Damp, musty air coming up through the floor? We cover the bare dirt in your crawl space so less ground moisture reaches your house.
A crawl space vapor barrier in East Los Angeles is a plastic sheet laid over the bare soil under your house. Put in well, it helps hold back the moisture and soil gases, like radon, that rise out of the ground toward your floors.
Most people call because the floors feel cold and clammy, the house smells musty, or someone went under there and found bare dirt or an old sheet torn to pieces. The price mostly comes down to how many square feet of ground need covering, whether your crawl space keeps its vents, how heavy a sheet the job needs and how much has to be cleared out first. The schedule turns on that same cleanup and on how much sealing the vents decision brings. At the estimate I look at the crawl space with you and write down what it needs and what has to come first, and if your floors also need crawl space insulation, I'll tell you which job goes first.
I come out to every estimate myself and look at the crawl space with you, so the person pricing the job has seen what's down there. A lead installer runs the crew on the job, and when they finish, I look over the work with you.
I spent years hauling junk out of garages and attics before I learned this trade, and I kept finding new material laid over soaked or dirty old material. That's why we fix the problem first and cover it second, because plastic laid over trash only hides it.
California's Contractors State License Board licenses and regulates the construction trades, and we're licensed and insured. That matters under your house, where our crew works in tight space around plumbing, ducts and wiring, and you shouldn't carry the risk if something goes wrong down there.
If your old cover is still doing its job, I'll tell you so and you keep your money. When we do the work, it's backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Call (213) 329-0372 or send the form to set up a visit.
Send the form or call (213) 329-0372, and we'll reply within one business day to set a time. I come out for the free on-site estimate myself, look at the crawl space with you and write down what it needs and what has to come first, with no pressure to book. It helps to have the rough square footage, whether it has vents and any pest warranty details handy.
East Los Angeles is unincorporated, so building rules here come from the county. LA County Public Works issues permits in unincorporated LA County and runs an East Los Angeles Building and Safety Office, and its permit list names new building, additions, alterations, repairs and grading, but not vapor barriers. That leaves the question open for a job like this, so the county is the place to ask. Before anything else we check which office covers your address, because some nearby cities contract with the county for building and safety while others run their own departments, and when a job calls for a permit, we take care of that step with them before work starts.
Under the houses we work on here and in nearby cities like Montebello and Monterey Park, we usually find bare dirt, an old sheet torn up by years of service visits, or stored things and debris pushed back under the floor. We get these calls from homeowners and landlords alike, and the job runs the same way for both. We're based in East Los Angeles and work across the cities around it.
Covering the bare soil with a vapor barrier is the usual way, because the plastic helps limit the moisture vapor and soil gases like radon rising out of the ground. It only works if it covers the ground completely and is put in well, so torn or partial sheets don't do much.
Crawl space encapsulation in the City of Los Angeles usually costs about $2 to $11 per square foot. That range is for closing up the whole crawl space, so a plain ground cover with the vents left open is usually less work. Your own number comes from the estimate, once I've seen the space.
It can. A 2010 research paper noted that less airflow in a closed crawl space may raise radon levels, which would call for a radon mitigation system. If you're planning to close the vents, ask how radon will be handled as part of the plan, and I'll go over it with you before you decide.
Mostly by letting us clear it, since stored items and debris have to come out so the plastic can cover the ground completely. If you have a pest treatment and you're closing the crawl space, check with your pest management company so the job leaves your treatment and warranty unaffected.
Yes, repairing an existing plastic ground cover is part of this work, not just putting in new ones. I'll look at the old sheet at the estimate and tell you whether patching makes sense or whether it's torn up badly enough to replace.
