all orders over $250 and we will do the same with this product. Please call our office to order if you wish to use this product in your crawl space instead of the DrySpace™ brand. I am certain we can get you a much better price as well as extend our expertise to help you get it installed.

The easiest way to know what you’re getting is by finding out what it weighs!

When it comes to the phrase "light weight heavy duty material", well there is no such thing. It's either light weight or heavy duty; they are two completely different classes. This term is used by this company to describe their products, probably to assure you that it is strong but not very heavy. With a material like polyethylene there is not much difference in weight, only depending on how much high density and low density polyethylene is used to make the barrier. All vapor barriers are weighed per 1000 square feet and that weight does not vary much more than one or two pounds. In the case of the NT-FR 2000 it weighs 74 pounds per 1000, when a real 20 Mil will weigh in at around 105. So if you see two polyethylene barriers one weighing even 10 pounds less, that is a signal that it has less polyethylene in it and therefore not as thick. Take a look at the other weight differences on the tables below to see what I mean. Oh, one more thing- all of these numbers were taken from the other company's site so they are accurate. Also know that their business is selling water and furnace filters not fixing crawl spaces.

"An antimicrobial is a substance that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms[1] such as bacteria, fungi, or protozoans."

It is a cheap additive to a crawl space vapor barrier and an ingenious marketing scam. The truth is; mold, mildew and fungus need an organic food source to grow. Polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC and other plastics are not made from an organic source, therefore are not food for fungus's like mold and mildew. This means mold will not grow on the plastic unless an organic material has been added to the plastic. Polyethylene is used in many water and moisture containment products all over the world without an antimicrobial additive. I must admit that in the crawl space world, offering a product that implies you will never have mold in your crawl space because the vapor barrier has an "antimicrobial" in it, sounds great. So I researched it quite a while ago. Here's what I found; Most antimicrobial are designed and marketed to protect and kill bacteria on the skin, like soap, and to protect our clothes from smelling dirty (after one wearing) by adding it to the fabric itself. The purpose is to kill the bacteria that lives on our skin causing body odor. It is also used in cat litter, pillows and baby wipes. So the question remains, will it prevent mold growth in the crawl space? The answer is NO. It will keep mold from growing on the vapor barrier, but mold wont grow there anyway. And the whole purpose of making the investment in your crawl space is to keep the moisture levels down below 55% so mold cant grow at all. I know for sure that the antimicrobial additive in the vapor barrier will not stop mold growth on your wood structure, which by the way is an organic food source and more likely to have a problem with mold.

So maybe your thinking, what about mold growing under the crawl space vapor barrier? After all, there is going to be a lot of moisture there. My answer to that is, if the crawl space is properly prepared and cleaned out there will not be any food under the vapor barrier either. An antimicrobial is not needed as a vapor barrier additive in plastic to prevent mold growth. If it were, plastic would not be a good product to use in a crawl space or as a vapor barrier period. It all comes down to marketing, product sales and money.

Floor joist insulation-
The floor joist area, or the crawl space ceiling, is the most commonly insulated area. This area is usually insulated with fiberglass and held in place with metal wire or staples. The fiberglass insulation in nearly half of the homes that have insulation in this area has it installed wrong. The fiberglass insulation should be installed with the paper vapor barrier on the heated or conditioned side of the space. This means the paper should be closest to the floor boards and not exposed to the crawl space. Until 2003 insulating your floor joist was the only option if you wanted to have any hope of keeping the winter air from entering your home. Today there is a better and more efficient way to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient.

Rim Joist Insulation-
The rim joist area is the part of the wood structure under your floor. Like the floor joists, the rim joist’s job is to help hold up the floor and walls of the home. The rim joist goes around the perimeter, or the rim, of the home and its primary job is to support the exterior walls as well as giving the floor joist an adjacent surface to be attached. Other names for this area are band joist, sill box and bond.

Foundation Wall Insulation-
Insulating the foundation walls is a complete waste of money IF you have an open crawl space. A crawl space with foundation vents that can be opened and closed is considered and open crawl space. It is considered open because the vents, even while closed, offer little protection from the elements outside the home. An open crawlspace with rigid insulation on the foundation walls is like having the walls of your home insulated and opening the windows. It neutralizes the usefulness of the insulation by having the open vents/windows.

When it comes to installing insulation, ask yourself- Am I trying to keep something in or am I trying to keep something out. They seem like the same question, but they’re not. For example, with a vapor barrier you are trying to keep something out, the moisture. With insulation, you are trying to keep something in, your conditioned air. Knowing this helps the process to move forward in the right order. With insulation and a vapor barrier like DrySpace properly installed in your crawl space you can now begin to control the environment under your home. Now your crawl space is part of your home and you should protect it from the outside as such. The days of separating your home from the crawl space is over, mostly because it is impossible to do. It is far more reasonable to accomplish a plan to protect your crawl space from the outside than it is to protect your home from the crawl space and the outside.

So the recipe goes like this:
1. Close foundation vents permanently with a cement block
2. Install rigid foam insulation on the foundation walls
3. Install R-19 fiberglass in the rim (band) joist area
4. Install DrySpace vapor barrier on the floor and walls
Doing this will eliminate the freezing cold floors, high energy costs and freezing water lines. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us, 877.379.7658

Matt

This question usually arises after meeting with a franchise company that sells a drain for their vapor barrier system. The product pitch is designed to settle a fear of what if my crawl space gets water in it from a frozen pipe or broken water line. The drain is designed with a ping pong ball under a drain cover that will float when water enters the drain. Once the water is gone the ball then returns to cover the opening leaving the homeowner with the understanding that they will have to do nothing for clean up. Pretty ingenious if you only look at the pro's of the design.

So lets take a look at the con's to better determine if a drain in the vapor barrier is a good idea. The same mechanism that allows water to enter the drain, the ping pong ball, will also allow the water to enter your crawl space from under the vapor barrier. If the power goes out and your sump pump is temporary not pumping water and the water backs up, then the ping pong ball will float and allow water to get on the barrier. In this scenario the water will be dirty allowing mud to settle and making the clean up a much bigger job.

Another major flaw in this design is what if the drain is on the west end of the crawl space and you have a leak at the east end? Unless the drains are placed throughout the crawl space under each bath, kitchen and laundry it is not likely the water wouldn't go into the drain in the first place. In order to fix this 'what if' it causes more compromises in the barrier and in many different locations.

Beyond these two problems, if the crawl space is sealed properly the threat of frozen water lines is very unlikely. Frozen water lines is a condition of an open crawl space not a closed or conditioned one. Which is what you would be paying for, so why the back up plan? Moreover, the chances of a power outage happening during a heavy rain storm is far more likely. This situation causes the threat of water entering the crawl space, while the sump pump is down, and then making the chances of water entering through the drain a real problem. This problem is probably one of the reasons you were talking to them in the first place. In my opinion, the sales pitch diverts the focus of the real threat to a "what if" situation to build confidence in a product line. Know this, sales pitches are designed to really accomplish one thing- psychological dominance. To present, convince and close the sale. The drain is not the focus of the pitch it is an example of setting a fear and presenting a solution to build confidence in the system.

So what do you do if a pipe breaks or the washer over flows? I say handle it "IF" it happens. By cutting a small slice in the crawl space vapor barrier to allow the majority of water to drain into the drain system or under the barrier. By doing it this way you can drain the water where the water is and not have to push it to a fixed drain. Then once the water is gone and you have mopped up the last puddle, tape the slice with the same tape used to seal your lap seams. This gets you as good as new and the option to simply remove the tape "IF" it happens again. This process handles any real problems not just the threat and it does not cause any new ones.

Condensation in the crawl space can add to the nightmare of an all already wet, damp and musty smelling crawl space. At first the condensation might seem harmless, after all the crawl space is already damp. But left mismanaged, that condensation will induce a wide range of damage to your home. Condensation is a major factor in:

1. Mold, mildew and fungus growth, which eats at your home
2. Premature deterioration of wood structure
3. Attracts wood boring insects like termites and powder post beetle
4. In colder climates, the condensation will freeze causing the wood to split
5. Heating and cooling duct work will rust causing energy loss
6. Elevated moisture levels could cause bacterial growth
7. Damage to electrical, television and phone cables

So what to do? The answer is easy and the moisture control process can be done by most able bodied homeowners. Eliminate the moisture and you have stopped the condensation. The warmer the air the more moisture it can hold, so when the warm moist outdoor air comes into the cool crawl space the moisture leaves the air and settles on the cooler surfaces like the vapor barrier, water lines, cooling ducts and just about anywhere it is cooler than the air outside. Since you can not control the outside temperatures you will have to control the moisture to get this problem under control.

The foundation vents are the biggest contributors because they will bring in the excessively moist air from outside. If you close the foundation vents without sealing the dirt floor first, you will have a completely different issue but every bit as devastating. When it comes to moisture control, whether condensation or just elevated moisture levels, you will have to commit to fixing all of the sources in order to truly prevent damage. Crawl space encapsulation is the best way to seal out the moisture from the outside and protect your home.

Hi,

My crawl space is moist, i.e., the air is damp and the foundation walls show signs of wetness. A mold inspector has not found mold and the subfloor is dry. I am planning to dry out the crawl space and I have a few questions regarding your product and the various approaches that I've read about:
1. I've come to your site via 'Ask the Builder' where you or one of your colleagues pointed to the Crawl Space Vapor Barrier product. (Very nice site, btw.) In the article, Tim Carter (author of 'Ask the Builder' column) referred to high performance polyethylene. Can you tell me what the advantage of the Crawl Space Vapor Barrier over the high performance polyethylene is? I'm not planning to use the crawl space for storage.
2. Based on what I read, the best practice indicates that one should close the crawl space vents and to seal the crawl space. But given that moisture will still be underneath the vapor barrier, will this not lead to wet foundation walls and wet studs underneath the vapor barrier?
3. I've read about two alternative approaches to dry out the crawl space:
a) use a dehumidifier
b) open up a HVAC duct and an air return to dry and warm the crawl space through conditioned air.
- Is option (b) the cheaper solution that is recommended for less moist crawl spaces. Is option (a) recommended for severe cases? We live in Maryland (West of DC), so it gets humid in the Summer, but it's not as wet as in the Eastern Shore.
- Does option (b) require insulation of the foundation walls, while option
(a) does not?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

****** (customer asked to remove his name)