By Chris Balzer
As children, some of us had places which scared us: the space under the bed, a cracked closet door or shadows in the dark which drove our imaginations wild. As adults, some of us have different scary places: our bank balance, our retirement investments, our children going off to college, a friend or relative’s health or not waking up to our alarms. We all have things or places which can trouble us.
One space which causes some of us grief is a crawl space under our homes. Not all of us have these and they’re not really scary. Merriam-Webster defines crawl space as: a shallow unfinished space beneath the first floor or under the roof of a building, especially for access to plumbing or wiring. These spaces are typically insulated with rolled insulation with some type of netting to keep the insulation from falling down. Some of us who have this type of insulation have witnessed our wild native friends: beach mice, squirrels, birds, and even geckos. Yes, geckos, the small chiefly tropical and nocturnal insectivorous lizards, also like this space and will rip the netting to gain access to the insulation and become non paying roommates under our homes.
At ECES, fixing crawl spaces was not always a service we provided, because there was not really a great solution other than spray foam or replace the rolled insulation and netting which would once again become a playground for our wild friends and would need replacing in a few years.
We believe in finding solutions which are highly energy efficient, healthy and will last the life of the home. A local Destin resident introduced us to a system which was a collaboration between LSU (AgCenter), Forest Product Laboratory and Raised Floor Living. This system was a year study which took 12 homes and six different insulation systems after Hurricane Katrina. The types of insulation included Open Spray Foam, at three different thicknesses, one with a vapor barrier, Closed Spray Foam, Kraft-faced fiberglass batt (typical in most homes) and our Max Cap System. Max Cap and Closed Spray Foam showed the best performance from all types tested. The main differences we found between Closed Spray Foaming the crawl space and installing Max Cap, is there is no off gassing and ease of maintenance for plumbing or wiring with Max Cap. Plus it leaves the crawl space, in my opinion, with a clean, crisp look.
After many conversations with the director of LSU’s AgCenter, and countless hours of research, ECES added the Max Cap Crawl Space System to our services. This system gives our customers a piece of mind, knowing that their wild friends have been evicted, higher energy efficiency than before, maintenance free and will last the life of the home. If you have a scary place under your home and would like to not think about it again, we would be happy to see if your home is a fit for Max Cap.
Chris Balzer is Founder and President of Emerald Coast Energy Solutions and resides in the Santa Rosa Beach area with his wife and three children. For more information on how to save this summer and become energy efficient schedule an inspection by calling (850) 588-2870, visit www.trusteces.com or email wecare@trusteces.com and Beat the Heat.
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