A walk through Old Cloverdale, Capitol Heights, or Cottage Hill in Montgomery will show you hundreds of houses built between roughly 1900 and 1960 on crawl space foundations. These homes are charming, well-built, and in most cases worth restoring. But after sixty to a hundred years of central Alabama humidity, periodic flooding from the Alabama River system, and clay soil movement, the crawl spaces under these homes are in trouble.
What’s Happening Down There
The original construction was sound. Brick piers — usually 16 inches square — were laid up on shallow concrete footings, sometimes just on packed earth. Heavy wooden girders rested on the piers. Floor joists rested on the girders. For decades it worked.
What’s failed now, on most of these homes, is some combination of:
Pier deterioration. The original mortar in 80-year-old brick piers has often turned to powder. The piers lean. Some have split vertically. Some have had bricks fall out entirely.
Wooden member rot. Sill plates — the bottom horizontal members that sit on top of foundation walls or piers — were almost always untreated wood. After decades of humidity from Montgomery’s subtropical climate, many of these are spongy, rotted through, or have been hollowed out by termites.
Termite damage. Eastern subterranean termites are endemic to central Alabama. Even homes with regular pest control history often show old termite damage in girders and joists.
Soil settlement. The same Black Belt clay that causes slab problems also causes pier settlement. Piers that were level in 1955 are now an inch or two lower than the rest of the foundation, leaving girders unsupported.
Moisture damage. Flooding events from the Alabama River, perched water tables after heavy rain, and chronic humidity have left many crawl spaces with standing water multiple times per year. Wood members rot, fasteners rust, mold develops.
How We Repair It
Crawl space repair in Montgomery isn’t one job — it’s usually three or four jobs combined. A typical project involves:
Pier replacement or supplementation. Where piers have failed, we install new steel adjustable piers or pour new concrete piers with proper footings. Where piers are still functional but the load needs to be shared, we add supplemental steel piers between the existing ones.
Sill plate and beam repair. Where wood members have rotted, we sister new pressure-treated lumber alongside the failing pieces, or replace the failing sections entirely. This is careful work — you can’t just remove a girder section in a load-bearing situation. We jack the floor above, support the load, and make the repair.
Termite damage remediation. We coordinate with your pest control company (or recommend one if you don’t have one) to ensure active termite issues are resolved before we close up the repaired structure.
Moisture control. This is critical for Montgomery homes. We install vapor barriers, repair drainage so water doesn’t pool against the foundation, and where appropriate, fully encapsulate the crawl space with sealed plastic, dehumidification, and conditioned air.
A Note on Encapsulation
Crawl space encapsulation has become popular in the South over the last decade, and for good reason. A properly encapsulated crawl space in central Alabama can drop your home’s overall humidity, reduce HVAC load, eliminate mold concerns, and protect wood members from further rot.
But it has to be done right. Cheap “vapor barrier” jobs that just lay plastic on the dirt without sealing the perimeter, without addressing drainage, and without conditioning the air actually make problems worse — they trap moisture against wood members. We’ve torn out plenty of failed encapsulation work and done it correctly.
Service Areas for Crawl Space Work
We do crawl space repair throughout:
- Old Cloverdale and Cloverdale Idlewild — historic homes with original brick piers
- Capitol Heights and Highland Avenue — early 1900s construction
- Cottage Hill — pre-WWII bungalows
- Garden District — historic homes
- Prattville — older Daniel Pratt-era and mid-century crawl space homes
- Wetumpka — including Riverside-area homes near the Coosa
- Mid-century neighborhoods throughout Montgomery County
Free Inspection
Call (555) 555-5555 for a free crawl space inspection. We’ll go down there, photograph everything, and give you an honest assessment. Many crawl spaces look terrifying but only need targeted repair. Some look fine but have hidden structural issues. You should know which one yours is.