On Monday and Tuesday after work i hired Earl to help me work on the first stage of insulating under the house.  We started by hauling out as much garbage (old plumbing pieces, pipe insulation scrap, and cardboard), wood, and rocks out and stowing them outside the crawlspace entrance.  The wood will probably end up being burned in the outdoor fireplace.  The rock is valuable fill.  And the trash will be parceled into the garbage can as space is available.  We got perhaps half of the stuff out from under the house.

Then we measured the width of the back of the house and cut some very heavy duty plastic to roll out as a vapor barrier.  I also grabbed some zip ties so i could better anchor the wiring that was put in for the apartment and the hot tub.  We moved any major debris from the back part of the crawlspace toward the front of the house where the crawlspace entrance is.  Earl nailed the vapor barrier in place using large head nails with rubber gaskets – perhaps some sort of metal roofing nail?  I grabbed an entire 25 pound box of them a few years ago during the basket sale the hardware store has every year.  The thick plastic, rubber washer and wide head on the nails worked great.  We had initially thought about using some sort of furring strip to ensure that the plastic did not pull free from the walls.  I decided i did not want to spend an hour or so ripping plywood or 1-by material so we initially planned on using staple guns.

On Monday we got the first run of the vapor barrier down – about a 15 foot width – in the furthest back and thus most inaccessible part of the crawlspace.  I got almost all of the wiring suspended from the floor so it was out of our way.

Tuesday we cut another length of the plastic and hauled it underneath.  We spent some time shuttling more material toward the crawl space entries and then rolled the plastic out, unfolded the two sides of it and then worked on opposite ends to nail it in place.  We cut the plastic to wrap closely around the footings supporting the floor.  I also spent a few moments to rivet the apartment dryer vent duct together.  At some point the elbow below the floor had dropped so the renter’s dryer exhaust was just blowing into the crawl space – not good for the household moisture level.

Next we’ll need to haul the rest of the stuff out from under the house and we have about 20-25 more feet of soil that needs to be covered so we’ll probably have one and a half widths to finish.  Then we’ll tape the seams and Earl had a good suggestion – to cut a few drain holes in the lowest spots just in case there is a leak in the water or sewer line.  Then we’ll begin to install 4 inch thick rigid insulation around the inside of the crawlspace walls.  Finally we’ll lay 4 foot wide sheets of insulation around the inside perimeter to prevent cold from entering the space through the ground.  I’m going to need to make a larger opening to access the crawl space to get the insulation boards in there!

I qualified for a reimbursement of up to $5,500 for energy improvements to the house.  I spent a bit over $500 on the attic insulation.  All this prep work over the past few days will be minor in comparison to the job of cutting and fitting the rigid insulation around the entire crawlspace.  And any money spent on this probably does not count for reimbursement.  Adding a vapor barrier was not on the energy audit as a recommended action.  Fortunately, so far my only expense has been paying Earl.  I might buy some construction adhesive to better seal the edges and even the seams of the vapor barrier.  We did put nails in every foot and a half and the rigid insulation will be shingled over the plastic – we ran it up the walls part way.