Church Street Crawlspace

So I recently had a weird situation where I was trying to clean out behind the washer and dryer and I stepped in the wrong place and my foot went right through the floor, creating an opening to the crawlspace. I knew that the floor in the laundry room was a little iffy and definitely had plans to pull up the thin stick-on vinyl floor tiles and put down some better flooring, and possibly replace the subfloor, but I didn’t think it was urgent until I found myself with an actual hole through the floor.

The hole was in the foot-wide space between a wall and the side of the washing machine (where no-one usually steps), so the short term solution was just to glue a board to the floor and make it look intentional by storing a couple folding chairs on it. Because I only had a couple hours to deal with it before leaving so our next Airbnb guests could check in.

But I figured it was only a matter of time before someone else punched another hole into the floor. So I found myself in a place where I was going to have to replace the floor in the laundry room. And it’s the same flooring in the kitchen and hall bathroom and although the floors in those rooms don’t seem to be in as bad of condition, they need to be dealt with eventually so why not do it all at once. And if I’m replacing the kitchen floor, I’d really like to replace the cabinets and countertops too. And obviously before I do any of this, I want to make sure that the floor system and foundation is solid. So in my head, the whole thing spiraled out of control like a wild tornado, uprooting everything in its path.

The following week, after the guests checked out, I was able to get a couple crawlspace contractors out to do an assessment of how bad the situation was down there. Do we have rotting wood or termite damage or a generally deteriorating structure?

Here was my experience with each of them:

Crawlspace Ninja

I used the “get a free quote” form on the Crawlspace Ninja website. I filled out my name and contact information and address. Then they called me to ask what was wrong with my crawlspace (they theoretically offer a number of services related to encapsulation, waterproofing, mold remediation, and insulation). We discussed a time that worked with both of our schedules. I was told that the inspection would take about 45 minutes and that I would need to be available for 90 minutes in total. They then emailed me some videos to help me learn about their product their “products, air quality, and much more!”.

At this point I was fairly certain I had just invited a salesman into my home who wanted to sell me a product (a full crawlspace encapsulation system), rather than offer me a solution to my problems.

When Jeremy, the salesman, showed up, he introduced himself and asked if I knew of any specific problems. I mentioned the hole in the floor and the generally high humidity levels in the home. Then he got to work inspecting and taking pictures in the crawlspace.

Jeremy managed to find the cause of the hole in the floor and also showed me a number of pictures of fallen insulation, cobwebs, possible mold, moisture and humidity readings. (I’m putting all of the pictures at the end of this post). And then he opened his powerpoint presentation where he told me all about how his company was founded by veterans, and that they do crawl space encapsulations to code, and have over 700 5-star reviews, and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and no-haggle, no-pressure pricing, and low monthly payments or job completed in phases to fit your budget, that their product does not smell like cat pee, and they have optional lifetime service agreements.

His proposal for my modest house built in 1828 that we paid $170K for: a full crawlspace encapsulation system including a vent and dehumidifier for $29,939.

Jeremy then encouraged me to haggle which I wasn’t particularly interested in doing. So he slowly offered random discounts for booking today or having flexible scheduling or skipping some of the mold-remediation steps and managed to offer me a Silver Package for $21,649.

When I didn’t jump on the offer, he asked why I didn’t like his product, why I didn’t like his company, or why I didn’t like him. No pressure.

Crawlspace Medic

I used the “book your free inspection” form on the Crawlspace Medic website. I filled out my name, contact information, address, concerns, and preferred method of contact. Then they texted me (my preferred method) to propose a specific date and time, which I confirmed.

When Ben, the inspector, showed up, he introduced himself and asked about any specific concerns. I mentioned the hole in the floor and the generally high humidity levels in the home. Then he got to work inspecting and taking pictures in the crawlspace.

Ben also managed to find the cause of the hole in the floor and also showed me a number of pictures of fallen insulation, possible mold, moisture and humidity readings, and a temporary joist supporting way too much weight – a single brick at the top of a pier supporting much of the living room. We discussed which of these items might be priorities to address and how far I wanted to go. He acknowledged that this house has survived the last 95 years just fine without a fully encapsulated crawlspace.

Based on my feedback, he emailed me a quote broken down by each line item so I could choose which solutions I wanted to pursue. I emailed back with a few questions which he was able to answer and in the end, I actually pursued all of the proposed solutions – some big structural repairs, cleaning, removal of the old, non-functional insulation, installation of a vapor barrier, and addition of new crawlspace doors for a total of $5,253.

I was able to quickly agree to the proposal online and left a note about my availability for the project since I didn’t want them working when we had Airbnb guests in the home. They had no problem working around my schedule and continued to send me text updates throughout the project. When they were finished, Ben sent me pictures of the finished job. Thank you!

Which is to say wow! what a difference between these two companies.

Here’s a picture of what started this whole process: