Crawlspace Insulation
in Grandview Heights, BC

Grandview Heights is one of South Surrey's rapidly developing neighbourhoods, with a mix of townhouses, single-family homes, and multi-family residential projects built over the past decade. The newer construction in this area generally benefits from modern vapour barrier requirements in the BC Building Code, but "code minimum" is not always sufficient given local soil and drainage conditions — particularly as the neighbourhood transitions from a largely residential to a more urbanized form with increased impervious surfaces that alter surface water flow patterns.

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.