Cold floors in winter, a damp smell or sagging batts under the house? We look first, then insulate or seal so the floor stays drier.
Crawl space insulation in Lake Charles takes one of two forms. Either we put insulation under your floor, usually foam board fastened below the floor joists, or we close off a vented crawl space so it's sealed, insulated and dry. Done right, either way helps keep the subfloor from soaking up moisture as the seasons change.
Most calls start with cold floors in winter, a musty smell coming up into the house or a power bill that won't come down. Under a raised floor, the usual cause is insulation that's sagging, falling down or missing, or damp air working its way into the wood. The fix has to keep the subfloor dry as well as warm, or the problem just moves somewhere else.
The price moves with the square footage of the floor, how much old insulation has to come out, how tight the crawl space is to work in and which approach fits your house. The schedule mostly turns on what has to happen first, like mold cleanup, wood repair or a permit check. Your estimate lays out the work for your house, so you can see where the money goes.
Before I quote a crawl space, I look for three things that change the plan. Any one of them can mean a different material, an extra step or a different order of work.
If there's surface mold or fungus on the joists or subfloor, a certified mold remediation expert has to inspect it and set a cleaning plan before any insulation goes in. Plan for that step early. Insulating over mold only hides it, and it keeps growing in the dark.
A furnace or water heater that burns fuel can draw its air through the crawl space vents. If it does, sealing those vents can create a deadly situation. That equipment decides the plan before anything else, and sometimes it rules out sealing until it's changed.
Shutting the vents alone can raise the moisture under your house, because the space loses its way to dry. A sealed crawl space needs its own drying, and one of the most effective ways is a small flow of conditioned air from your heating and cooling system. Open vents have a cost too. Humid outside air here is often damper than the air under the house, and it feeds rot, mold and pests.
Here's how a crawl space job goes from your first call to the final walkthrough, and who you'll deal with at each step.
Call (337) 474-1146 or use our contact form. We'll set a time for me to come out and look at the crawl space at your house.
I go under the house, measure the floor and write down what I find, from the old insulation and the vents to mold and anything that burns fuel. Then I give you a written estimate that spells out the work.
If you go ahead, we first check permit needs with the office that covers your address. Then our crew does the work the estimate describes, with me or a lead installer on site.
When we're done, we walk you through the finished crawl space and show you what went in. After a heavy storm, it's worth a quick look through the hatch for standing water.
The main choice is insulating under the floor or sealing the whole crawl space. Two things decide it for me: how likely water is to get under your house and how dry your subfloor stays. Before I plan either one, I check for mold and for any equipment down there that burns fuel, because both can change the answer.
We won't lay new insulation over old batts that are soaked or full of droppings, because that keeps the problem under your floor. That material comes out first. Gaps around pipes and wires usually get air sealing, which means closing them up so damp air can't slip past the new insulation. If the rooms above still feel off once the floor is done, wall insulation is often the next place to look.
We fasten foam board or spray foam to the underside of the floor and leave the crawl space vented. This is the approach I usually lean toward where water can get under the house.
We cover the ground, insulate the foundation walls, close the vents and give the space a way to dry. It fits a crawl space that stays dry and has no gas equipment that depends on those vents.
Send the form and we'll reply within one business day to set a time for me to come out. The estimate is free, it's done on site at your house and there's no obligation.
(337) 474-1146Very little land in Calcasieu Parish sits outside a mapped flood plain, so in Lake Charles flood risk belongs in the crawl space plan from the first look. In flood-prone areas, local codes may also require flood vents, which are openings that let water flow into and out of the foundation. We check that with the office covering your address. One building guide suggests choosing vents made to leak less air between floods.
The state contractor licensing board requires a Home Improvement Registration for home improvement jobs worth at least $7,500 and under $50,000, the upper limit its flyer gives. Mold cleanup worth $7,500 or more needs a separate Mold Remediation license from the same board. If mold under your house turns into a real cleanup job, it gets handled under the right license before we insulate.
We're based in Lake Charles and do the same crawl space work in the cities around it, including Sulphur and Moss Bluff. Most of what we see here sits under raised wood floors, often with old batts hanging loose and vents half covered by plants or dirt.
I learned this work on a municipal crew, where every job got written up and checked before anyone signed off. I started Lake Charles Insulation Company here in 2023 to work the same way. I come out to look at your crawl space and write the estimate myself. Our crew does the work, with me or a lead installer on site.
We're licensed and insured. If I see a leak, wet wood or wiring that needs a look, I show you and we plan around it before any insulation covers it up. Your satisfaction, guaranteed. To get started, call (337) 474-1146 or send us the form.
If your floors feel better but the outside walls still let heat in or out, insulating the walls takes care of the next weak spot.
Closing the gaps around pipes, wires and the hatch keeps damp crawl space air out of the house and lets the new insulation work.
We're based in Lake Charles and insulate crawl spaces in the cities around it, including Prien, Jennings and Orange, TX. Pick your city below to see the kinds of houses and calls we get there.
Across the US, insulating a crawl space usually costs about $3 to $6 per square foot. That's the national going rate, not our price. Your number comes from your own crawl space, so I measure it and look it over before I write the estimate.
Usually not. Louisiana guidance from the LSU AgCenter says a closed crawl space isn't advisable in flood-prone areas, and as noted above, flood risk runs high in this parish. A 2014 national DOE article reports research in which sealed crawl spaces used less heating and cooling energy and held lower humidity, so on a dry site, sealing can make sense. I weigh both against your lot.
Foil-faced foam board under the joists and closed-cell spray foam both did well. In a study of raised floors in southern Louisiana houses, they showed little seasonal change in subfloor moisture. Closed-cell foam is a dense foam that blocks moisture. Open-cell foam and kraft-faced fiberglass batts didn't reliably protect the subfloor, especially under floor finishes that block moisture and in houses kept cool in summer. Tell us what flooring you have.
The City of Lake Charles Permit Center answers questions about permits for building, electrical, mechanical or plumbing work, at 337-491-1294. Its list doesn't name insulation, so ask that office whether your job needs one. We check with the city or parish office covering your address before work starts. If a permit is needed, we apply for it and keep you posted.
The schedule depends on the crawl space itself: its size, how tight it is to work in and any cleanup that has to come first. With foam board, you can usually stay home. With spray foam, you'll need to stay out until the re-entry time, the wait before it's safe to come back inside, and we tell you that ahead of time. Clear a path to the hatch before we arrive.
Call (337) 474-1146 or send the form with your address, whether the crawl space has vents and any gas equipment or mold you've seen, so I know what to look for when I come out.
