Join us as we explore innovative solutions for indoor air quality with Vic from Van Air Doors, who introduces a groundbreaking ventilating door design that allows for effective airflow without the unsightly grills or louvers of traditional doors. This modern approach not only enhances the aesthetics of your home but also tackles sound privacy concerns, making it a perfect fit for any room needing ventilation. Later in the episode, we pivot to an essential topic for homeowners: maintaining crawlspaces as winter approaches. Discover practical tips on ensuring your crawlspace remains dry and free from mold, as well as the importance of regular inspections. With insights on energy efficiency and home comfort, this episode offers valuable information for anyone looking to improve their living space.

Exploring the intersection of innovative design and practical home improvement, the podcast welcomes Vic from Van Air Doors, who unveils a groundbreaking ventilating door. Unlike traditional louvered doors that compromise style for functionality, this new design prioritizes both aesthetics and efficiency. The ventilating door features an elegant linear ventilation slot that allows for airflow without sacrificing visual privacy or sound insulation, making it an ideal solution for bathrooms and utility rooms. Vic elaborates on how their design addresses common issues associated with conventional doors, such as noise transmission and air obstruction, which can affect the comfort and livability of a space. This segment serves to highlight the importance of integrating modern solutions into home design, especially as homeowners increasingly seek to balance functionality with sophisticated aesthetics.

The conversation then shifts towards the importance of maintaining crawlspaces as winter approaches. Eric and Vic discuss how poorly managed crawlspaces can lead to serious problems like mold growth and structural damage. They provide valuable insights into the inspection and maintenance of these often-neglected areas, emphasizing the need for regular checks and professional evaluations. Vic explains the process of encapsulating crawlspaces, detailing how sealing these areas can significantly reduce moisture levels and enhance air quality throughout the home. This discussion not only underscores the necessity of proper crawlspace management but also connects it to the overall health of a home, reinforcing the idea that preventive measures can save homeowners from costly repairs in the future.

Listeners are left with a comprehensive understanding of how thoughtful home design and diligent maintenance practices can elevate the living experience. The episode wraps up with a call to action for homeowners to consider both the innovative ventilation solutions offered by Van Air Doors and the critical importance of maintaining their crawlspaces. By doing so, they can ensure that their homes remain comfortable, efficient, and free from the risk of structural issues, highlighting the importance of proactive homeownership in today’s world.

Takeaways:

• Vic from Van Air Doors discusses a revolutionary ventilating door that combines aesthetics with functionality.
• Traditional louvered doors compromise sound privacy; the new design offers superior acoustic control.
• Proper ventilation in homes is essential as buildings become tighter and more energy-efficient.
• Regular crawl space inspections can prevent moisture problems that lead to mold and structural damage.
• The new ventilating doors can help balance air pressure and improve HVAC efficiency in homes.
• Customizable door options are available, including various sizes and veneer finishes to match any design.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Pyramid Heating and Cooling
• Monument Grill
• Van Air Design
• John's Waterproofing

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

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We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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It's around the house you're actually putting in.

If you've got a hollow corridor in there to begin with, which many residential doors have already, you know, without getting into the kind of the middle, the higher end homes, you're gonna have a quieter door than what you probably had in there to begin with.

Yeah, we find ourselves in a good sweet spot.

It's about the in terms of weight of the door.

A lot of people feel that hollow corridors are flimsy because they're light and when you close the door.

Around the House show is brought to by Pyramid Heating and Cooling.

Serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon.

They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

But we've got you coming.

This is around the House.

Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

This week's episode is brought to to.

You by our friends over at Monument Grill.

If you're looking for a brand new.

Barbecue for that fall season, check them out@monimal grills.com When I get into home ventilation and making things beautiful, many times those two worlds don't fit together well.

And there's a ton of compromises that you have to make just to make things function.

And today we have the exception to that rule.

Vic from Van Air Design, welcome to around the House brother.

Thanks, Eric.

Thanks for having me.

Excited to talk with you today.

You guys have come up with this beautiful, stunning solution for doors that now people can get rid of those louvered metal, wood louvered doors that have been ruining their style for decades.

That's right.

That was one of the things that we wanted to address in the industry.

We felt that there wasn't a good solution for situations where you need ventilation through a door.

Often you're looking at traditional slatted louvers or a door with a grill on it.

And those were all poorly thought out solutions that were band aid fixes, so to speak.

And so we set ourselves out to design a more modern ventilated door.

Yeah.

And you guys came up with something.

And that's where some of the problems, if you put a great example, you.

Put one of those louvered doors looks at almost a Hawaiian island look with it.

Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't fit into all styles.

But the problem is that Noise loves to go through that.

So anything that's happening on the other side of that door, whether it be a mechanical room, a bathroom, an office that needs ventilation, whatever it is that sounds, go through it like it's paper.

That's exactly right.

If you can see through the door, if there's light penetration through that door, that the sound privacy is going to be very bad, because it's no different than me speaking just openly with no acoustic separation.

And so when you.

When you see that in homes, that the acoustic privacy is not going to be good between those rooms.

Yeah.

How did you guys design that to make that work?

So you get a lot of airflow, but also control sound.

And I think that's where the genius lies in this whole process.

Yeah.

So we started off with a elegant sort of linear ventilation slot.

So it is positioned vertically so that it takes into advantage the door's height.

The taller the door, the more ventilation that you'll get.

And we staggered that ventilation slot on the opposing side of the face so that you couldn't see through the door.

Right.

So you don't have that light penetrating issue, and you have that visual privacy.

And then the third thing is that by doing so, we create a air channel and also a channel for us to absorb some sound.

And so we utilize that air channel, we put acoustic baffling in it and acoustic absorption.

And that really helps maintain the sound privacy of that door compared to your traditional louver or vented transfer that you might typically see.

So that louver, that vented channel then, is much like the muffler on your car, where you've got noise going through, but the way the sound bounces around inside there, it cancels itself out and really reduces it on the other side.

So I'm glad you brought that analogy up.

There are acoustic resonators that work in the principle of Helmholtz resonation.

So similar to the muffler in your car, we can actually tune it to absorb a specific frequency or a band of frequencies of sounds.

And we tune it to get the highest sound chance transmission class possible for the door.

Okay.

That is so cool.

That is so next generation, next level.

Because so many people.

Oh, yeah, just stop sound.

Oh, no, it's tuned.

How cool is that?

That's right.

That is awesome.

So how much air does.

Of course, door size has everything to do with it, but how much do you, on average, with a typical interior door, would you see with that as far as, like, CFM through that door?

So your typical door would be about a 68 height, so 6ft 8 inches.

And so that would give you an equivalent area opening.

So how big of a hole of 12 by 12 square inches, so you.

Can move a ton of air through that.

So if you have a bathroom, for instance, and so you get the sound transmission and you get the airflow because.

Great example.

I'm getting ready to do the project at my house and this is why you guys are going in my house is I have that common problem.

I have a bathroom door that with 110 CFM bath fan because I have a steam shower in there.

The problem is my vanity.

And this is a great case you study for this is that when I stand in front of the vanity on my side of the bathroom, I'm right.

Next to the door.

So what happens is when I have the bath fan on there, which should be on there while I'm in there to get the steam and everything out for the shower.

My heated tile floor, because that is where the air is coming in, is cold there because I'm heating the air with it, it's pre cooling it.

So now I can have that door be a little bit longer.

So I don't have my primary air coming under the door.

Now it's off coming in equally and I'm going to get better airflow through that.

Exactly right.

You're going to allow that bathroom fan to operate more effectively.

If you don't provide that fan with enough ventilation, what's going to happen is that the air is going to try to infiltrate through all the gaps and cracks in and around the door through the undercut like you said, even through the outlets that are present inside the room.

And so with our solution, you're really going to get all the zones of air stratification as well because it's a vertical slot.

So you're ventilating the whole space rather than just from the bottom of the door.

And it's going to also save me.

On electricity because guess what?

That sensor is sensing that I have a cold spot in the floor over there.

So it's turning on the heat.

And so I've got this very uneven floor temperature in the room because of the heated tile.

And so I realized that, wow, this is also costing me money in my electricity use because it's trying to compensate for that air.

Well, if I'm blowing out a hundred CFM, I'm bringing in 100 CFM.

It's got to come from someplace.

So I'm super cooling my floor there.

Now it's going to bring it up and it's going to be a much better airflow situation.

Great point.

That's one that I haven't heard of yet, but I'm glad you brought that up because that's a selling feature for us as well.

Yeah.

So it's one of those things.

And then when you and I talked about for the television show, the first time we chatted, I was like, this is brilliant.

And I've been showing some architects and stuff in the area here and designers and they had not seen it before.

And I'm like, here's the perfect use for that.

And now, of course, we've got people.

With utility rooms and people are putting in heat pump water heaters and you have to have ventilation for this.

And many times that little utility closet in the basement or in a garage or something like that, they've got this.

Heat pump water heater that's going to save them a lot of money.

But they need to come up with a ventilation solution because it's drawing in air and of course it's cooling the air in that space because it's pulling the heat out of it.

That's exactly right.

We hear this a lot with architects and designers that we work with.

Often they're commenting on how, oh, I wish I had known about your product earlier.

We could have used it in a recent renovation or a new build.

But you're absolutely right.

The amount of technology that that we're putting into our homes now with heat pump, water closet heaters, heat pump, ventless dryers, all that technology that's crammed into our homes requires ventilation, and not only ventilation, but acoustics as well.

So in the case of the water heater, you've got a compressor that's going on and off.

And we've worked with architects and acousticians as well even to address these problems.

It seems to be a gap that these manufacturers aren't understanding because when they come up with the solution to ventilate those spaces, they're simply just going to say cut a hole in the door or put a vent on the wall.

And so those aren't really compelling solutions.

And we like to do things differently here at Van Air.

Yeah, you guys do such a great job with that.

And now you're seeing older homes getting converted over to mini split heat pumps where maybe they had wall heat, for.

Instance, and they're don't change that dial around the house.

We'll be right back with Vic from Van Air do indoors.

We're going to talk ventilation indoors without that Ugly grill.

So many people without.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Thanks for joining me today.

I'm Eric G.

We've been talking with my buddy Vic from Van Air Doors about a cool architectural door that lets you move air without those ugly louvers or grills.

But first, this segment is brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grills.

If you're looking for a great grill for this holiday season, it's time to upgrade yours.

And they're all 900 bucks or less.

That's the cool thing.

Check them out@moneymcgrills.com maybe it's time for that upgrade.

Now let's get back to Vic and let's talk doors.

And now you're seeing older homes getting converted over to mini split heat pumps where maybe they had wall heat, for instance, in their really wanting to get better control of the air.

But as we know, with mini split heat pumps, we're putting those heads in, in two or three rooms in a house.

And then we're just letting kind of mother nature balance things out within the house.

But if you've got a mini split heat pump head that's out in the hallway and you've got maybe three bedrooms back there, you've got an issue there because now when you shut the door at night, when you go to bed, you have really not a lot of ventilation, especially if there's carpet or stuff, there's really not much going back into those bedrooms.

And this is a great solution for that.

Yeah.

Any, any time that we can provide more cross ventilation between the rooms is a positive thing.

When we see big differences in pressure differentials across different rooms, across the floor, that leads to the heat that or the cooling that you've paid for is going to leak out the building envelope.

Right.

So if you're not balancing it within the building envelope, it's just going to leak out.

And you're paying for your money to be heated or cooled outside of the house.

Absolutely.

And the cool thing is too is that you still get that sound transmission thing.

So if you got the kids playing their video games back in the room, you're not hearing them in the rest of the house because it's quiet, but you've got sound control with that, which is really cool.

Because if I remember right, doesn't that basically leave you about the same sound transmission of a solid corridor of that similar size?

Is that kind of about the basic rule for that?

Correct.

So we have developed the door to perform the same as a solid Corridor in third party testing for applications within the home and regardless of thickness of the door as well.

So whether it's inch and three quarters or inch and three, eight, it could perform just as good as a solid door in that application.

Nice, nice.

And that is so cool because everybody knows if you grew up with kids or you had, you were a kid.

And those holocaust doors are not so great anyway.

And so many builders put them in.

You're actually putting in if you've got a hollow core door in there to begin with, which many residential doors have already.

You know, without getting into the kind of the middle, the higher end homes, you're gonna have a quieter door than what you probably had in there to begin with.

Yeah, we find ourselves in a good sweet spot.

It's about the.

In terms of weight of the door.

A lot of people feel that hollow corridors are flimsy because they're light.

And when you close the door, it doesn't feel solid.

And so we're in a nice kind of sweet spot.

What we like to say, a semi solid door.

And it gives you that satisfying thud, so to speak.

Close your door when you use the door.

Yeah.

It's funny because I've got mine sitting over here on the other side of the shop getting ready to use it for an upcoming segment.

And that thing is the perfect way.

Whenever I have a solid core door, I pick that thing up and it's like, okay, here we go.

It's that happy balance in between them.

And that's what's really cool with that, is it doesn't feel like you're throwing around a piece of cardboard, but at the same point, it's got some beef to it.

So it feels quality and solid and is going to give you that nice kind of click with the latch versus the rattle click.

That is awesome.

Now I guess the big question is.

What sizes are available?

How custom are you guys with this?

Because so many different homes have so many different finishes and doors.

What are the options that people have with that?

Yeah, I would say that we've got lots of options for everybody.

The narrowest door that we make is one foot wide.

The widest we make is four feet wide.

And in terms of height, we can go all the way up to 10ft.

So we do everything in between that.

Wow.

Okay.

You have options for just about anything.

That is cool.

Wow.

Okay, so veneers and stuff on that.

What are the options on that?

Pretty.

If it's available, you guys work with it.

Yeah.

Standard veneer finishes would be fir, maple, white Oak, walnut.

But anything that the customer can imagine, we can put onto the door.

It's just a matter of us sourcing the material.

So we've worked with custom veneer layups.

If you're looking for a certain cut, whether that's quarter or flat, cut, sequence, match book, match, slip match.

But we can really customize it for you.

We work with a local veneer shop here.

We can even customize the flitch width of the veneer.

So we're really turnkey here and can.

We can't get our hands on it.

I'm sure we'll.

We'll be able to find someone who can get us that product.

That's amazing.

And the other thing I was thinking about is another great use case, being that we're all, you and I both are in the Pacific Northwest.

Here we are coming into that time of year.

As I hear the rain hitting on the roof right now of my office, it's that wet season.

And so many people make the mistakes in their hall closets.

You come in the door, there's a whole closet.

They take their jacket off, shake it.

Off a second, and they go hanging up, and they have a moldy closet.

This would be a great way to solve that without having to leave your jackets out for a day or two to dry out.

You can now get some ventilation to those whole closets and still make it look nice.

And it's just another use for one of these doors so you can reduce that mold and have healthier indoor air quality.

That's exactly right.

So it'll help alleviate any humidity and moisture issues that you might have and just allow air to flow in and out of those spaces.

Yeah, that is great question for you.

When you're finishing these doors, how do you deal with kind of the inside recess part of it?

Because you guys are putting in a really nice oval.

Almost like what if you were trying to envision, for the people out there listening on the radio, a long, straight router cut.

Right.

That you would have with that.

That's nice and big.

What's the best way for people to.

Finish the inside of that to give the right look?

Yeah, that's a really great question, Eric, on the painted finishes.

So it typically will come primed us, and it's typically primed white.

And so if you're.

If you're spraying a white finish onto the doors, that's sort of the ideal case where if you hit it at the right angle, you'll insert ensure that you have good coverage in and around the ventilation slot itself.

If you don't have access to a spray gun, we typically see people rolling paint on to the door faces and then finishing up the slot with like a trim brush.

The slot is about 7, 8, 7 inch wide and so it can fit a small trim brush that you can run inside of it to achieve that look.

Multiple coats I would recommend, but for your typical spray finish, it's very simple.

We haven't seen any painters on whether that's in a professional factory setting or in the field finishing, have any issues with that.

And as far as transparent finishes go or stains go, similar process to that where for transparent finishes, if you're spraying on, you'll have good coverage.

And if you're going to roll or brush transparent finishes on, it's the same process.

So it's.

It's an added step, I'd say.

But I would definitely say it's easier than painting a full louver door when you have close.

Imagine getting a brush in and around those corners.

Right.

So it's going to.

It's going to be a lot easier than that.

I can, I can guarantee that.

That is awesome.

I still have nightmares as a kid in the 70s, my parents going, all right, you're painting your room.

Awesome, cool, fun painting project.

I was a little kid and I looked at these doors and I had those louver doors as a kid because it was a 70s and it was like, you've got to be kidding me.

This is going to take me a day to hand brush all these little things and get it perfect.

It was not a fun project as a kid.

My attention span was not ready for that.

Absolutely.

And then basically, since you guys are doing blanks on doors, you can go any hardware or any hinge set you want with that because again, you're making.

It custom for don't change that dial around the house.

We'll be right back with more from Vic for Van Air Doors just as soon as we return.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online.com and of course, this segment is brought to you by our friends at Monte McGrills.

Check them out at montymcrills.com now let's get back to our conversation.

Kind of get this one more wrapped up with Vic from Van Air Doors about some cool architectural doors that move air without an ugly grill or vent.

That's right.

It was designed to work with all the hardware that's commercially available.

So regular lock sets, hinges, concealed hinges, door closers, automatic door bottoms.

It even works if you have an electrified hinge if you need to electrify the strike or handle lock set.

And so we designed it in a way that it would fit with all hardware and all frames as well.

So pocket door frames is fine as well.

Sliding hardware is fine as well.

So really like it's pretty much the same door that everyone's typically used to, just with the added benefit and the technology inside the core.

Nice.

Now how do you guys work with door companies or the retail folks or contractors?

How are you guys set up as far as distribution so people can navigate the way you guys work?

Yeah, so we work with several wholesale distribution companies who will sell to the local supplier of doors.

And so that's kind of our go to market strategy or distribution channel.

And so if people are looking for a product, we recommend that they get in touch with us and we can point them to the right supplier and have them serviced that way.

That makes sense.

So that way you've got the local expert kind of working hand in hand to make sure doors get ordered correctly and things like that that get made through the process correctly.

Because tell you what, that is probably for most homeowners, one of the most confusing things is trying to place a door ordering to get it right.

Exactly.

There's so many nuances with ordering the door.

Typically manufacturers just make the slab itself.

And so you're really having to rely on distribution to put the frame on for you to supply the hinges and supply the hardware.

And so that's where they're going to help the homeowner or the contractor sort that all out.

Makes a lot of sense.

So what are the best people?

What's the best people to track you guys down?

Vic?

Because you guys have such an innovative solution for people that need ventilation and correct ventilation and sound control for these rooms.

Yeah, I guess as we're expanding our coverage nationwide right now, the best way to get in touch with us would be through our website or phone or email.

And we'll really point you to the right suppliers.

We're working with knowledgeable people in the industry.

We don't want to be set up with the Home Depots or the big box stores just yet.

Just because there's a bit more involved with this product.

You've got the ventilation aspect and the acoustic aspect.

And so we're taking a skilled approach to getting coverage across North America.

That is a smart plan.

As somebody that has worked with companies that have put Stuff into the big box stores.

That can be its own headache.

And no offense, big box doors, but it's not easy for manufacturers to work with you, especially with a custom product.

That can be a process that could pull your hair out, that's for sure.

Yeah.

The beauty with a door product is that it's almost infinitely configurable.

Right.

You can make any size down to a sixteenth of an inch if you wanted to.

The machining for the hinges.

Right.

They could be placed in any position that you can imagine.

The handle can be placed in any position that you imagine.

And so we're really wanting to make sure that we carry the customization aspects of the door through to the homeowner.

And so we are working with select folks in the industry to, you know, provide that beautiful.

So what's the best website for people to go to to find out more information for you?

It would be Vanyard design dot com.

That is awesome.

So Vic, what have we not touched on here today?

Because you guys have such a.

A wide range of doors and solutions for ventilation for people, it's just mind boggling the options that you guys have.

Yeah, I could talk about doors all day.

We're really just at the tip of the iceberg.

We're talking about ventilating all these new technologies that are in our home.

I think that the big shift in the industry for us going forward is as buildings continue to get more and more airtight due to building code changes, there's all these government mandates to get tighter and tighter and eventually achieve net zero, for example, or just higher performing home.

And so increasingly that's more and more airtightness.

And as we get more and more tight homes, it's only more apparent that we need to provide ventilation or adequate ventilation within these spaces.

And the current methods that we do it right now involve using HRV systems or ERV systems and designing ventilation pathways into the bedrooms.

Exhausting from the bathroom, bathrooms and living rooms.

And so we're going to get into not only the cost of materials, but also the design of all those homes and all those ventilation systems.

And we really think that we can play a part in that and simplify that, right.

To have a solution that allows those systems to work as intended and have an aesthetically pleasing solution for the homeowner and to have that sound privacy as well.

Because as we get more and more airtight, more and more insulated, the background noise is also very low in homes like that.

And so a lot of our customers who have done these higher performing homes with regular doors and 3/4 inch undercuts.

They find themselves at a loss when they finally move in and they're excited about their home, but then they hear everything inside their house.

Yes.

And so we think that that's the next shift for us is to be a resource to all future home building in terms of ventilation and acoustics.

I completely agree.

And I think one thing that we've got right now, especially in the US is that our energy code for making our homes energy efficient has outperformed the ability to keep them healthy on the inside.

And we have somewhat of a system right now in our codes that are not in balance.

So if you follow the building code, sometimes you're making the house a little less healthy on the inside.

And I think your guys product really helps balance that out.

Because now we're talking about ventilation within the home.

That energy code doesn't even discuss that.

It's just trying to keep everything inside, inside and everything outside, outside.

And we'll fix it with a HRV or an ERV and that'll be good to go.

But if the doors are all sealed up, you've got one room where the ERV system or HRV system is that's doing good.

But maybe the air's not moving around like you think it is.

That's right.

And we've done case studies on this as well, predominantly in the multifamily arena.

And it's, it's not always as how the systems were designed.

And if you can help alleviate any of those pressure differentials and temperature differentials, it only helps to improve the comfort of the home.

Yeah, that makes so much sense.

And it really just makes for a more comfortable and healthy home.

So I think this is just such a brilliant way to go.

And how did you come up with this design?

I gotta ask that before we go because this is one of those things that for you guys to sit there and say, hey, we're gonna reinvent the doors is pretty, pretty substantial in the world of design.

Yeah, it was quite an interesting story.

Myself and a classmate envisioned this product out of university.

And by the time we had graduated we had a number of orders through the university and from other customers.

And so we, out of graduation, we rented a wood shop.

We started making these doors ourselves because again, architects and designers and people that we were talking with just didn't like door grills.

And they didn't like it enough that they wanted a product.

And we've iterated over the years.

We linked up with partnering manufacturers that helped us got get us to market.

We have our own facility as well to produce these stores.

And we find ourselves now over 30,000 doors installed predominantly on the west coast.

And we're looking to grow that across the nation.

Yeah.

So smart.

So smart.

So, Vic, one more time, what's the best way for people to find you guys on the web?

So people that are listening right now that are salivating going, I just found a solution for my home.

What's the best way for them to find you?

It's Van AirDesign.com Man, Vic, thanks for.

What you're doing, man.

This is just so awesome.

And I really don't get that excited about products like this until you see it and feel it.

And you guys just put your heart and soul into the craftsmanship and the science behind it, which I think is what's fascinating, is that it's beautiful, stunning, and it works.

That's right.

Thank you so much, Eric.

All right, brother.

Have a great rest of your day.

Don't change that dial around the house.

We'll be right back with more from Vic from Van Air Doors just as soon as we return.

You threw my clothes out on the lawn.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement brought to you by my friends over at Monument Grills.

If you're looking for a killer barbecue and you want to save some money, check them out.

Monumentgrills.com now we just had a great discussion with my friends over at Van Air Door about moving air around by letting your doors breathe a little bit.

It is such a great product.

You can check them out.

Just Google up Van Air Door.

Great stuff out there.

Can't wait to get mine in here in the next week or so at my house.

So it's going to be a lot of fun.

Now, I wanted to talk this segment about all of you people out there that have a crawl space.

Now, I know there's a lot of people out there that go, we build slab on grade.

It is a concrete pad on the ground.

We build up from there.

And you know something?

Maybe this segment isn't for you, but there's a lot of places in the country that this is one of the most popular ways to build.

And for you guys out there, it is something that you need to pay a lot of attention to because there are so many things that can go wrong in a crawl space that you should be paying attention to.

And I have seen some disaster crawl spaces out there.

But the first thing you should be doing with a crawl space is making sure every few months you're sticking your head down there and seeing if there's water, rodents, that kind of thing.

Because here's what happens if you let that go to pot down there, and if it gets moisture, mold, standing water, that moisture is going to come up into your house through the crawl space, because I think over 60% of that air that's down there works its way up into your house.

So it's going to naturally rise up to the floor, because there's not really a vapor barrier there between the floor, between that air and the system.

And what happens is that raises up through and then it collects up in the attic space up there.

And many times that grows into mold because the roofing material gap captures it up there, and you don't typically have enough ventilation to get that out.

So that attic space up there can be moldy just because of what's going down in your crawl space, because it's passive all the way up through there.

And so really stay on top of that.

Now, here's the good news.

If you're like, I am not going in that crawl space.

It's dirty.

There's spiders, there's rodents, I'm claustrophobic, whatever that is, have a company come in and do a crawl space inspection, take a look at it.

That is the thing to making sure that that is a clean space down there.

And when in doubt, if you don't have the ability to go down there, hire somebody to go down and do it.

Many times these crawl space companies will go down there and they will give you a free estimate.

I don't know if they're going to do an inspection for you every year, but take a look at it and see.

Now, I believe that really you should do the best you can to keep that clean.

Sometimes all you need down there is some really good thick vapor barrier down there, some.

Some really thick plastic.

And I recommend taping that in between the seams so you don't have to worry about the moisture coming up through the ground.

Now, the ultimate be all that many of these crawl space companies will sell you is an encapsulation.

And what that is is they go in there and seal up the crawl space.

So they go in there and basically hermetically seal so there's absolutely no moisture, air, radon, whatever, coming up through that space.

Now, there's companies that do this well, there's companies that don't do this well.

And that's something to take a look at.

I can go on many crawl space companies, websites and take a look at their Pictures and go, they're doing it wrong.

And that's a big issue.

So you think about it.

You're gonna go down in the crawl space.

They're gonna go down there and wrap it in a, you know, sealed up plastic.

But you need to make sure that there is no wood between that moisture and the plastic.

So if you see them wrapping up the posts, guess what?

That wood post that is holding up your ground, holding up your, you know, holding up the building off the ground, sorry.

Is now encapsulated with the moisture.

So I want to make sure that the plastic goes under the posts down there or around the concrete so it's not coming up through there.

If you wrap any of the posts around it with the plastic and that is incorrectly done and that can get really expensive because that can promote rot within that.

So the, any of the wood pieces need to be on the living side of that, not on the crawl space, dirt side of it.

Now the other thing is, is when you're doing a crawl space like that, if you're going to encapsulate it, there's two things that either have to happen.

One, you have to condition that and run air ducts down into there and treat it like the rest of the house.

Or you should be installing in a dehumidifier so that you don't have trapped air down there.

That's going to call mold cause, mold condensation, anything else.

So really take a look at that and make sure.

And I'm not talking about one of those portable ones.

It should be a built in dehumidifier.

So built in, wired in hard, make sure you've got a drain line that goes out and drains off into something to get the water well away from the house, not just outside the house, because it's going to try to put it back underneath the house.

So it should go into some kind of a drain system or into the gutters.

It gets it at least 10ft away from the house, all of that.

So making sure that that goes out of there.

If you encapsulate a crawl space and don't condition the air or don't put a dehumidifier, you're just going to end up having a mold sandwich down there.

And that's going to be a big issue.

Now is that a be all, end all?

No.

But does it stop radon?

Yeah, you can design it so it can.

That could be healthy also.

You're just trying to keep that dirt, all that nasty stuff in the air coming up there.

I was Just in a crawl space today with my friends here in the Portland area.

And you probably know them if you listen in Pacific Northwest, John's Waterproofing.

They're a great sponsor of my television show.

I was out with Today with Robin on us on an upcoming segment that we're doing.

And we were crawling through a crawl space out there.

And man, the stuff that they found in this crawl space, they had rodents that were eaten through stuff.

They cleared out all the plastic and they were digging a perimeter trench around there in putting in one of their sump pumps.

And that was really cool because they use a triple sump pump system down there where they have two sump pumps in there at one.

At two different heights.

So if one gets overwhelmed, the second one kicks in and then they have a battery backup one.

And it's a really good system.

And the one thing I like about their system as well is they actually put in a sensor down there.

Because the one problem is if you have a crawl space that is encapsulated, fully sealed up, if you break a water pipe down there, guess what, you're gonna have a swimming pool.

Because you just basically put in a swimming pool liner down there.

And that can be its own issue.

So they have a sensor that.

That monitors if the sump pump isn't.

Working as well as if there was.

A break or something that the water comes in off the plastic, then it's going to sound an alarm inside the house as well.

So it's a really smart way to go.

So in doing something like that with the battery backup, the two sump pumps.

So you have three sump pumps actually down there, one being a battery backup in case of a power outage.

And then that sensor really making sure that if you had a pipe break or some kind of water damage down there that happened, you know, any kind of a leak, it's going to catch that if it makes it over to the sump pump, which can be a really good warning.

If you break a break a pipe or something frozen broke or something went wrong down there, that's going to tell you you got a bigger problem, which is kind of handy because accidents do happen with that.

So really my.

You know, I've been to some crawl spaces where I went out to somebody's house to take a peek at it.

I had one lady that was super awesome.

Felt bad for her.

Her husband had passed away a few years before.

Somebody hadn't taken care of the issues down there, and her ducks were gurgling.

It's like gurgling what are you talking about?

Thought she had water in her ducts.

Yeah, she had water in the ducts because she had a completely filled up crawl space.

And it wasn't that it was sealed up down there, but they had a stream.

Basically somebody had done some work in the neighborhood.

And there was a.

Basically had clogged up a artesian well in the neighborhood that was going into somebody else's space.

And it pushed up under her house.

So when I popped the crawl space lid to go in there, it was up to the bottom of the framing in the house.

So everything was underwater in the crawl space.

And the vents were plugged shut.

So it wasn't.

It was keeping those in pretty well.

The way they were closed.

And it just was basically up against the bottom of the framing at the same point.

I've seen homes that had.

This was a horrible one.

A old cast.

Actually, it was a galvanized drain line from a washing machine.

And the kids.

The father was a truck driver.

And the.

Obviously they had used too much drain cleaner on this thing.

And it ate through the bottom.

Well, it was the laundry line.

So they were running hot stuff through there all the time.

So the water that was draining from the laundry from the top load washing machine, Every time they'd run a load, the 55 gallons of water would go down in there.

It undermined the foundation so badly that they couldn't open the refrigerator door because that part of the house had sunk because it undermined the foundation.

Unfortunately, that water line and nobody paying attention that there was steam on a hot.

On a cold winter day coming out their crawl space fence that they didn't realize that they had that issue.

That was a huge mess.

That was going to be probably 150, $175,000 of the damage because of the reframing and remove and tear out of the kitchen.

Jacking up that section of foundation, putting a new foundation in.

And you see where I'm going with that.

It can be a big deal.

So, guys, just as a friendly reminder, inspect your crawl space and make sure that you've got it dialed in.

And when a doubt, call on the pros to take a look at it.

Now, this next one coming up, our next hour.

We've got a great show ahead.

You'll notice my voice a little bit.

Yeah, I just had.

I was out with the cold flu.

The last couple weeks, and so my voice is a little hammered.

So bear with me.

But we'll get through it.

And if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online.com and you can message me right there.

All right, guys, our number one is over.

Thanks for tuning into around the House.

One more hour of the show left.

Hold on.

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Thanks for tuning in to around the House.