Musty smell or damp dirt under the house? We find where the water's coming from, then seal plastic across the crawl space floor.
Vapor barrier installation in Aliso Viejo means covering the dirt floor of your crawl space with heavy plastic and sealing it to the walls and piers as one continuous sheet, so moisture from the ground stays out of the space under your house.
Most calls start with a musty smell coming up through the floor, or damp dirt someone spotted through the crawl space hatch. Plastic handles the moisture that rises out of the ground, so it's usually worth doing, but if the real trouble is water running in from the yard, I'll say so before I sell you any plastic.
The price mostly comes down to how big the crawl space is, how tight it is to move around in, how much has to come out before the sheet goes down and how thick a sheet you pick. Sealing the plastic up the walls and around every pier takes longer than laying it flat, and the schedule turns on whether drainage or sprinkler fixes have to be planned first. My estimate lists each step and anything that has to happen before the barrier, so you can see where your number comes from.
It's a short path from the first call to a finished floor, and you'll know who's doing what at each step.
You call or send a message, and we set up a time for me to come out and look at the job myself. We've been in business since 2013, and the estimate I write lists each step plus anything that has to be fixed before the plastic goes in.
California's licensing board counts a home improvement contractor as one it has licensed, so that's a fair first question for anyone quoting your crawl space. We're licensed and fully insured, and our own crew does the work.
Our crew works in the order the estimate lays out, during the hours Aliso Viejo allows for construction, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, with no work on Sundays or federal holidays. I look it over before we call the job finished.
Before any plastic goes down, I look at how the yard slopes toward the foundation, where the downspouts empty and where the sprinklers hit, because plastic on the ground won't fix poor drainage or a sprinkler soaking the foundation. If I find one of those, I point it out and we plan the barrier alongside the fix, not in place of it. Then the barrier goes in as one sealed sheet across the whole floor, since loose pieces lying on the dirt leave the edges and corners open.
A ground cover only deals with the bottom of the house. If you've got hot rooms upstairs or a high power bill, the gaps at the top are usually where to look, and attic air sealing closes them before anything else goes up there. For an older home with thin or missing insulation, retrofit insulation adds it to the house you already have, and I can look at both on the same visit.
Once any water fixes are planned, the work itself follows the same order every time.
Anything stored down there comes out, and we pick up debris and sharp bits that could poke through the plastic. If you can move your own boxes ahead of time, it saves a step.
We roll the plastic out over the dirt and overlap the seams, so no bare ground is left where moisture can come up. The edges get the same care as the middle, because that's where gaps usually hide.
The sheet runs up the foundation walls and wraps each pier, and we seal it there so it works as one piece. A barrier that stops at the floor leaves a gap all the way around.
We go back over every seam and edge looking for openings before we pack up. The scraps leave with us, and the access hatch gets closed up the way we found it.
Send the form or call (949) 619-8040, and we respond within 1 business day to set up a visit. The quote is free and done on site, with no pressure to book. It helps if you know the rough square footage of the crawl space, whether it has vents to the outside and anywhere you've seen standing water.
(949) 619-8040Yes, national building guidance says a plastic ground cover should go in whether the crawl space has vents open to outside air or is closed off. So either kind of crawl space can plan on one as part of keeping the space dry, and I'll check which kind you have when I come out.
No, a vapor barrier isn't waterproofing, and it won't stop water running in from outside. In vented crawl spaces most of the moisture comes from poor grading, no drainage around the foundation or watering that's set up wrong, so those need fixing alongside the plastic.
A federal weatherization guide sets 6 mil, or six thousandths of an inch, as the minimum, which is a national figure and not a California rule. Thicker plastic resists tears better and lasts longer, and that matters if a plumber will ever crawl around down there. Check the thickness on every quote you get so you're comparing the same thing.
Across the US, a basic vapor barrier, just plastic over the dirt floor, usually costs about $0.50 to $1.50 per square foot. That's the national going rate and not our price, and sealing up walls and piers, a thicker sheet or water fixes can add to it. I'll measure your crawl space and write out each step so you see your own number.
Aliso Viejo's own safety planning lists flooding among the risks the city expects to face, along with earthquakes and wildfire, which is one more reason to check how water moves around your foundation before counting on plastic. Permit questions belong to the city's Building & Safety office at 949-425-2540, and we check with them about your job.
We're based in Aliso Viejo and work across Orange County, including Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills and Lake Forest, plus plenty of cities nearby. The order stays the same wherever the house sits, with the water sorted out first and the plastic after.
If the damp smell is getting stronger, one visit tells you whether it's ground moisture, a drainage problem or both, so call (949) 619-8040 or send the form.
If you're not sure what's going on under your floor, give us a call and I'll walk you through what I'd check first.
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