Crawlspace Insulation
in Burquitlam, BC

Burquitlam sits at the boundary of Burnaby and Coquitlam, in the Como Lake area — one of the Lower Mainland's older suburban communities, with housing stock dating from the 1950s and 1960s. The neighbourhood has been experiencing rapid densification around the Burquitlam SkyTrain station, with high-rise development replacing some of the older single-family housing. What remains of the original residential stock has crawlspace foundations that are 50 to 70 years old and have had limited or no professional attention in many cases.

The majority of homes in Surrey and the surrounding communities built before 2000 have fiberglass batt insulation installed between the floor joists in the crawlspace. When this insulation was new and dry, it provided reasonable thermal resistance. The problem is that fiberglass batts installed in a vented crawlspace environment in a high-rainfall climate like ours rarely stay dry. They absorb ambient moisture, sag out of their cavities, and gradually collapse onto the ground. Wet fiberglass insulation has essentially zero R-value, adds weight that can pull down on vapor barriers or staples, and provides a hospitable nesting environment for rodents.

For crawlspaces that are not being fully encapsulated, we install new unfaced fiberglass batts or mineral wool between the joists, but only after addressing the moisture conditions that destroyed the previous insulation. Installing fresh batts into a still-damp crawlspace environment means you'll be back in the same situation within a few years. Proper sequencing matters: drainage, vapor barrier, then insulation.