Welcome to "Healthy Home ABCs with Michael Church," where we dive into the essentials of improving indoor air quality. Learn practical tips for fixing your attic, basement, and crawl space to create a healthier home environment.
Transforming Your Crawl Space: From Moldy Nightmare to Watertight Oasis
•Michael Church, Founder of Crawl Space Ninja•Season 2025•Episode 3
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Your home's foundation holds a hidden secret that could be silently affecting your family's health and your property's structural integrity. Beneath your floorboards lies a crucial space that 60% of homeowners unknowingly neglect – the crawl space.
Think of your crawl space as the roots of a tree. When roots rot, the entire tree suffers. Similarly, a damp crawl space weakens everything above it. Moisture creates the perfect breeding ground for mold, which doesn't stay contained. It spreads upward through your home, first clinging to wooden structures, then colonizing insulation, infiltrating HVAC systems, and finally penetrating your living spaces through various openings. Every breath your family takes could contain invisible mold spores, potentially triggering asthma attacks, allergies, or contributing to long-term respiratory conditions.
Beyond health concerns, excess moisture causes significant structural damage. Wood beams begin to rot, metal supports corrode, and insulation deteriorates. Left unchecked, this weakens your home's foundation, leading to bouncy floors and expensive repairs. The damp environment also attracts unwanted visitors – termites, rodents, and even snakes seeking shelter and sustenance.
At Crawl Space Ninja, we've transformed thousands of problematic crawl spaces using our proven four-step approach. We begin by addressing both external and internal water sources through comprehensive waterproofing systems. Next, we properly encapsulate the space with mechanically fastened vapor barriers. We then control humidity with our powerful Ninja Dry Pro 70 dehumidification system. Finally, we install proper insulation to create an energy-efficient environment that protects your home year-round.
Ready to transform your crawl space from a moldy nightmare into a dry, healthy foundation? Our five-star rated service has helped countless homeowners gain peace of mind. Contact us today at 865-659-0390 or visit CrawlSpaceNinja.com to breathe easier knowing your home is protected from the ground up.
Hey there, michael Church with Crawl Space Ninja. I hope you're doing well today. Did you know that over 60% of homes have a moisture problem in their crawl space and, of course, where there's moisture, mold is not far behind? That means that the air that you're breathing upstairs could be filled with hidden mold toxins and other allergens that could be affecting your family. But what if I told you that your crawl space doesn't have to be a damp, moldy nightmare? In this video, I'm going to talk to you about turning your crawl space into a watertight oasis, protecting your home's foundation, improving indoor air quality and keeping mold out for good.
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Your crawl space is the foundation of your home's health, kind of like the roots of a tree. If the roots are rotting, the entire tree is suffering. The same goes for your home. A damp, moldy crawl space weakens everything above it, from the air you breathe to the structure holding your home in place. But unfortunately for us, the mold doesn't stop in the crawl space. It spreads, first, clinging to the wood in the crawl space, the joists in the subfloor, then the insulation and eventually getting into your HVAC system if your ductwork is down there, and then finally penetrating the subfloor of the crawl space through the holes that was left behind when they built your house your electrical penetrations, your HVAC penetrations and your plumbing penetrations, not to mention the rim joists. That means that every breath you and your family breathes could be filled with mold spores if your crawl space is damp and moldy and, as I mentioned, these could be triggering asthma attacks, allergy issues or, worse, fueling future problems like COPD. That could affect your family's health, not to mention affecting the foundation of your home by making your floors more bouncy. That means that every breath you and your family breathe could be filled with mold spores, triggering asthma, allergy and even respiratory issues in your family. And it's not just the health issue. Excess moisture in your crawl space could cause the wood beams to begin to rot, metal supports could start corroding and, of course, the insulation could deteriorate. Left unchecked. This will weaken your home's foundation and could cost you thousands of dollars in the future to repair.
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Oh, and, of course, let's not forget about the pests. Termites, rodents and even snakes love a damp environment, and your crawl space is no exception. They, of course, are drawn to the moisture because that's where the food source is located and it protects them in cold weather. Getting rid of mold and moisture is an issue, but getting rid of snakes and bugs and mammals out of the crawl space could be even more expense that you're not counting on. I'm not saying that a dry crawl space will not have bugs or pests, but it certainly does deter them from going in.
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So how do you stop the damage and take back control of the air quality of your home? Hey there, michael Church, founder of Crawl Space Ninja. Do you have a crawl space or a basement, or perhaps your home is suffering from some type of indoor air quality issue? I want to encourage you to check out my book Crawl Space Repair Myths Busted, available on Amazon. This is a great book for any homeowner that is concerned about indoor air quality, mold, moisture, whether you're on a crawl space or a basement or a slab built house. This is a great book, great information. I encourage you to check it out Again. The name of the book is Crawl Space Repair Myths Busted, now available on Amazon.
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Stay with me because I'm going to take you through some of the steps that we use here at Crawl Space Ninja to transform crawl spaces into healthy, worry-free spaces for your home. If your crawl space is damp, moldy and flooding every time that it rains. The good news is, you don't have to put up with that. Here at Crawl Space Ninja, we help thousands of homeowners reclaim the crawl space with our proven, five-star rated crawl space encapsulation and waterproofing services. So how do we do it? It all starts with stopping the source of the moisture. Water can sneak through the cracks of your foundation and even the ground itself. This is typically due to the water table under the home rising after a rainstorm and, of course, the poor outside waterproofing that was installed, usually whenever the home was built. That's why we here at Crawl Space Ninja take a comprehensive approach to fixing every crawl space, not only on the inside of the crawl space but also on the outside of the crawl space, with curtain drains, downspout extensions, outside waterproofing next to the foundation, as well as interior French drains using the Hydraway water system and our powerful sump pumps. This approach not only will protect the crawl space and the foundation from the outside, but if, for some reason, the water is making its way to the inside through those cracks in the foundation walls where the footer meets the foundation wall or the water table itself, we have things in place that'll move all that water outside of the crawl space, no matter what Mother Nature throws at your house. This is why we call it a worry-free waterproofing system.
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As I mentioned, step one is addressing the outside of the house. If you have water pooling around your yard, perhaps you've got a low spot where water is sitting your kids can't go out and play and enjoy the outside because of a swamp that's in your backyard. We can take care of this with the Hydraway waterproofing system installed on the outside of the house, as well as the foundation around the crawl space. We will remove the old waterproofing pipe, dig down to the outside of the footer and install new exterior waterproofing systems to make sure all of this water, including the downspout extensions, are draining far away from your foundation, of course. Step two is the interior waterproofing system, again using the Hydraway waterproofing system around the entire perimeter of the inside of the crawl space that leads to our powerful sump pump. This way, if the water comes in, we've got a way for it to be removed efficiently and effectively without floating the plastic.
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Speaking of the plastic, we're going to encapsulate the crawl space. We're going to attach the plastic to the foundation walls, to the pillars of the crawl space, overlap and tape them properly with mechanical fasteners versus just adhesives, as is mentioned by code. And lastly, is that humidity control? We've got to control humidity, and a vapor barrier alone cannot do that. So we install the Ninja Dry Pro 70 dehumidification system. This is a 71 pint per day AHAM rated dehumidifier that will ensure that your crawl space is kept dry, no matter what size it is. If it's a small crawl space under 2,000 square feet, we install one Ninja Dry Pro 70 dehumidifier. If it's above 2,000 square feet, we can install multiple Ninja Dry Pro 70 dehumidifiers, or perhaps get a larger pint per day dehumidifier for larger spaces. Whatever the need is, we can take care of it.
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And of course, step four is proper insulation. The Crawl Space Ninja encapsulation system utilizes insulation on the foundation walls to ensure that your crawl space is well within code, as well as keeping your home dry and energy efficient for years to come. And if you happen to have HVAC systems installed in your crawl space, this is even more critical. This insulation vapor barrier creates a thermal break between the outside of the home and the inside of the crawl space, making that heating and air system located in your crawl space more efficient and effective. So, when we're all done, your crawl space goes from a damp, musty mess to a dry, mold-resistant, energy-efficient foundation that your home and you deserve.
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But don't just take my word for it. Check out our hundreds of five-star reviews from homeowners who now have peace of mind, knowing that their home and their foundation is safer, healthier and stronger, because they trusted Crawl Space Ninja to do the encapsulation and the waterproofing of their crawl space properly. If you're tired of dealing with musty odors, high humidity and rising energy costs, give Crawl Space Ninja a call today at 865-659-0390, or visit us online at CrawlSpaceNinjacom. You'll be glad you did. I'm Michael Church with Crawl Space Ninja. We hope you make it a happy and blessed day and we'll see you later.
