We fix the small stuff under west-side houses: torn or chewed vent screens, winter vent covers, a rotted or missing crawl space hatch, and the gaps where rain gets under the floor. Our area is Cedar Mill, Beaverton, Bethany and the neighborhoods around them. Re-screening or covering vents usually comes to $195-$850 in the Portland market, with $400 a common figure, for labour alone (November 2026 data) . Other jobs are on the full price list.
Slava has spent 7 years doing this work himself.
What crawl space repairs do we take on?
All of it is done from outside or just inside the hatch:
- New vent screens where the old ones are torn, rusted through, pushed in or chewed open.
- Covers fitted over the vents before a freeze, and taken off again in spring.
- Loose or broken vent frames reset in the foundation.
- An access hatch repaired or rebuilt: the door, the frame, the latch and a weatherstrip.
- Small foundation cracks, and gaps around pipes and wires, sealed from the outside.
- Vent wells dug out where soil or bark mulch has piled up against the opening.
Regrading a yard is a separate question . Bigger crawl space jobs belong to other trades.
How much does crawl space repair cost around Portland?
| Crawl space job | Market range | Typical | Priced | Basis | Hours on site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vent screens and covers | $195-$850 | $400 | per job | labour only | about 3 hours |
| Access door repair or a new hatch | $200-$800 | $400 | per job | labour only | about 3.5 hours |
| Water entry fixes: cracks, gaps, vents | $400-$3,000 | $1,200 | per job | labour only | about 10 hours |
Treat these as November 2026 market figures for the metro, not a quote from us. You pay separately for screen, covers, hatch lumber and sealant .
What moves the number: how many vents a long ranch house has, whether the vent frames are sound or rotted, how much room there is behind the hatch, and whether water comes in at one gap or along a whole wall.
A wet crawl space fixed with a downspout, a cleared vent well or one sealed gap fits the table. A drainage system, encapsulation or structural repair is specialist work at a much bigger price.
Is it normal to have water in a crawl space after rain?
A damp smell or darker dirt for a day after a long rain is common under older vented crawl spaces. Standing water, or water that stays for days, is not. It always has a way in.
The usual ways in : a downspout emptying at the foundation, a gutter spilling over at a corner, soil or bark sloping into a vent well, a hatch at or below the soil line, open gaps around pipes and wires, and cracks.
On the west side, fir needles pack gutters every fall, so roof water ends up at the foundation during the wettest months. Short downspout extensions are often the cheapest fix on this whole page.
Should crawl space vents be open or closed in winter?
A vented crawl space dries out because air moves through it. Shutting every vent all year traps damp air, unless the space was sealed and conditioned on purpose, which is encapsulation.
Most people take a middle path: covers go on for a hard freeze, mostly on the vents nearest exposed water pipes and on the side the wind hits, and come off once the cold snap passes or in spring . Portland searches for vent covers about double between October and December.
Covers help the pipes, but they don't replace insulating the pipes under the house. Book both on one visit.
What can you use to cover crawl space vents?
The screen stays in all year and keeps animals out. The cover goes over it for a freeze and comes off after.
A torn screen lets in rats, mice, raccoons and the neighbour's cat, and they pull insulation down once inside. For screens and covers we use . Window screen is too flimsy to stop a rat. Plain plywood soaks up water and keeps blocking airflow if nobody takes it off in spring.
Many foundation vents share a common rectangular size, and store covers are made to fit it. Older or odd openings need a cover cut to measure .
We close the openings. We don't trap, poison or clean up after animals .
What does a good crawl space access door look like?
The hatch is how a plumber, a home inspector or a seismic retrofit crew gets under your house. It usually fails one of a few ways: plywood rotting along the bottom edge, soil creeping up the frame, a missing latch so the wind opens it, or gaps that let in water and animals.
A good hatch is exterior-rated, in a frame clear of the dirt, with a weatherstrip, a latch you can open without tools, and an opening big enough to get a person through. If the sill or rim board behind the frame is soft, that rot gets fixed before the new door goes on. Inside hatches, the kind cut into a closet or garage floor, are a separate question .
If the house dates from before 1978, we leave painted trim uncut, unscraped and unsanded around a hatch or vent. We fix what can be fixed without disturbing the paint .
When is it a job for a crawl space company, a plumber or pest control instead?
Here's who those jobs belong to:
- Full encapsulation, dehumidifiers and interior drain systems: a crawl space or waterproofing company.
- Sagging floors, rotted joists or beams, sinking piers: a structural repair contractor, often working with an engineer.
- A leaking pipe under a bathroom: a plumber first; we can fix the water damage after.
- Rodents living under the house, termites, droppings cleanup: pest control.
- Mold beyond a small surface patch: a mold remediation company.
- Old white, papery wrap on pipes or ducts: we leave it alone.
- Soil grading and yard drainage: a landscape contractor.
A ground vapor barrier is still an open question for us . The rest is on the jobs we send elsewhere.