Crawl space insulation in Tallahassee FL - warmer floors over a dry crawl space

Most people call me about cold floors in winter, a musty smell, or a power bill that keeps creeping up even after the attic's been done. Under the house I usually find insulation that has fallen out of the joists or soaked up water, and gaps around pipes letting air straight up into the rooms. The price moves with whether we insulate the walls or the floor, how much old insulation has to come out first and how tight the space is to work in. The schedule mostly turns on what has to be fixed before we start, like a moisture problem, a gas appliance check or a permit. I look at the space in person and go over what I found before you get a number.

Moisture is the first thing I look at under a house, before we talk about insulating the walls or the floor, because fresh insulation over a damp crawl space just gives you a damp crawl space you can't see anymore. If there's a gas furnace or water heater down there, we get it checked before anything is closed up. Then our crew pulls out insulation that's wet, sagging or full of droppings, seals the holes around pipes and wiring so the new material isn't fighting a draft, and fits the insulation tight all the way to the edges, where it most often comes up short. On materials, closed-cell foam, a dense foam that blocks moisture, costs more but seals air as it goes on. I usually lean toward foam on the walls when ductwork runs through the crawl space, since that keeps the ducts inside the house, and toward sealing and insulating the floor when the space is empty, because there's no sense paying foam prices to protect dirt. Before we leave I check the work and walk you through what we did and why.

Cold floors are often only part of a drafty house. If air is also slipping in around windows, outlets and the attic hatch, our air sealing services close those gaps so the house holds the air you pay to cool and heat. Older homes with empty exterior walls can still feel cold once the floor is done, and wall insulation takes care of that side of the problem.

Leon County is warm and humid with mild winters, and that damp air is what makes crawl spaces here tricky. Vents were meant to dry these spaces out, but in hot, humid places like ours they tend to pull in wet air instead, and in summer that moisture settles on floor framing cooled by your AC, which feeds mold and soft wood. So when I see open vents and damp joists together, I don't assume the vents are helping. We see the same damp crawl spaces on jobs in Bradfordville and Crawfordville, and we handle them the same way.

Permits depend on which side of the city line your house sits. Inside city limits, the City of Tallahassee requires permits for alterations, and outside them the Leon County Development Services Department issues building permits. We find out which office covers your address, check with it whether your job needs a permit, and handle the paperwork when it does.