Grading and drainage come before any product
On sloped mountain lots, drainage has to be solved before anything else -- then standing water, liner attachment to uneven rock-influenced framing, termite-inspection access, air sealing, and equipment placement all follow.
Scope items worth spelling out
- What's causing the current condition
- Protecting the space during work
- Materials and installation method
- Permits, testing, and cleanup
- Warranty terms and exclusions
Asheville context
Three conditions make a mountain crawl space behave unlike a flat-site one. Slope means the space is rarely uniform -- shallow at the uphill wall, often much taller at the downhill one -- so access, drainage and detailing all change within a single footprint. Clay soil holds water for days after the region's heavy rainfall and keeps supplying ground moisture upward regardless of what the surface grading looks like, and on a slope that water arrives laterally at the high wall rather than falling evenly on the footprint. Freeze-thaw exposure adds the third, opening and closing paths through foundation walls seasonally, which is why a space can be dry one year and wet the next with nothing visibly changed.