How To: Getting Rid Of That Basement Musty Smell In An Old House

[slow&rusty]

Guys - I own a beautiful older brick house built in the '50s that I recently bought this summer. It has a fully finished basement, your typical older style basement with the small windows.

My only gripe is that the basement has the typical Musty type smell, its not moisture as I have had moisture meters down there and its dry and the house passed its inspection with flying colors.

When company come over I find myself running down there and spraying Febreeze or some kind of Glad spray to re-vive the somewhat stagnant air down there.

Any suggestions?

Regards - Yasin

[M.D. Holloway]

Yasin,
If you have taken care of all the ways in which water/moisture can enter including sealing the walls then you may have some mold growing. What you smell is not water or moisture but rather mold and so forth.

One thing my ol Man used to do and it seemed to work is to get some cheap bleech and mix with water and spry all over. The bleeth will kill the mold et al and breakdown the organics that give the musty smell. You can use a spray bottle but make sure there is nothing left it it from Windex or you'll gag you arse!

[dd74]

What Mike says. But do it FAST. Mold isn't necessarily something you want around your house. I think many insurance companies would agree.

[Aurel]

I am going down that road. Here are the actions I have taken so far:

-Sealing all water entry areas
-Avoiding water infiltration through porous walls by directing gutter water away from the house
-Painting walls with sealant paint. Scrape the walls first. The paint has an additive that kills mold.
-Open basement windows to help dry

After that, the mold smell is gone. I would also suggest running a dehumudifier in the basement. They cost $150-200. So far, it seems I won`t even need that.

Aurel

[MFAFF]

The real issue is constant trickle ventilation....

Basements, in addition to being rather damper than the upper levels, have far less ventilation and air movement.

The easiest solution is to install a small extract fan down there...on a timer perhaps, which dumps the air directly outside. Fresh air can be drawn in either by natural infiltration, vai gaps around the door to the basement or if you need it a couple of small holes in the wondow frame.

Without this all the prevention methods mentionned above will need to be done regularly becuase they will come right back.

Also what is the floor finish? If you have a carpet directly on the floor then it may be an idea to remove it and install a hard floor finish, either a wooden floor or tiling over which you place rugs etc....Helps keep the carpets really dry..

[Porsche-O-Phile]

What they all said. . . Kinda.

The problem is almost certainly mold somewhere. Methods like increasing the dryness and increasing the air change rate will certainly help long-term but first you have to find and kill whatever is already present. The bleach idea is probably good, as would be repainting/resealing when you're all done. Once the offending growth is killed I'd look at a dehumidification system and/or increasing the number of air changes to keep it from coming back. Regular cleaning/maintenance will help too - particularly in and around often-neglected areas like any sumps, pipe penetrations, furnaces, equipment, etc. Good luck.

Also, the flooring suggestion is a good one - installing a raised floor (can simply be something like 2x4 or 2x6 floor joists with a flooring on top of it as a substrate for your finish materials) will help too. Plus it gives you a way to run wiring, piping, etc. underneath the floor without cutting slabs. It's also a helluva lot more comfortable to walk/stand on rather than carpeting applied directly onto the slab (with or without padding). Depends on what you want to do - make sure the floor slab is dry and well-protected before doing this though.

[89911]

Run a dehumidifier. I know it sounds like something your parents would do, but I had the same type of problem when I refinished my basement. When I first bought it, it must of ran for days pulling all the moisture out of the surrounding drywall and flooring. After that, it just runs occasionally and the basement has the same feeling as the rest of the house with no odors. They are kind of noisy and are weather dependent. If it rains a lot, they run often. I usually turn it off when down there and just turn it on when not.

[slow&rusty]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

There is a crawl space under the house too as well as the fully finished basement. The crawl space is connected to one of the bedrooms and I feel that "smell" is coming from the dirt crawl space.

I agree that ventilation in these older basements as best is terrible! A dehumidifier will definitely help.

I almost 99.999% sure there is not a moisture issue or worse yet mould in the basement as myself and another good friend (we are both Civil Engineers) checked every square inch of the basement to make sure it was moisture free. The moisture meters we have in the basement are registering "low" for moisture and we have moved them around alot.

I am thinking that alot of the "smell" is stale \ stagnant air and there is no good movement \ ventilation of air down there.

My plan is pull the '70s smoky grey carpet..LOL and put down hardwood floor and a new Bubur (spelling?) carpet saometime soon.

Regards- Yasin

[Hetmann]

You might try some tea tree oil mixed with water in a sprayer. It has antiseptic properties and smells better than a lot of the alternatives. This ia after you remove the carpet and improve the ventilation.

[Tobra]

Oddly enough, tea tree oil(melaluca oil) is antifungal as well.

If you feel the smell is coming from the dirt floored crawl space, seal it up better. I like the exhaust fan idea as well, better ventilation will be helpful

[rfuerst911sc]

I bet that carpet is holding moisture / smell along with the pad if there is padding. A simple test for moisture on the concrete floor is to duct tape a piece of plastic say 12 x 12 or similiar size and leave it for a day or two. Then remove the plastic, if there are water droplets you have moisture creeping in from below. The carpet and pad would hide this but it would smell.

[speeder]

First and foremost, pull the carpet and any padding under it and make sure that floor is dry and mold-free underneath. Carpet is the number one offender when it comes to smells, you might solve the whole problem right there. If not, keep investigating from there.

[RickM]

Intersting question as I have been contemplating the finishing of my basement.

The one obstacle I see is the interior french drain around the perimeter. I solved a long standing water problem outside the basement and don't see the need for the interior drain. But if I seal the basement walls with epoxy paint the french drain is still there to allow moisture to come in behind the new studs/sheetrock....right? How is this dealt with?

[slow&rusty]

Originally posted by procon
Does the crawl space have foundation vents?
Also, there should be a layer of plastic sheeting on top of the dirt in the crawl space.

Yes there are vents but no plastic on the dirt....I see where you are going!

Yasin

[red-beard]

Fire. Fire is your friend here. Remove furniture, belongings, important stuff, burn down, start over. Mold is no joke.

My house in Massachusetts was moldy. Everyone who owned that house ended up divorced, dead, or both. I do not believe it was bad vibes, it was the mold, causing problems in the occupants.

[dad911]

Originally posted by RickM
Intersting question as I have been contemplating the finishing of my basement.

The one obstacle I see is the interior french drain around the perimeter. I solved a long standing water problem outside the basement and don't see the need for the interior drain. But if I seal the basement walls with epoxy paint the french drain is still there to allow moisture to come in behind the new studs/sheetrock....right? How is this dealt with?

Rick, it was common practice in the 70's/80's in NJ to leave an 'expansion' joint around the slab, typically 1". Have you tested your basement for Radon? After the discovery of Radon in the area, NJ modified codes to require the basement floor to be poured tight to the walls, and sealed with a flexible caulk.

If you have no moisture/wetness on the walls, you should fill & seal the expansion joint. This needs to be 'vapor tight', the easiest method was with a special spray foam that blocks radon.

[Eric P]

Solid or cinder block walls? I run a dehumid. regularly and had to seal my walls. Water gets IN the holes inside the cider blocks (not visible) and sits, grows, smells, etc....

[Aurel]

Originally posted by red-beard
Fire. Fire is your friend here. Remove furniture, belongings, important stuff, burn down, start over. Mold is no joke.

My house in Massachusetts was moldy. Everyone who owned that house ended up divorced, dead, or both. I do not believe it was bad vibes, it was the mold, causing problems in the occupants.

Did you burn it down?

Aurel

[red-beard]

Should have. Sold it to the next sucker after my divorce...

[ecenur]

Originally Posted by 89911

Run a dehumidifier. I know it sounds like something your parents would do, but I had the same type of problem when I refinished my basement. When I first bought it, it must of ran for days pulling all the moisture out of the surrounding drywall and flooring. After that, it just runs occasionally and the basement has the same feeling as the rest of the house with no odors. They are kind of noisy and are weather dependent. If it rains a lot, they run often. I usually turn it off when down there and just turn it on when not.

I just recently started having the same problem, while looking it up I arrived here. I thought maybe you folks could help me out. I just have a simple question, I want to know how well it works and how effectively it works. Thanks guys, cheers!