What Will You Find in These Guides?
Each guide covers a specific stage of the crawlspace learning journey. Whether you are just noticing symptoms like cold floors or musty odors, researching humidity data for your region, comparing encapsulation proposals, or maintaining a crawlspace that has already been sealed — there is a resource here for you.
Enter your email to receive the PDF directly in your inbox. These guides are written by Hank Yarbrough and grounded in published building science research from the DOE, EPA, and Advanced Energy. They are designed to give you the knowledge you need to make informed decisions about your home.
Why Crawlspaces Cause Cold Floors
Learn the science behind why unsealed crawlspaces make your floors cold in winter — including the stack effect, insulation failure, and air infiltration pathways.
Des Moines Crawlspace Humidity Guide
Understand how Des Moines climate conditions create crawlspace humidity problems, including seasonal patterns, soil moisture data, and what it means for your home.
Encapsulation Buyer's Checklist
A checklist of questions to ask any contractor, materials to look for, and red flags to watch for when evaluating crawlspace encapsulation proposals.
Crawlspace Maintenance Guide
Annual maintenance tasks to keep your crawlspace healthy after encapsulation, including humidity monitoring, drainage checks, and vapor barrier inspection.
Want to Go Deeper?
These guides pair well with the interactive tools on this site. The Energy Leak Calculator estimates how much energy your crawlspace may be wasting, and the Mold Risk Score evaluates your conditions against research-based humidity thresholds. Both provide immediate, personalized results.
For a full understanding of crawlspace building science, the Crawlspace Science page explains the stack effect, moisture dynamics, and thermal bridging in detail. The Symptoms section helps you identify what your crawlspace may be telling you, and the Methods section covers the major remediation approaches with research data behind each one.
If you are evaluating encapsulation costs, the Cost Guide breaks down pricing factors, ROI timelines, and what drives the difference between a $3,000 project and a $15,000 one.