Background
Patrick Smith is the director of Nashville Business Foundry and the researcher and author behind every article on Crawlspace Energy Institute. He developed this educational resource in close collaboration with the foundation and waterproofing professionals at JLB Foundation Repair & Basement Waterproofing, combining published building science research with the hands-on field knowledge that comes from thousands of crawlspace projects across Kansas City and Des Moines.
Patrick's conviction is that most homeowners receive too little explanation and too much sales pressure when it comes to understanding their crawlspace. The research from organizations like Advanced Energy, the Department of Energy, and the Building Science Corporation is publicly available — what has been missing is someone willing to translate it into plain language without an agenda attached.
Research and Writing Process
Every article begins with published research — peer-reviewed studies, government guidelines, and established building science principles. Patrick then cross-references that research with the field experience of JLB's crawlspace professionals, the people who see these conditions firsthand in hundreds of homes every year.
This collaboration keeps the content grounded. Research data tells you that sealed crawlspaces maintain 52% average humidity compared to 77% in vented crawlspaces. Field experience tells you what that difference looks like in a 1960s Kansas City ranch house with clay soil and original fiberglass batts. Both perspectives are necessary for content that genuinely helps homeowners.
Approach
Patrick's goal is to let the data speak for itself. That means explaining the stack effect in terms of pressure differentials, not scare tactics. It means presenting encapsulation research alongside its limitations. It means acknowledging that every home is different and that climate, soil type, foundation design, and existing conditions all influence the right course of action.
Building science has clear principles, reproducible measurements, and decades of published field data. The content on this site makes that body of knowledge accessible without oversimplifying it. If a topic requires nuance, the nuance is provided. If a common assumption is contradicted by research, the research is presented.