Every winter we get the same call: the floors are freezing, the heat's running constantly, and it never feels warm. People assume it's their windows or their furnace. More often than not, it's the crawl space under the floor.
Where the cold comes from
An unsealed crawl space with open vents is, for all practical purposes, outdoors. Cold winter air fills it and sits directly against the underside of your floor. Wood doesn't insulate much, so that cold radiates straight up into the room. No amount of heat from above fully overcomes a cold space pressing up from below.
Why heating harder doesn't work
Turning up the thermostat heats the air in the room, but the floor stays cold because it's in constant contact with the cold crawl space. You end up paying to heat a house that still feels drafty, while a lot of that heat leaks down through the floor and out through the foundation. It's a losing battle until you deal with the space itself.
The fix: seal and insulate the space
- Seal the crawl space and close the vents so cold outside air stops filling it
- Insulate the foundation walls and rim joists, bringing the space inside your home's warm envelope
- Insulate exposed pipes and ducts so they're not losing heat or at risk of freezing
- Add humidity control so the now-sealed space stays dry
Warmer floors, lower bills
Once the crawl space is sealed and insulated, the floor above it warms up because it's no longer touching cold air. Drafts drop, the furnace isn't fighting a constant heat leak, and your winter bills come down. It's one of the best comfort-per-dollar upgrades in our climate, and it matters even more on the larger homes out in Fall River where there's a lot of floor to keep warm.