Complaint Review: Sealed Solution

To say that having Sealed Solution encapsulate our crawlspace was a nightmarish experience is an understatement. 

Sealed Solution encapsulated our crawlspace in May 2022.  We chose them because they were less expensive than expected, and in the personalized video we received for our crawlspace, we were told, "We have fans on your foundation vents that pull air out of the crawlspace. So it pulls air in from your home, into the crawlspace, out of your crawlspace vents, so none of this air inside the crawlspace ever comes up inside your home."  This gave us a sense of security that they would be following all proper safety procedures to ensure that none of the white mold from the crawlspace, old fiberglass batting, or any other materials would get into our home.

We couldn't have been more wrong.  Sealed Solution contaminated our entire home and garage with fiberglass dust.  We incurred SIX FIGURES WORTH OF DAMAGE to our home and personal property because of them.

Our symptoms started off as allergy-like with irritated eyes, irritated throats, and coughing a little more than usual.  This progressed to swollen lymph nodes (which we still have to this day), difficulty breathing, inability to sleep, chest/lungs burning, and skin feeling like it was burning as well. 

It got so bad that my partner had to go to urgent care where they did a chest x-ray and saw a white mass on one of his lungs.  The doctor told him to stay away from the contaminated area (our house) or his symptoms would only persist and get worse.

Not only did we have physical symptoms, but you could see all of the sparkly fiberglass dust on every surface in our home.  Our countertops, tables, wood furniture, and every hard surface in our home had a layer of yellow glittery dust (our old fiberglass batting in the crawlspace was yellow).  After experiencing our initial physical symptoms and seeing the dust in our home, we alerted the owner of Sealed Solution that our house had been contaminated with fiberglass dust.  We asked if the company would pay to professionally remediate the contamination, and we were told "no".  We were also told that we may just be "sensitive" to fiberglass, and that he had gone "above and beyond" for us.

After my partner's visit to urgent care, we again reached back out to the owner.  We told him about the results of the urgent care appointment, and he asked what we wanted him to do.  I said to file a claim with his insurance company.  So at the very beginning of June, we filed a claim with Sealed Solution's insurer.

Because our house was no longer safe to live in, we started living in a hotel with our dog at the end of May.  We had to live in a hotel for almost 5 months.

In addition to our health being compromised, we had to throw away all upholstered furniture, clothes, area rugs, carpeting, mattresses, pillows, linens, and everything else with a soft surface.  We had to have the popcorn ceilings in our entire home scraped and every room in our house painted including all baseboards, trim, and doors.  We had to have two professional abatement companies clean our house and both of our HVAC units, including all ductwork, replaced. 

Of the belongings we were able to keep, we had to meticulously clean each one ourselves to ensure that the fiberglass dust had been removed.  To do this level of cleaning, we had to purchase two commercial-grade HEPA vacuums and two HEPA air scrubbers.

The fiberglass dust came into our house through the ductwork in the crawlspace.  There were visible holes ripped in the insulation surrounding our ducts, and it appears no measures were taken to check for or seal air leaks before the encapsulation process began.  Sealed Solution did not use negative air pressure machines, HEPA air scrubbers, nor did they use HEPA vacuums to clean the crawlspace to ensure fiberglass dust, mold spores, or any other contaminants didn't enter our home.

We were able to reach an agreement with Sealed Solution's insurer; however, because we were the third party in the claim and were told because of the type of policy, we had over $30,000 of depreciation taken out, in addition to not being reimbursed for all of our costs.  

We originally paid $7,606 to have our crawlspace encapsulated by Sealed Solution, and now we're out tens of thousands of dollars.  

We had to have the vapor barrier that Sealed Solution installed replaced too because it was so thin, you couldn't walk on it without ripping a hole in the plastic.

We don't want any other family to go through the nightmare that we've been through.  It is not worth your physical health, mental health, or losing tens of thousands of dollars. 

If you're going to have someone encapsulate your crawlspace, please make sure that the owner of the company is actually on site daily and regularly supervising the sub-contractors. Don't believe a crawlspace encapsulation contractor when they tell you that the filter on your returns will catch all fiberglass because that's a lie. Unless you have a Merv 17 or higher filter on your returns, fiberglass dust will easily get through your filter and contaminate your house. 

We have yet to receive an apology from Sealed Solution for their negligence in contaminating our home and putting us through this hellish experience.  Even after the insurance claim was filed, Sealed Solution maintained that they did everything by code and went "above and beyond".  If "above and beyond" means compromising your health, contaminating your house, and costing you tens of thousands of dollars, then I guess they did.