Crawl space insulation in Davenport IA - warmer floors and a crawl space that dries out

Most calls start with a cold floor. The kitchen or back bedroom over the crawl space never warms up, or the furnace runs all winter and the power bill shows it. The price mostly comes down to three things. The first is which side we insulate, the walls or the floor above. The second is how big and how tight the space is. The third is what has to happen before any insulation goes in, like a crawl space vapor barrier over the dirt or mold cleanup. The schedule turns on those same first steps, because nothing gets insulated until the moisture, any mold and any gas equipment down there are sorted out. You get your own number from the estimate, once I've been down there and seen it.

I go down first. Before any vents get closed, I want to know what fuel-burning equipment is in the crawl space, like a furnace or water heater that gets its air through those vents, because sealing up around it without a plan can trap moisture or put your family at real risk. I also look for mold, since that gets dealt with before anything else goes in. Once those are handled, we decide with you whether to insulate the walls or the floor above. Then our crew clears the space, does the air sealing, which means closing the gaps where outside air gets in, and puts the insulation in. We clean up after ourselves, and I check the finished job with you.

Crawl space work doesn't always end at the crawl space. If the floor warms up but the outside rooms are still cold, wall insulation is usually the next thing to look at. Our air sealing services go after the drafts upstairs that insulation alone won't stop.

Davenport's Building Counter issues permits for remodels and heating and air conditioning work. Its list of jobs that need a permit names remodels, roofing and windows, but it says nothing about crawl space insulation. That leaves the question open, so the Building Counter is the place to ask. If your job does need a permit, we take care of it with the city and tell you about it up front. The city expects building and mechanical work to generally be done by a licensed and bonded contractor, who takes out the permit for the owner. A house in a floodplain or in certain zoning can face extra requirements and applications. If you own a single-family home and want to do the work yourself, the city lets you remodel without a contractor license. That leaves out mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, which matters if the furnace or water heater down there needs changes.

A lot of the older houses we work in around Davenport have a crawl space under an addition or the back rooms and a basement under the rest. Those are the floors that go cold first. The vents are usually still open and the ground cover is torn or missing, which is why we check before we change anything. We're based in Davenport and work in cities on both sides of the river, and we find the same setup on jobs in Bettendorf and Rock Island.