Crawlspace Insulation
in Fleetwood, BC

Fleetwood occupies the gentle rolling terrain between the Serpentine River valley to the south and the higher ground of Fraser Heights to the north. The soils in Fleetwood are predominantly clay-loam with moderate drainage — better than the river-adjacent areas of Newton, but still prone to holding water against foundation walls during the wet season. Homes built in Fleetwood through the 1970s and 1980s are the primary candidates for crawlspace remediation work in this neighbourhood.

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.