Look at conditions before you look at products
A sound scope covers where water is getting in, standing moisture at grade, clearance for termite inspection, how the liner is sealed and attached, air sealing at the rim, dehumidification equipment sizing, and the condition of the framing underneath.
What a complete scope covers
- What's causing it and how bad it already is
- How the crew will protect the rest of the house
- Which materials go in and how they're installed
- Permitting, testing, cleanup, and putting things back
- What's excluded, what's warrantied, and how changes get priced
Concord context
Crawl spaces are the default foundation across most of Concord outside the newest subdivisions, and Piedmont clay is what makes them a problem. Clay holds water rather than draining it, so after the intense summer rain this region gets, the ground under a house stays saturated for days -- and on the rolling lots common here, water arrives from uphill rather than merely falling on the property. Humid Carolina summers then push warm moist air through vents onto cool surfaces below the floor, where it condenses on framing and insulation through the whole cooling season without any leak at all. The city's mill-era and postwar housing adds shallow, tight crawl spaces with ground cover that was either minimal or added piecemeal over the years. Sealing a space before establishing where its water comes from is the common and expensive mistake.