Saw a builder in Austin skip the vapor barrier, contractor vs engineer went at it

I was watching a crew frame a house off Slaughter Lane and the lead guy said 'vapor barrier is a myth in Texas heat', but the engineer on site was about to walk off the job over it. Houses here already have moisture issues in the crawl spaces, so is he saving time or setting up a mold farm? Has anyone seen a build skip it and last 10 years?

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richard11016d agoMost Upvoted

That lead guy is dead wrong about Texas. I've crawled under enough slab homes here to see what happens when you skip it. Ground moisture comes up through the concrete, no question. Especially with that black clay soil we got here, it holds water forever. We pulled up a subfloor two years ago in Buda, no vapor barrier under the slab, and the joists were rotting after 8 years. Had to tear out the whole floor system. The crawl space smelled like a swamp. That engineer was right to push back. A cheap roll of 6 mil plastic costs pennies compared to what that mold remediation bill looks like later. Save the time on something else, not the barrier.