What to do about tricky crawl space?

[Matthew Scott]

I am trying to decide what to do about this crawl space at the bottom of a duplex. The house is on a hill so it has only about 2/3 of a walk in unfinished basement and the rest is a small crawl space. Although there are a couple 2by4s blocking the hole to get into the crawl space I can remove those without making the structure any weaker. The hole to get in there is only about 20 by 40 so it is a tight squeeze. I may be able to saw at some of the cement to make that opening a bit wider. Once you're in there I am guessing there is about 2 feet to work with. Right now there is no insulation on the bottom of the floors above it and there is nothing but dirt and debris on the ground in there. I know this not acceptable so I am thinking I need to remove the debris, spray for mold, paint with mold resultant paint on the joint beams to be safe, lay insulation plastic over the dirt. I know there must be things that I am missing. I would be wearing a protective body suit while doing this. Do you think this is a project I should tackle myself or should I pay much more and get some quotes from contractors. Which type of contractors would want a job like this? Any advice is appreciated!

[Toby Thompson]

@Matthew Scott There is no need to spend time and money preventing mold if it isn’t a problem now. You do want to lay a vapor barrier down- 6-10 mil thick polyethylene. Lay it all over the exposed earth, tape all the seams with vinyl tape. Run 1x1 wood strips along the perimeter and wrap the vapor barrier over them a few times. Affix them to the foundation walls wrapped 1’ up from the floor then seal the edges with silicone caulk. Whether you insulate the joists for more comfort above is up to you, but if you have a moisture issue in the crawl space the insulation will make it worse.