Roughly half the air you breathe on the main floor of your home traveled up from underneath it first. Warm air rises and escapes through the roof, and something has to replace it, so the house pulls from the lowest opening available. When that opening leads to a dirt floor and open vents, everything down there comes along: humidity, musty odor, mold spores, and whatever else has been sitting under the joists. A&A Waterproofing has provided crawl space encapsulation to homeowners in and around Marietta, GA, for close to thirty years, and sealing that space off changes the air quality in the entire house.
Crawl space work has been part of A&A Waterproofing's business since 1996, and the veteran-owned company operates from Marietta, Georgia, under owner Allen Aschwege. Our complete sealed systems include clearing out debris and failed insulation, treating existing mold and mildew, covering the ground and foundation walls with heavy liner material, closing off foundation vents, installing a dehumidifier sized to the space, and adding drainage where water is present. Marietta and the communities around it make up our service area, and both homeowners and commercial property owners hire us. New construction falls outside what we do, and having someone come look is free.
The symptoms show up in places nobody connects to a crawl space. A smell that greets you at the front door, floors that feel cold and slightly damp underfoot, allergy symptoms that get worse indoors rather than outside, cupping hardwood, condensation on the ductwork, and an air conditioner that runs longer than it should without ever making the house feel comfortable. Down below, insulation is usually hanging out of the joist bays and the wood has darkened.
Older construction is responsible for most of it. Building practice for decades left crawl spaces with exposed dirt and open foundation vents, on the theory that airflow would keep things dry. In a humid climate like ours that logic runs backward. Warm, moist Georgia air enters those vents from May through September, hits cool surfaces underneath the house, and condenses into liquid water. Meanwhile bare soil gives off moisture around the clock. Everything that evaporates down there gets drawn upward into the living space by the natural stack effect of the house.
Encapsulation removes the moisture source instead of trying to ventilate around it. Our crews clear out debris, old vapor barriers, and insulation that has absorbed water, then treat any mold growth on the joists and subfloor before covering it. A heavy liner goes across the entire ground surface and up the foundation walls, with seams sealed, piers wrapped, and terminations fastened so the barrier stays continuous. Vents get closed off, a dehumidifier sized for the square footage goes in with automatic drainage, and any standing water gets handled with a drain system before the liner is laid.
The difference becomes noticeable within days. That musty smell clears out, humidity upstairs settles into a comfortable range, the HVAC system stops fighting damp air, and the wood framing finally gets to dry and stay dry. Storage becomes possible underneath the house, energy bills often improve, and written warranty terms come with the installation so the work is on record if the property ever changes hands.
Homeowners tend to expect one improvement and get several, so here is the full range of what this work delivers.
Because so much of your indoor air originates below the floor, removing the mold, moisture, and odor down there changes what circulates upstairs. Households dealing with unexplained allergy symptoms frequently notice a difference within the first couple of weeks. The improvement reaches every room rather than just the one above the crawl space.
Joists, beams, and subfloor stay sound when they're kept dry, and rot is what eventually turns a moisture issue into a structural repair. Sealing the space is considerably cheaper than replacing wood that has already softened. Wood-destroying insects also lose the damp conditions they prefer.
Dry air is far easier to condition than humid air, so an air conditioner that no longer has to pull moisture out of the house runs shorter cycles. Sealing the vents also stops outside air from washing across your ductwork. Most homeowners see the difference on summer bills first.
A sealed, dry crawl space becomes a place you can actually keep things and access without dreading it. Service calls for plumbing or ductwork get easier for everyone involved. Contractors working under a clean liner tend to do better work than those crawling through mud.
Qualifying installations come with written coverage that begins at a decade and can run for a lifetime, depending on scope. Having paperwork matters when the house eventually goes on the market, since crawl space condition comes up in nearly every inspection. Buyers around here ask about it directly.
A complete sealed system draws on several pieces of work, and these pages explain the individual components in more detail.
The liner is the component that separates the ground from the air in the space, and our crawl space vapor barrier installation work covers material selection, ground and wall coverage, seam sealing, and pier wrapping. Installation quality is what determines whether a barrier performs for decades or fails at the joints.
Water arriving from outside has to be managed before anything gets sealed over it, and our crawl space drainage system installation service handles perimeter drain lines, sump basins, and discharge routing. Laying a liner over standing water accomplishes very little.
Everything we do beneath a home falls under crawl space repair and encapsulation, spanning cleanout, moisture control, fungicide treatment, dehumidification, and vent fan installation. Which pieces apply depends entirely on what the inspection turns up.
Sending a crew into the space beneath your floors requires some trust, and here is what backs ours.
Allen has spent decades in these spaces and has seen the full range of what they hide, from standing water to framing nobody had inspected since the house was built. That experience means the assessment covers what matters rather than what is easy to spot. You'll hear exactly what we found, described plainly.
Debris, saturated insulation, and old torn liner all come out first, since sealing over contamination hides a problem rather than solving it. Skipping this step is one of the more common shortcuts in this industry and it always surfaces later. Our crews handle removal as part of the job.
Liner thickness, dehumidifier capacity, drainage needs, and whether vents should close or receive powered ventilation all depend on the specific crawl space. Two homes on the same street frequently need different setups. Nothing gets specified before Allen has been under the house.
This business has been veteran-owned and operating out of Marietta since 1996, picking up a family trade that took root in Missouri long before the move south. Customers who need us years from now will still find us at the same number.
Getting under the house to assess it costs you nothing. Bigger projects can be financed with Acorn Finance, and active-duty military, EMTs, veterans, police officers, and firefighters receive a 10% Hometown Heroes discount.
In Georgia's humidity, open vents generally bring in more moisture than they remove, which is why building practice has moved toward sealed crawl spaces. Warm outside air entering a cool crawl space in July condenses on the surfaces down there. Certain situations still call for controlled airflow instead, and Allen will tell you which applies to your home.
Most residential crawl spaces are completed within two to four days, depending on square footage, how much cleanout is required, and whether drainage work is part of the scope. Homes around older Marietta neighborhoods with tight access or low clearance take longer. Our team gives you a schedule during the estimate.
The change most people report first is the smell, usually within the first week. Humidity readings on the main floor typically drop several points, and floors stop feeling clammy in summer. Households with allergy sufferers often notice the improvement even before anyone checks a hygrometer.
Sealing removes the majority of the moisture load, though most crawl spaces in this climate still need mechanical help to hold a safe humidity range year-round. Units get sized to the square footage and set up to drain automatically so nobody has to go down and empty anything. Some smaller, drier spaces manage without one, and we'll say so if yours qualifies.
Older homes are frequently the best candidates, since they were built with exposed dirt, open vents, and no moisture control at all. Houses across Marietta, Smyrna, and Mableton from the mid-century era show this pattern constantly. The improvement in those homes is usually more dramatic than in newer construction.
FAQs reviewed by Allen Aschwege, owner of A&A Waterproofing, a veteran-owned crawl space and waterproofing service based in Marietta, GA.
Call us and we'll get under the house, show you what's happening down there, and explain what a sealed system would involve. Three decades of work under houses in this area shapes the recommendation, and the pricing stays reasonable.
Business Name: A&A Waterproofing
Address: Marietta, GA, 30064
Phone: 770-443-1155
Business Hours:
Mon - Sat: 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Sunday: Closed
Hometown Heroes Discount
We're proud to offer 10% off for veterans, active-duty military, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders as a thank-you for your service.
Comprehensive Warranty Coverage
We stand behind the quality of our work. Warranty coverage varies by service and repair, with options ranging from 10-year warranties to lifetime warranties on qualifying projects.
