Many people wonder if they should block their crawlspace vents. While these vents are needed in a well-maintained home so that the moisture doesn’t remain trapped there. This is important because otherwise mold and mildew may start to grow there. At the same time though these vents have been known to create cold drafts that make your home less energy efficient throughout the winter months.
Why Blocking Crawlspace Vents may be Harmful
There are many factors that make your home susceptible to moisture build-up. Since you won’t be able to know for sure just how susceptible your home is you’ll want to leave your crawlspace vents in place throughout the year. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to keep the cold air out of your home and make your home more energy-efficient too. For instance, you can insulate your sub-floor or add more insulation to the crawlspace.
How to Treat Your Crawlspace
When your crawlspace has pipes in it there will likely be concrete walls that are coated with insulation around its perimeter or the pipes themselves will be insulated. This means that you can add more insulation to the concrete walls to stop the cold air from reaching your living space above. You don’t want to add insulation to the sub-floor because doing so could prevent heat from reaching you as this may be the only way in which it’s able to do so.
Another option is to temporarily block off your crawlspace vents with a small trash bag stuffed with insulation for a few days. Make sure you don’t place any unprotected insulation into the vent where moisture can come into direct contact with it. Doing so will ruin its insulating properties. You’ll also want to make sure you remove this as soon as the cold front passes.
Before deciding to temporarily block off your styrofoam crawl space vent covers you should make sure your floor is properly covered with a good vapor barrier so moisture won’t build up there.
The Bottom Line
While you may be tempted to block your crawlspace vents throughout the winter months it isn’t a good idea to do so. Fortunately, there are styrofoam crawl space vent covers available to use for this purpose. They’re the best way to reduce the amount of cold air that enters your living space so that you and your family are more comfortable while your home is also more energy-efficient.
