Why Crawl Space Encapsulation Actually Costs $15,000, Not $1,500

Tired of misleading information about crawl space encapsulation costs? In this frank, no-nonsense episode, I cut through the confusion to reveal what you'll actually pay for quality crawl space work and why those $1,500-$4,000 estimates you see online are dangerously inaccurate.

Drawing from years of industry experience, I break down the real factors that determine crawl space encapsulation pricing. We explore the crucial difference between DIY and professional work, including the often-overlooked value of your time. Would you rather spend 3-4 weeks crawling under your house, or have professionals complete the job in 3-4 days? I share candid insights about labor costs, insurance coverage, and the significant difference between hiring experienced professionals versus day laborers.

The discussion gets particularly eye-opening when I analyze common cost components that online estimates conveniently omit. Most homeowners don't realize that electrical work alone for a dehumidifier and sump pump can add $1,000-$1,500 to your project. Speaking of dehumidifiers—an absolute necessity for proper encapsulation—they'll cost another $1,100-$1,500 by themselves. Add in variables like crawl space size (from tiny 500 sq ft spaces to massive 4,500 sq ft areas), height challenges (some as low as 12 inches, others as tall as 22 feet!), and existing moisture or mold issues, and you quickly understand why the national average for quality encapsulation hovers around $15,000.

I share a sobering real-world example of a homeowner who paid $25,000 for improper work that had to be completely redone for $40,000. This illustrates why focusing solely on price rather than quality creates expensive problems down the road. Whether you're considering DIY options or hiring professionals, this episode provides the honest cost breakdown you need to make informed decisions about your crawl space project. Subscribe to our channel for more straight-talking crawl space advice that could save you thousands!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
Today I want to talk to youabout cost.
How much does it cost toencapsulate a crawl space?
Stay tuned If you're new toCrawl Space Ninja.
We talk about everythingrelated to crawl space
encapsulation, waterproofing anddehumidification.
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(00:21):
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So this is kind of a loadedquestion.
All right, it is very difficultfor me to give you specifics on
cost and all that sort of stuff, so I'm going to give you some
generals on cost.
Okay, just so you know all ofthese Bob Villas and Angie lists

(00:44):
and all these people say thatit costs about $5,000 to $15,000
to encapsulate a crawl space,and I'm here to tell you that no
one has ruined the cost factorfor home remodeling more than
these DIY videos and all that Iremember watching.
You know some landscaper saythey spent $300 and mulched

(01:04):
their yard and it made theiroutside worth 30 grand.
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
So what you have to look at isthat everything has gone up
Everything, fuel, insurance,labor materials.
Nothing has been hit harder inour industry than plastic.
Anything and everything we useis made of plastic, right?

(01:24):
The vapor barrier's got plasticin it, the dehu's got plastic
in it, our tools have plastic init.
You know everything is plasticright.
So what I'm going to share withyou is some things to think
about about cost.
So if you're going to DIY thecrawl space, your cost, your
dollar cost, is going to be less.
But I want to share with yousomething what's your time worth

(01:46):
?
Okay, so if you're an executivethat's making, you know,
$150,000 a year and you decideto jump in your crawl space and
encapsulate it, how much did youreally save by doing that
yourself?
So you know how much is yourtime worth.
If you're on the lower end ofthe income scale, it could save

(02:08):
you quite a bit of money versuspaying a crawlspace
encapsulation professional.
But also keep in mind that it'sgoing to take you a lot longer.
You know, I recently did aninterview Actually it's not that
recent anymore, it was a coupleof years ago.
I did an interview with agentleman in the Air Force that
encapsulated his crawl spaceduring the pandemic and I
believe he said it took himthree to four weeks straight to

(02:30):
do his crawl space.
He did soda blasting and allthat sort of thing.
So imagine if it takes youthree to four weeks straight to
encapsulate your crawl spacewhen you could hire someone to
do it in three to four days andit's done and you don't have to
deal with it.
So that's the biggest factorthat I want to share with you is
the labor factor.
If you're going to do ityourself, you're going to save a

(02:51):
lot more money than if you'regoing to pay somebody.
But, at the same time, payingemployees is different company
to company as well.
We pay our employees prettygood, the ninjas that go out
into the crawl space and fix thecrawl spaces.
They've been with us for years,a lot of them, because they
make pretty good money.
Now, if you want me to go outand hire some work, release or

(03:15):
go to Home Depot and throwsomebody a t-shirt where I'm
paying them eight bucks an hourunder the table, that guy's
going to be charging you a lotless.
I know, by the way, that guy'sgoing to be charging you a lot
less.
Okay, so those are the.
I know, by the way, that guydoesn't have insurance either,
not registered business.
What happens if that gentlemanthat he picked up or that lady
that he picked up at Home Depotwith that t-shirt gets hurt,

(03:35):
what is that going to cost you?
Okay, so all of those have tobe factors that have to be
considered in crawl spaceencapsulation.
All right, so let's get intosome of the other things that I
want you to think about.
I love reading blogs.
You know by you know differentpeople, and this one is very
interesting.
It says you know, crawl spaceencapsulation costs anywhere
between $1,500 and $4,000.

(03:57):
And I want to share with youwhat they mean by crawl space
encapsulation.
I'm not going to tell you who itis Light cleaning.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
Are they cleaning out the crawlspace or are they cleaning the
wood?
I don't even know what lightcleaning is.
They don't really say Vaporbarrier.
Well, are they throwing downHome Depot six mil black plastic

(04:18):
?
Are they putting up a 12 mil?
Are they attaching it to thewalls, wrapping the pillars?
Is there any tape?
Because they don't use.
They don't mention tape.
They just mentioned vaporbarrier Ceiling, again
S-E-A-L-I-N-G.
I have no idea what sealing is.
Are they sealing the vents?
Because if they are, they'renot putting in a dehumidifier.

(04:40):
They even say no dehumidifier.
Of course they're not puttingin a dehumidifier.
No unexpected problems.
Good luck with that.
There's all kinds of unexpectedproblems in a crawl space that
you got to deal with.
So if you're doing lightcleaning, installing vapor
barrier, sealing, nodehumidifier, no unexpected
problems according to thesepeople it'll cost you $1,500 to

(05:02):
$4,000.
But let's look at a morerealistic proposal because you
know basically we're looking atcost of a crawl space
encapsulation.
You know plastic dehu, activeventilation system, installing
electrical.
Nobody ever talks about that.
What's going to run that dehuand that active ventilation?
What if you got standing waterin a sump pump?

(05:23):
You know that's got to beinstalled.
You got to put electrical.
How much do electricians chargeto run three or four outlets in
a crawl space?
It's not cheap.
That alone is probably $1,000to $1,500 to have the
electrician come out and do that.
So that blows that $1,500 priceout of the water.
So let's look at some othervariables the cost of crawlspace

(05:45):
encapsulation.
I already talked about laborand your time that you value and
all that sort of stuff.
But another one is the size ofthe crawl space.
That is a huge factor when itcomes to cost.
If you've got a 500 square footcrawl space versus a 4,500
square foot crawl space, that'sa huge difference.
I don't know if you all seen thevideo where we went in and

(06:07):
redid a crawl space and it was a$25,000 redo.
It was a 3,500, I think it was3,250 or 3,500 square foot crawl
space.
They charged them $25,000 to doit wrong.
They didn't even do any mold,they didn't pull the insulation,
they didn't put in the properwaterproofing system.

(06:28):
As a matter of fact, they laidthe pipe on the dirt so they
didn't even dig to put in thepipe.
That was $25,000.
We had to come back in and redoit and we charged $40,000 to
redo that 3,500 square footcrawl space.
And it was done.
Soda blasted another sump pump.
The pipe was actually in theground, the vapor barrier was

(06:52):
immaculate, everything was setall that.
So this $5,000 to $1,500estimate that you get from these
people is a little bitridiculous.
Another variable that I want totalk to you about is the work or
the type of work that you'rehaving done.
As I mentioned before, ifyou're just throwing down black
plastic and sealing somethingand cleaning something, that's

(07:13):
really not going to take a lotof time.
It'd probably take a day orless to throw down black plastic
in a crawl space, but most ofour crawl space encapsulation
projects average around fourdays.
All right, so if you don't havemold, it's not going to cost as
much.
If you do have mold, it's goingto cost you more.
If you don't have flooding,it's not going to cost you as
much.
If you do have flooding, it'sgoing to cost you more.

(07:35):
If your crawl space is short, inother words it's 12 to 18
inches tall, that takes a lotmore labor than a three to four
square, three to four heightcrawl space.
On the other hand, if yourcrawl space is nine feet tall,
that takes a lot more labor.
You got to get a ladder out, goup and get the insulation out.
We've even done crawl spaces 22feet tall on one end these

(08:00):
houses in Gatlinburg that arebuilt on the side of cliffs.
You got one side that's twofeet tall and the other side's
22 feet tall and you got to putsome roofing ladder up that
thing on unlevel ground.
It's dangerous to do that kindof stuff, but those are the kind
of situations that you got tolook at.
The other thing is are you goingto put in a dehumidifier, a

(08:21):
dehumidifier alone?
If you decide to put in adehumidifier yourself, you're
looking at probably $1,100 to$1,500, depending on what model
you get.
So, again, these are allfactors that you need to look at
.
What I would look at instead ofprice is quality.
What are you getting?
Do an estimate, do two, threeestimates.
Whatever it takes to get a feelfor what people are charging in

(08:42):
your area.
Make sure that you go with theone that's creating a worry-free
crawl space.
On average, across the board,crawlspace encapsulation
averages around $15,000.
That's about an average thatwe're looking at.
Here at Crawl Space Ninja, manyof our jobs are about $15,000.

(09:03):
Okay, some are $8,000, some are$30,000, but on average, we see
some that are around $15,000.
So if you just start with thatnumber, it might help you out.
I'm Michael Church, crawl SpaceNinja.
We hope you make it a happy andblessed day and we'll see you
later.