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Lancaster County · 22 years

Crawl Space Repair in Lancaster County, PA

Crawl Space Repair in Lancaster, PA

The room under your floor counts.

Half the air in your first floor came from your crawl space. If it is damp down there, you are breathing it upstairs — and the joists are paying for it.

(800) 834-6584
Repairs to the structure of a crawl spaceCutaway of a crawl space: subfloor and joists overhead on a girder, an open space beneath, and a dirt floor between two block foundation walls. At the left a red rotted sill and joist end have been cut out, with green replacement sill and a green sistered joist beside them. A gold pool of standing water on the dirt is answered by a green perforated drain in a gravel trench. In the middle an existing steel jack post shows gold corrosion; to its right a green adjustable post with screw-jack threads stands on a poured concrete pad and takes the girder. Green insulation hatching fills the joist bays at the far end.Rotted sill and joist ends cut out and sisteredFailed jack postNew post on a poured padStanding waterInsulation replaced

What's included

The actual scope

  • Drainage and sump for standing water
  • Joist, sill and girder repair
  • Wood rot and fungal treatment
  • Support post and jack correction
  • Insulation replacement

How it runs

Start to warranty

  1. Crawl inspection with photos you keep
  2. Repair structure and stop the water
  3. Seal and condition the space
  4. Lifetime warranty

Terms, plainly

Free estimate. No money down. Financing available. Lifetime warranty on waterproofing systems, and it transfers when you sell.

How the system works

A sealed, conditioned crawl space

Not to scale · sized to the space
A sealed, conditioned crawl spaceCutaway through a crawl space under a floor, with a foundation wall at each side and bare ground below. Blue arrows show moisture rising out of the soil. A green liner covers the ground and turns up both walls, the vent at the left is sealed shut, gold hatching marks insulation on the walls, and a dehumidifier and a sealed sump sit in the space. Five numbered callouts. One, gold: moisture rising year-round out of the bare ground. Two, green: a 20-mil reinforced liner across the floor and up the walls. Three, green: the sealed vent and the insulated wall behind it. Four, green: a dedicated dehumidifier holding the space dry. Five, green: drainage and a sealed sump carrying collected water out.12345GradeFloor aboveInsulated wall
  1. The problem: Moisture rises out of bare ground all year. Half the air in your first floor comes up through it.
  2. The system: A 20-mil reinforced liner covers the floor and runs up the walls, sealed and mechanically fastened.
  3. The system: Vents get sealed and the walls insulated — a vented crawl space just imports humid summer air.
  4. The system: A dedicated dehumidifier holds the space dry, which is what stops mold and wood rot returning.
  5. The system: Where water collects, drainage and a sealed sump carry it out before it reaches the liner.

Where you live changes the job

Crawl Space Repair on limestone is not crawl space repair on red shale

Lancaster County has four distinct ground conditions, and each one changes how we size and place this work. Your town page has the specifics.

Limestone valley floor

Interior French drain tied into a sealed sump basin with a battery backup, because the volume shows up fast and all at once. Wall vapor barrier where the block has been wicking.

Northern red shale and clay

Interior drain at the footing to relieve the pressure, plus wall reinforcement (carbon fiber or steel) anywhere the block has started to move. Exterior grading and downspout extensions to stop feeding the clay.

Southern schist uplands

Drainage on the uphill side first — interior drain plus exterior interception where the grade allows — and a discharge line routed far enough downslope that it does not simply return.

Susquehanna river terraces

Sub-slab drainage with a high-capacity sealed sump and battery backup, mortar repointing on stone walls, and encapsulation where the space is unfinished.

Before you call

Crawl Space Repair questions we get from Lancaster County

Our crawl space is barely two feet high. Can anybody even work in there?

That's normal for this housing stock and our crews are set up for it. Tight-access work takes longer than a basement job and it's entirely doable. The estimator goes in first, photographs what's down there and hands you the pictures, so you see it without having to crawl.

How would I know if the floor joists are rotting?

Bounce in the floor above, a sag along one line, or doors upstairs that have stopped sitting square are the usual signs. Underneath, rot shows as darkened wood that gives under a screwdriver. It's slow, it's quiet, and it's why we check the structure on every crawl inspection.

Is a dirt floor down there a problem, or is that just how it is?

It's how a lot of them were built, and it's still a problem. Bare soil releases moisture into the space continuously, and that moisture goes up into your first floor. The structural repairs come first; sealing the ground is what keeps them from being needed again.

Would fixing the crawl space help with cold floors upstairs?

Usually a great deal. Cold floors are generally damp insulation, missing insulation, or air moving through a vented space in January. Once the water is handled and the space is sealed and insulated properly, the room above it stops feeling like it sits over a cellar.

What does it cost to fix a sagging floor?

It's driven by how much structure needs replacing and how tight the access is, so it's quoted after we've been underneath. Post and girder correction is usually modest; replacing rotted joists and sill is more. Free inspection, written scope, fixed price before anything starts.

Other things we fix while we are there

Get a real price on crawl space repair.

Free estimate anywhere in Lancaster County, and an honest answer about whether it can wait.

(800) 834-6584