Tony Sade
08-06-2006, 12:18 PM
I have a dirt floor crawl space in my house and want to install a vapor barrier over the dirt floor. I plan on putting down a 6 mil poly barrier, running up the walls about 6-12" and overlapped and sealed at any joints.
Couple a questions.
1. Because the floor above the space was slightly "bouncy", I installed a couple of homemade laminated beams across the joists, supported by adjustable columns on piers I poured myself. I am concerned these piers and columns are going to make it hard to get a tight seal. Should I just make slits in the poly to slide around the columns and tape around the bottom of the columns ? Any other ideas?
2. What should I use as "ballast" over the poly? I've read that gravel can be used, and also not to use anything that conceivably could puncture the plastic, such as gravel. I've also seen sand suggested. I don't spend a lot of time in the space, but I do store things that I need access to and I don't want either to put holes in the barrier, or make it impossible to get around in. Any problem with the moisture bound to be in the sand? Gravel ok?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Couple a questions.
1. Because the floor above the space was slightly "bouncy", I installed a couple of homemade laminated beams across the joists, supported by adjustable columns on piers I poured myself. I am concerned these piers and columns are going to make it hard to get a tight seal. Should I just make slits in the poly to slide around the columns and tape around the bottom of the columns ? Any other ideas?
2. What should I use as "ballast" over the poly? I've read that gravel can be used, and also not to use anything that conceivably could puncture the plastic, such as gravel. I've also seen sand suggested. I don't spend a lot of time in the space, but I do store things that I need access to and I don't want either to put holes in the barrier, or make it impossible to get around in. Any problem with the moisture bound to be in the sand? Gravel ok?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks,