Seal Foundation To Prevent Crawl Space Mold in Springfield Missouri
If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably never paid that much attention to the area where the wooden framing for your house meets the concrete foundation and just assume that the person who built your home sealed it correctly.
The technical terms for these parts of the framing where the first floor of your wood-framed home sits on top of the concrete foundation wall of your crawl space are known as the sill plates and rim joists or band joists.
A common mistake that many builders make is using fiberglass insulation in the crawl space to seal their rim joists. Fiberglass insulation still allows air to flow through pretty freely, which can result in condensation and mold growth.
There can also be significant gaps where the wood of the sill plates meets the concrete wall, allowing significant air leakage. Why is this a problem? The main two reasons are that condensation can cause mold growth and without this critical seal, you lose heat in the winter and cool air in the summer.
If you’d like to save money on your utility bills by not letting heat escape your crawl space, or have condensation build up that leads to crawl space mold growth, then you need to have your sill plates and rim joists professionally sealed and insulated. Dog Gone Mold uses anti-microbial foam insulation to properly seal sill plates and rim joists and prevent crawl space mold in Springfield Missouri.
The main benefit of sealing your rim joists and sill plates is that these are cold surfaces in the wintertime. If you have cold air leaking in around the sill plates and rim joists that meets the warmer sub-floor that is heated from your furnace running in the winter, this can cause condensation. Condensation over time leads to crawl space mold. By foam insulating and sealing your sill plates and rim joists, we can stop the air leakage and you won’t have condensation on your sill plates, rim joists and sub-floor that lead to mold growth.
The other benefit of sealing your rim joists and sill plates is temperature control. Anywhere from one third up to one half of the air in your home can come from the lowest level. If your crawl space is colder than necessary, that cold air will rise up into your home. This will lead to higher than necessary utility bills and potentially cold floors in the winter.
With your rim joists and sill plates properly sealed and insulated and air leakages stopped, the warm air will stay in the crawl space during the winter and not escape through these cracks and gaps around the perimeter.
Seal and insulate your sill plates and rim joists now to save money on your utility bills and avoid costly damage caused by crawl space mold.
Call Dog Gone Mold for a free crawl space inspection and let us give you an estimate on having us professionally seal and insulate your rim joists and sill plates with our anti-microbial foam insulation.