Portland is cold and wet, there’s no way around that. This means, unlike other places around the world, we need to vent our crawlspaces and more to the point we also need to seal them in the winter. Especially if the vents are below that 18 inch frost line. The freezing temperatures show no mercy and we see pipes burst causing serious damage.
If treated properly there is no need to go through this homeowner’s nightmare.
Here’s a list of thing you can do to ensure your crawlspace stays dry and warm throughout the tedious PDX winters
- Insulate your pipes– especially feed lines which are under constant pressure and have a tendency to burst. When this happens in a crawlspace we sometimes don’t even notice until it’s done serious damage or we get the water bill.
- Insulate your vents– Most homes with crawlspaces have standard crawlspace vents that can be plugged using rigid insulation. Home Depot actually carries a few different sizes of crawlspace vent plugs for different standard size vents. I personally prefer these as the are reusable and give us a green solution (greener than the alternative anyway)
- Remove Vent plugs at the end of winter– This is going a bit off topic however it is very much worth mentioning, while we must protect our piping in the freeze of winter, the moisture that gets trapped in the crawlspace is just as dangerous as frozen pipes. Trapped moisture can lead to mold and mildew growths as well as serious dry rot.