Laying Plastic Sheeting On The Ground In A Crawl Space

Lap the plastic a minimum of 6 inches and seal the seams with duct tape.

Laying plastic sheeting on the ground in a crawl space.

The plastic will trap the condensation up against the floor structure causing mold growth and dry rot. Keeping it dry by keeping it warm works. And bring the plastic about 6 in. Overlap the seams by no less than 12 inches and secure them together with the poly pvc tape.

Cut the sheets to size allowing 12 inches or more along walls. This type of tape is usually plastic like and has an adhesive that will not weaken in a moisture rich atmosphere. Remove the plastic from the ceiling of the crawlspace and install a new vapor barrier or encapsulation system on the ground floor. Overlap any seams in the plastic and tape them with a water resistant sealing tape.

Vapor barrier ran up foundation wall and stapled to sill plate. Attach sheeting to walls and piers. There is no point in laying plastic on the ground to stop water vapor rising when the humidity water vapor is in the air and it is pulled into the crawl space home by the warm air that rises in the home and disappears out the windows and doors. Beginning at one side of the crawl space lay down 6 mil or thicker polyethylene plastic over the entire crawl space.

Make sure that the plastic sheeting covers the ground and runs about six inches up the side walls of the crawl space. Lay out your next row of polyethylene if needed overlapping. The solution is simple. The reason being that unfortunately simply putting vapor barrier crawl space plastic sheeting down is not enough to solve all the issues that will ever arise in your crawl space.

Sloping the soil away from your home at about 1 2 in. In severe cases you can run the plastic up the sides of piers and the foundation and secure it with duct tape or anchor it with a line of soil at the perimeter. Overlap any seams and tape them. Cover the dirt crawlspace with a plastic moisture polyethylene vapor barrier.

With your sheeting and materials assembled begin to cut and lay down strips of your plastic sheeting over the open soil area in your crawl space. Cut around piers and along the inside edges of the foundation. Installation is one thing but maintenance of the vapor barrier and of the crawl space in general is the other important side of the equation and it is often. Up the wall and fasten it there.