Why Crawl Space Encapsulation Actually Costs $15,000, Not $1,500

Tired of misleading information about crawl space encapsulation costs? In this frank, no-nonsense episode, I cut through the confusion to reveal what you'll actually pay for quality crawl space work and why those $1,500-$4,000 estimates you see online are dangerously inaccurate.

Drawing from years of industry experience, I break down the real factors that determine crawl space encapsulation pricing. We explore the crucial difference between DIY and professional work, including the often-overlooked value of your time. Would you rather spend 3-4 weeks crawling under your house, or have professionals complete the job in 3-4 days? I share candid insights about labor costs, insurance coverage, and the significant difference between hiring experienced professionals versus day laborers.

The discussion gets particularly eye-opening when I analyze common cost components that online estimates conveniently omit. Most homeowners don't realize that electrical work alone for a dehumidifier and sump pump can add $1,000-$1,500 to your project. Speaking of dehumidifiers—an absolute necessity for proper encapsulation—they'll cost another $1,100-$1,500 by themselves. Add in variables like crawl space size (from tiny 500 sq ft spaces to massive 4,500 sq ft areas), height challenges (some as low as 12 inches, others as tall as 22 feet!), and existing moisture or mold issues, and you quickly understand why the national average for quality encapsulation hovers around $15,000.

I share a sobering real-world example of a homeowner who paid $25,000 for improper work that had to be completely redone for $40,000. This illustrates why focusing solely on price rather than quality creates expensive problems down the road. Whether you're considering DIY options or hiring professionals, this episode provides the honest cost breakdown you need to make informed decisions about your crawl space project. Subscribe to our channel for more straight-talking crawl space advice that could save you thousands!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Crawl Space Cost
• 1:20 DIY vs Professional Considerations
• 3:44 Debunking Unrealistic Price Estimates
• 6:44 Size and Condition Factors
• 8:35 Average Costs and Final Advice

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Michael Church, crawl Space Ninja. Today I want to talk to you about cost. How much does it cost to encapsulate a crawl space? Stay tuned If you're new to Crawl Space Ninja. We talk about everything related to crawl space encapsulation, waterproofing and dehumidification. We hope you'll subscribe to our channel. Ring that notifications bell. Make sure you follow us on Facebook. Check out our DIY store store and our franchise opportunity.

Speaker 1: 0:27

So this is kind of a loaded question. All right, it is very difficult for me to give you specifics on cost and all that sort of stuff, so I'm going to give you some generals on cost. Okay, just so you know all of these Bob Villas and Angie lists and all these people say that it costs about $5,000 to $15,000 to encapsulate a crawl space, and I'm here to tell you that no one has ruined the cost factor for home remodeling more than these DIY videos and all that I remember watching. You know some landscaper say they spent $300 and mulched their yard and it made their outside worth 30 grand. I mean, it's just ridiculous. So what you have to look at is that everything has gone up Everything, fuel, insurance, labor materials. Nothing has been hit harder in our industry than plastic. Anything and everything we use is made of plastic, right? The vapor barrier's got plastic in it, the dehu's got plastic in it, our tools have plastic in it. You know everything is plastic right.

Speaker 1: 1:32

So what I'm going to share with you is some things to think about about cost. So if you're going to DIY the crawl space, your cost, your dollar cost, is going to be less. But I want to share with you something what's your time worth? Okay, so if you're an executive that's making, you know, $150,000 a year and you decide to jump in your crawl space and encapsulate it, how much did you really save by doing that yourself? So you know how much is your time worth. If you're on the lower end of the income scale, it could save you quite a bit of money versus paying a crawlspace encapsulation professional. But also keep in mind that it's going to take you a lot longer. You know, I recently did an interview Actually it's not that recent anymore, it was a couple of years ago. I did an interview with a gentleman in the Air Force that encapsulated his crawl space during the pandemic and I believe he said it took him three to four weeks straight to do his crawl space. He did soda blasting and all that sort of thing. So imagine if it takes you three to four weeks straight to encapsulate your crawl space when you could hire someone to do it in three to four days and it's done and you don't have to deal with it.

Speaker 1: 2:45

So that's the biggest factor that I want to share with you is the labor factor. If you're going to do it yourself, you're going to save a lot more money than if you're going to pay somebody. But, at the same time, paying employees is different company to company as well. We pay our employees pretty good, the ninjas that go out into the crawl space and fix the crawl spaces. They've been with us for years, a lot of them, because they make pretty good money. Now, if you want me to go out and hire some work, release or go to Home Depot and throw somebody a t-shirt where I'm paying them eight bucks an hour under the table, that guy's going to be charging you a lot less. I know, by the way, that guy's going to be charging you a lot less. Okay, so those are the. I know, by the way, that guy doesn't have insurance either, not registered business. What happens if that gentleman that he picked up or that lady that he picked up at Home Depot with that t-shirt gets hurt, what is that going to cost you? Okay, so all of those have to be factors that have to be considered in crawl space encapsulation.

Speaker 1: 3:42

All right, so let's get into some of the other things that I want you to think about. I love reading blogs. You know by you know different people, and this one is very interesting. It says you know, crawl space encapsulation costs anywhere between $1,500 and $4,000. And I want to share with you what they mean by crawl space encapsulation.

Speaker 1: 4:02

I'm not going to tell you who it is Light cleaning. I don't even know what that means. Are they cleaning out the crawl space or are they cleaning the wood? I don't even know what light cleaning is. They don't really say Vapor barrier. Well, are they throwing down Home Depot six mil black plastic? Are they putting up a 12 mil? Are they attaching it to the walls, wrapping the pillars? Is there any tape? Because they don't use. They don't mention tape. They just mentioned vapor barrier Ceiling, again S-E-A-L-I-N-G. I have no idea what sealing is. Are they sealing the vents? Because if they are, they're not putting in a dehumidifier. They even say no dehumidifier. Of course they're not putting in a dehumidifier. No unexpected problems. Good luck with that. There's all kinds of unexpected problems in a crawl space that you got to deal with. So if you're doing light cleaning, installing vapor barrier, sealing, no dehumidifier, no unexpected problems according to these people it'll cost you $1,500 to $4,000.

Speaker 1: 5:03

But let's look at a more realistic proposal because you know basically we're looking at cost of a crawl space encapsulation. You know plastic dehu, active ventilation system, installing electrical. Nobody ever talks about that. What's going to run that dehu and that active ventilation? What if you got standing water in a sump pump? You know that's got to be installed. You got to put electrical. How much do electricians charge to run three or four outlets in a crawl space? It's not cheap. That alone is probably $1,000 to $1,500 to have the electrician come out and do that. So that blows that $1,500 price out of the water. So let's look at some other variables the cost of crawlspace encapsulation. I already talked about labor and your time that you value and all that sort of stuff. But another one is the size of the crawl space. That is a huge factor when it comes to cost. If you've got a 500 square foot crawl space versus a 4,500 square foot crawl space, that's a huge difference.

Speaker 1: 6:04

I don't know if you all seen the video where we went in and redid a crawl space and it was a $25,000 redo. It was a 3,500, I think it was 3,250 or 3,500 square foot crawl space. They charged them $25,000 to do it wrong. They didn't even do any mold, they didn't pull the insulation, they didn't put in the proper waterproofing system. As a matter of fact, they laid the pipe on the dirt so they didn't even dig to put in the pipe. That was $25,000. We had to come back in and redo it and we charged $40,000 to redo that 3,500 square foot crawl space. And it was done. Soda blasted another sump pump. The pipe was actually in the ground, the vapor barrier was immaculate, everything was set all that. So this $5,000 to $1,500 estimate that you get from these people is a little bit ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Another variable that I want to talk to you about is the work or the type of work that you're having done. As I mentioned before, if you're just throwing down black plastic and sealing something and cleaning something, that's really not going to take a lot of time. It'd probably take a day or less to throw down black plastic in a crawl space, but most of our crawl space encapsulation projects average around four days. All right, so if you don't have mold, it's not going to cost as much. If you do have mold, it's going to cost you more. If you don't have flooding, it's not going to cost you as much. If you do have flooding, it's going to cost you more.

Speaker 1: 7:35

If your crawl space is short, in other words it's 12 to 18 inches tall, that takes a lot more labor than a three to four square, three to four height crawl space. On the other hand, if your crawl space is nine feet tall, that takes a lot more labor. You got to get a ladder out, go up and get the insulation out. We've even done crawl spaces 22 feet tall on one end these houses in Gatlinburg that are built on the side of cliffs. You got one side that's two feet tall and the other side's 22 feet tall and you got to put some roofing ladder up that thing on unlevel ground. It's dangerous to do that kind of stuff, but those are the kind of situations that you got to look at.

Speaker 1: 8:17

The other thing is are you going to put in a dehumidifier, a dehumidifier alone? If you decide to put in a dehumidifier yourself, you're looking at probably $1,100 to $1,500, depending on what model you get. So, again, these are all factors that you need to look at. What I would look at instead of price is quality. What are you getting? Do an estimate, do two, three estimates. Whatever it takes to get a feel for what people are charging in your area. Make sure that you go with the one that's creating a worry-free crawl space. On average, across the board, crawlspace encapsulation averages around $15,000. That's about an average that we're looking at. Here at Crawl Space Ninja, many of our jobs are about $15,000. Okay, some are $8,000, some are $30,000, but on average, we see some that are around $15,000. So if you just start with that number, it might help you out. I'm Michael Church, crawl Space Ninja. We hope you make it a happy and blessed day and we'll see you later.