Insulating a Crawl Space My. Home. Science. Improving performance appearance. A vented crawl space above often has falling fiberglass insulation and moisture problems. Builders love crawl space foundations because theyre quick and inexpensive to build. You dont need heavy equipment to excavate a giant hole for a full basement. Instead, youre erecting short walls to get the first floor framing up off the ground. Asbestos insulated, 200C dry location, only for leads within apparatus or within raceway to apparatus. Crawl Space Moisture Barriers Where how to put a water or moisture barrier in crawl spaces. CRAWL SPACE MOISTURE BARRIERS CONTENTS how to stop moisture entry in. Insulation. Q What is the relative insulation and advantages of block versus frame houses A We have done considerable modeling of homes, as well as monitoring many. Foam board insulation products types and sizes. Learn about R values, uses and benefits of insulation board. Read more about this DIY guide to foam board. Wall Sheathing Options Choosing between OSB, plywood, fiberboard, rigid foam, diagonal boards, and fiberglassfaced gypsum panels. Ten steps to drying out the crawl space and keeping it dry how to remove moisture and water from crawlspaces and how to keep the crawl area dry How to deal with a. Cellofoam offers an easy to install DIY garage door insulation kit for noninsulated metal garage doors. Construction drywall A type of construction in which the interior wall finish is applied in a dry condition, generally in the form of sheet materials or wood. How to tile a shower. Tiling a shower stepbystep photographed instructions on how to build and tile a walk in shower yourself. Web portal for buildingrelated information with a whole building focus provided by the National Institute of Building Sciences. Areas include Design Guidance. Flashing%20over%20window%20-%20May%202007.jpg' alt='How To Install Poly Shield Sheathing' title='How To Install Poly Shield Sheathing' />If soil at the building site is rocky or wet, a crawl space minimizes the risk involved in digging and building a full basement. The failure of fluffy stuff. The encapsulation process results in a clean, dry interior space, as shown here. For many years, the standard way to build a crawl space involved venting the crawl space walls and installing fiberglass batt insulation between joists in the crawl space. The widespread availability of fiberglass insulation, along with its low cost, went along well with the other economies of crawl space construction. Unfortunately, the same fluffy batt insulation that works well in wood framed walls performs miserably in crawl spaces. Heres how energy expert Martin Holladay describes the disastrous results of installing fiberglass batts in a vented crawl space in a recent blog at Green. Building. Advisor. If youre perverse, and you want to build a damp, moldy, nasty crawl space, just do two things insulate the crawl space ceiling with fiberglass batts, and vent the crawl space to the exterior. If you live in the Southeast, within a few short years the fiberglass batts will begin to hang down at odd angles like drunken stalactites. Every summer, the open vents will introduce huge amounts of moisture into the crawl space. Youll end up with a classic moldy crawl space one that represents a significant source of moisture for the house above. The mold that thrives in a damp crawl space wont just damage wood and other organic materials in the crawl space. Research has shown that up to 4. These are serious problems. A smarter insulating strategy. Installed against crawl space walls, rigid foam insulation wont degrade or fall out of place. The solution Change the thermal and pressure boundaries. OK, I know this heading may seem a little cryptic, but stay with me. In the old style vented crawl space, a layer of poor performing fiberglass insulation is supposed to provide a thermal barrier directly beneath the first floor of your living space. The pressure air barrier in a vented crawl space is also the floor sheathing, even though its got plenty of holes in it to bring wiring, plumbing and ductwork up through the crawl space. What happens if we change these pressure and thermal boundaries Seal the crawl space vents so that moist exterior air cant get into the crawl space. If the crawl space has a dirt floor, seal that with a thick plastic vapor barrier. Install rigid foam insulation against crawl space walls, so that were insulating the crawl space instead of the first floor. The result of this crawl space encapsulation process is a clean, dry crawl space that isnt affected by moisture in the soil or in the outside air. Unlike fiberglass crawl space insulation that can degrade into a pink pile on the crawl space floor, rigid foam insulation cant absorb moisture or be damaged by it, and will never fall out of place. Any moisture that remains in the wood framing after a crawl space is encapsulated can be effectively removed with a dehumidifier. Once this happens, youve got a controlled environment where mold cant grow, and a crawl space thats more of an asset to your house than a liability. Glossary. AAsbestos insulated, 2. C dry location, only for leads within apparatus or within raceway to apparatus. A. C. Alternating Current a. Current in which the charge flow periodically reverses and is represented by I I cos 2 f 2. B where, I is the current, I is the amplitude, f the frequency, the phase angle. AA 8. 17. 6The AA 8. Series aluminum alloy developed and used by Southwire Company, LLC. AAACAll Aluminum Alloy Conductor, usually used to refer to 6. ACArmored Cable, 2,3 or 4 conductor, 1. AWG, 6. 00 volt rated or less, dry locations only, used in accordance with N. E. C. Article 3. ACICArmoured Control and Instrumentation Cable, can have various temperature and voltage ratings. ACMdesignation for Aluminum Conductor Material 8. ACTA multiple conductor thermoplastic insulated cable with steel spiralled interlocking armour. The armour has the appearance of flexible conduit. AIImpregnated asbestos insulated, application same as type AF. AIAImpregnated asbestos with braid, application same as for type AI and open wiring. ALSA type of cable consisting of insulated conductors enclosed in a continuous, closely fitting aluminum tube. ANSI X1. 2Is the official designation of the U. S. national standards body for the development and maintenance of Electronic Data Interchange EDI standards. The group was founded in 1. American National Standards Institute ANSI. The acronym stands for American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X1. X1. 2 being a sequential designator assigned by ANSI at the time of accreditation with no other significance. AS2. A specification about how to transport data securely and reliably over the Internet. Security is achieved by using digital certificates and encryption. ASLCAirport Series Lighting Cable 5. C wet rated, for airport runways etc. ASTMThe American Society for Testing and Materials, a non profit industry wide organization which publishes standards, methods of test, recommended practices, definitions and other related material. AVAAsbestos and varnished Cambric insulated, 1. C dry locations. AVBAsbestos and varnished Cambric insulated, 9. C dry locations. AVLAsbestos and varnished Cambric uninsulated, 1. C dry location lead sheathed. AWACA cable consisting of a composite of aluminum strands and aluminum clad strands. AZA thin coating of some metal part usually steel or iron with aluminum by electroplating. Abrasion Resistance. Ability of a wire, cable or material to resist surface wear. Accelerated Aging. A test that attempts to duplicate long time environmental aging in comparatively short time spans. Accelerator. A chemical additive which hastens a chemical reaction under specific conditions. Activator. A chemical additive used to initiate the chemical reaction in a specific chemical mixture. Adhesive Bonded. Cables bonded by adding an adhesive coating to the surface of the cable components, then joining and curing the adhesive to form a cable. See Bonded Cables. Adjacent Conductor. Any conductor next to another conductor either in the same multi conductor cable or in adjacent layers. Admittance. The measure of the ease with which an alternative current flows in a circuit. The reciprocal of impedance. Aerial Cable. A cable suspended in the air on poles or other overhead structure. Aging. The change in properties of a material with time under specific conditions. Air Core Cable. A cable in which the interstices in the cable core are not filled with a moisture barrier. Aircraft Wire. An electrical wire primarily designed for extreme conditions temperature, altitude, solvents, fuels, etc. Alligator Clip. A mechanical device shaped like alligator jaws, used as a temporary connection on the end of interconnection wire. Alloy. A metal formed by combining two or more different metals to obtain desirable properties. Alternating Current. An electric current that continually reverses its direction giving a definite plus and minus wave form at fixed intervals. Aluminum Steel Conductor. A composite conductor made up of a combination of aluminum and steel wires. AlumoweldA thick aluminum coating molded on a high strength steel core used for its strength, conductive and weight characteristics. An aluminum clad steel wire. United States Alumoweld Company. Ambient Temperature. The temperature of a medium gas or liquid surrounding an object. American Wire Gauge AWGThe standard system used for designating wire diameter. The lower the AWG number, the larger the diameter. Also called the Brown and Sharpe B S Wire Gauge. Ampere. The unit of current. One ampere is the current flowing through one ohm of resistance at one volt potential. Amperes Law. The magnetic intensity at any point near a current carrying conductor can be computed on the assumption that each infinitesimal length of the conductor produces at the point of an infinitesimal magnetic density. The resulting magnetic intensity at the point is the vector sum of the contributions of all the elements of the conductor. Analog. Transmission data densities by continuously variable quantities. Anneal. The process of controlled heating and cooling of a metal. In a wire and cable products, copper and aluminum are annealed to increase flexibility while maintaining adequate strength. Annular Conductor. A number of wires stranded in three reversed concentric layers around a core. Annunciatorsignal and bell wire, low voltage, generally PVC insulated. Anti Oxidant. A substance which prevents or slows down oxidation of material exposed to air. Appliance Wire and Cable. A classification covering insulated wire and cable for internal wiring of appliances and equipment. Arc Resistance. The time required for an arc to establish a conductive path in a material. Armor. The outer most layer of a cable applied for mechanical protection usually consisting of layers of metallic tape, braid, or served wires. Armored Cable. A cable provided with a wrapping of metal for mechanical protection. Attenuation. Power loss in an electrical system. In cables, generally expressed in db per unit length, usually 1. Audio Frequency. The range of frequencies audible to the human ear, usually 2. Hz. BCFBillion Conductor Feet. A quantity derived by multiplying the number of conductors in a cable by the amount of cable. Used to indicate plant capacity or an annual requirement. Band Marking. A continuous circumferential band applied to a conductor at regular intervals for identification. Adobe Air Set Application Icon on this page. Band Width. The frequency range of electrical signals transmitted. Banded Cable. Two or more cables banded together by stainless steel strapping. Barrel Packed. Method of coiling into a fiber drum for shipment. Belt. Number of layers of insulation on a conductor or number of layers of jacket on a cable. Belted Type Cable. Multiple conductor cable having a layer of insulation over the assembled insulated conductors. Bend Radius. The radius of the bend usually designated as a multiple of product diameter at which a wire product can be safely bent without significantly affecting its ability to function. Bifilar. Made non inductive by winding together as one wire two wires carrying current in opposite directions. Bimetallic Wire. A wire formed of two different metals joined together not alloyed. It can include wire with a steel core clad wire, plated or coated wire. Binder. A spirally served tape or thread used for holding assembled cable components in place awaiting subsequent manufacturing operations. Binding Post. A device for clamping or holding electrical conductors in a rigid position. Bobbins. Metal spools used for taking up drawn wire and subsequently used for payout packages in cabling and stranding equipment. Bond Strength. Amount of adhesion between bonded surfaces, e. Bondable Wire. An insulated wire treated to facilitate adherence to materials such as potting compounds. Also, magnet wires used in making coils when bonding the turns together is desired.