Covering earth under house

[dabaldie]

I read somewhere that laying heavy plastic over the entire earth underneath our house would solve damp problems in our lower house.
Whe have typical 1900's house with suspended timber floors and beneath the house the crawl space is earth. its about 1m between the earth and the floor.
Would covering the soil help?
There is plenty of ventilation under the house, infact prob too much as we actually get draughts up through the carpet and underlay (at the edges) and this makes the room cold.
There are airbricks (recently installed, so there obviously was a problem in the past) to the from and back of the house.
Is it worth installing the vapour membrane? also would it be a benefit to the comfort level in the house to install some form of insulation beneath the suspended floor?

 

[Bylough]

I have read on another post somewhere, that laying a vapour barrier u/f is just as likely to push the damp towards the walls- therefore making them permanently damp or maybe waterlogged in severe cases.

Insulating u/f is much easier if you are replacing the floorboards. Suggest you put more on top instead as a first try.