Smell and dew in the basement
We have a nice spacious basement converted by previous owner into a living space. Its dry with no signs of water on the floor however there is not enough ventilation and you can smell and feel a bit of moisture. At the moment the only entrance from outside is the metal cover on the street…
We have a nice spacious basement converted by previous owner into a living space. Its dry with no signs of water on the floor however there is not enough ventilation and you can smell and feel a bit of moisture. At the moment the only entrance from outside is the metal cover on the street side. What is the best and cheap way to vent it?
How about dihumidifier?
Its better on the dry days and worse on the rainy ones.
please advise 🙂
I too read that article and second the idea that sufficient air movement, even in very humid weather, can do the job. Dehumidifiers are energy hogs (they also produce inside heat, the last thing you want in summer.)
The solution above is mostly for aesthetics; basically it boils down to a large enough fan which can be directly installed in a window; the duct to draw air close from the basement floor helps.
In this month’s (actually November 2008) Fine Homebuilding a reader (Dud Carlson, Newark NY) submitted a tip about this that I found helpful. If you don’t have access I’m writing it here (but try to find it if you can as it has pictures): “Having given up on the questionable reliability and durability of dehumidifiers for our basement, I decided to try a low-tech, low-cost alternative to deal with summer humidity problems. Opening the basement windows provided some airflow but did not reduce humidity at floor level. A fan in the window moved more air but did not get the air to the areas needed. Then I discovered a better solution. The key elemt is a 6-in.-dia.axial fan (Dayton 3vu69 with 3rp14a cord set; http://www.grainger.com). The fan moves 239 cfm of air while drawing 0.23 amps. (Our defunct dehumidifier drew 7.5amps.) As you can see in the drawings above and below, the fan is mounted on a 1/2 in thick plywood tray with a circular cutout that corresponds with the diameter of the duct mounted below it. The tray slides into a 10in sq. plywood box. The inlet and outlet ducts are 6in dia. galvanized, smooth – wall sheet metal. The installation show here exhausts through a plastic pane in a window. Others I have built exit stud walls, stone walls, or block walls. Teh exit pipe is screened a tthe end to keep out bugs when the fan is off, and the inlet is about 4in above the basement floor. This thing works. Mine is the seventh one I have installed. For one house with a major moisture problem, I installed a 10in dia.axial fan. The moisture problem was under control in the house within two weeks.”
Hope that helps all!
If you are using it as a living space I would go with the dehumidifier. A fan venting to the outside will help but if you really want to keep the space below 50% humidity (the level that it recommended to prevent mold and mildew) in the summer a dehumidifier is the only way to go. However it can be expensive to run a dehumidifier.
Get an ironwork company to build a vent in that metal door, and then install a fan to ventilate your basement. That’s what I did in my unfinished cellar and it made a huge difference, no more humidity and smell. In the winter it’s much dryer; I don’t use the fan and I seal the vent. A dehumidifier could also work.