# Carpet under vapor barrier in crawlspace encapsulation?



## Windows on Wash

Yes. It will be a sponge. Vapor barrier needs contact with the soil or, at maximum, a smaller layer in between. 

Is the soil level and free of sharp, puncturing rocks? 

Carpet should go on top.


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## rusty baker

Also the carpet would grow mold and would stink.


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## halliwellc

Dirt in this crawlspace is bone-dry and at grade. It actually needed to be wetted to keep dust down for leveling. 4 feet tall, will be used for frequent storage, I'm hoping to save my knees and protect the plastic. 16 mil plastic. Dirt is raked, free of rocks, just want more protection. 

Even if the carpet did grow mold and stink, why would it matter? Wouldn't it be encapsulated away? It's old carpet, would prefer not to smell or see it, under plastic seems like a good idea.


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## Windows on Wash

Use landscape fabric and you can double it over. Then put the plastic over it, then the carpet.


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## Gary in WA

"encapsulating it"- are you sealing the crawlspace vents? IF so, you need to supply air from the house to rid it of moisture build-up. Crawls track the ambient air relative humidity. 5 choices; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...cxhZUUbjb19gdOLGMmhxgpg&bvm=bv.59026428,d.cGU

Gary


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## Solaritu

have you thought about using some foam padding for flooring. I would be worried a carpet would create and hold mold.


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## Nestor_Kelebay

HalliwellC:

I did exactly the same thing in the crawl space under my building. You see, apartment blocks don't have basements. They have a central "hallway" that runs directly under the main hallways in the building, and there are access holes in the concrete sides of that subterranean "hallway" that allow you to get under each stack of suites.

In my case, I also added trap doors in the bedroom closets of every basement suite to allow access to the space beneath that basement suite directly from the suite.

Anyhow, I get a fair bit of condensation on the cold water distribution piping in that central hallway, so I used scrap 100% OLEFIN carpet from the apartments that I was replacing the carpet in. I knew those carpets to be 100% Olefin, so I cut them into 2 foot wide strips and used that carpet directly over the gravel of my crawl space. Those strips of carpet have lasted well over 20 years as of the last time I was in my crawl space.

If you have a dryer crawl space than mine, then I expect a 100% Olefin carpet would do equally well or better, OR that you could use just about any kind of carpet instead.

Olefin is chemically very similar to polypropylene. Polypropylene is one of the most water resistant plastics there is. It's also very UV resistant, but that's of little benefit in your application. The yellow ropes they make for marine applications are made of polypropylene because of it's water and UV resistant, but more importantly, polypropylene is one of the few plastics that float. So, if your polypropylene rope falls overboard, it'll float right back up to the surface.

If it were me, I would use a stronger plastic (I'd probably buy polypropylene tarps at any marina or auto supply store), and install ANY kind of carpet over top of those tarps if you have a dry crawl space.


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