Hello!
I have read that treated wood was used for the sill in the past, and I want to check what I have.
So now comes my embarrassing amateur question: where is it located?
I have a house from '72 with a brick basement!
I have torn down the walls in the only finished room, and the only thing I can see from the inside is raw wood directly on the brick walls with a black sill paper in between.
This room was water damaged, and I have removed everything organic, and this summer, we drained it, but the basement still smells musty, and now I'm starting to feel a bit disheartened!
Worth mentioning is that we have been running the water heater all summer, so it's been cold in the basement!
What do you think about my odor problem?
Best regards, a confused relatively new homeowner!
I have read that treated wood was used for the sill in the past, and I want to check what I have.
So now comes my embarrassing amateur question: where is it located?
I have a house from '72 with a brick basement!
I have torn down the walls in the only finished room, and the only thing I can see from the inside is raw wood directly on the brick walls with a black sill paper in between.
This room was water damaged, and I have removed everything organic, and this summer, we drained it, but the basement still smells musty, and now I'm starting to feel a bit disheartened!
Worth mentioning is that we have been running the water heater all summer, so it's been cold in the basement!
What do you think about my odor problem?
Best regards, a confused relatively new homeowner!
The sill is the beam that lies atop the basement wall, see http://www.traguiden.se/TGtemplates/popup2spalt.aspx?id=4553
It's worth mentioning that basements can smell musty without there being issues with moisture or pressed sills. How is the ventilation, for example?
It's worth mentioning that basements can smell musty without there being issues with moisture or pressed sills. How is the ventilation, for example?
Good picture thanks for that
Regarding ventilation, there is supply air in the boiler room and laundry room, and natural draft through ventilation channels in the chimney in the boiler room and recreation room!
The laundry room will get a pax fan because it feels completely wrong to have only supply air there!
It becomes very high humidity with all the warm air that flows in during the summer and cools down.
It's complicated with a basement
Regarding ventilation, there is supply air in the boiler room and laundry room, and natural draft through ventilation channels in the chimney in the boiler room and recreation room!
The laundry room will get a pax fan because it feels completely wrong to have only supply air there!
It becomes very high humidity with all the warm air that flows in during the summer and cools down.
It's complicated with a basement
Yes, in the summer there is basically no ventilation at all when it is natural ventilation. The boiler is also not heated often enough to help.
One suggestion could be to consider a fan both in the laundry room and in the recreation room.
One suggestion could be to consider a fan both in the laundry room and in the recreation room.
I have Mitsubishi's dehumidifier, the test winner, and it works really well! It dries out the moisture enormously, especially on rainy days this summer! I've checked a bit more, and from what I can see, the sill is not in pressure-treated wood, and it looks dry and nice! I'll throw in a picture tonight. However, there have been salt deposits at the top of the wall after we finished with the drainage? Is it because the wall has dried out? Best regards
The smell is almost gone after I turned on the dehumidifier
But I have a question about the relative humidity: If I set it to 60%, it operates almost around the clock, but if I set it to 70%, it doesn't need to work nearly as much!
Do you think I should let it run down to 60%?
Regards
But I have a question about the relative humidity: If I set it to 60%, it operates almost around the clock, but if I set it to 70%, it doesn't need to work nearly as much!
Do you think I should let it run down to 60%?
Regards
Renovator
· Västra Götaland
· 1 117 posts
I am very against all solutions that talk about ventilation into a basement, especially in summer. If you place a moisture meter in the basement, you will understand why if you open a window or an outer basement door on a typical summer day in the middle of the day and let warmer outside air into a cold basement. Then close the door and watch what happens on the moisture meter. The warm air cools down, and warm air can carry more water than cold air. What happens as a result is that it cannot hold the water, so it condenses, which means the humidity rises. It takes a heck of a ventilation system to handle drying out that condensation with air movement...
Around 75% is where the risk zone begins, where mold starts to come to life and thrive. Then, you're not sure how accurate your dehumidifier is in its measurements. I wouldn't set it at 75%, for example, but maybe 70 to be on the safe side. If the basement is damp now, it might be good to run it for a while at a lower rate to really dry out the basement.
You mentioned that you've removed organic material; does that apply to the basement ceiling as well? Or is there wood paneling or something else on the ceiling? If there have been moisture problems in the basement, the smell may have risen into the sill or the insulation in the ceiling/floor structure. Even if the root cause has been addressed, odor-contaminated material may remain, and it might be worth renting an ozone machine and ozonating the basement space for a weekend or a week to see if it helps.
Good luck, drainage, removing organic material, and controlling humidity are good steps forward; you've done exactly the right thing so far!
Around 75% is where the risk zone begins, where mold starts to come to life and thrive. Then, you're not sure how accurate your dehumidifier is in its measurements. I wouldn't set it at 75%, for example, but maybe 70 to be on the safe side. If the basement is damp now, it might be good to run it for a while at a lower rate to really dry out the basement.
You mentioned that you've removed organic material; does that apply to the basement ceiling as well? Or is there wood paneling or something else on the ceiling? If there have been moisture problems in the basement, the smell may have risen into the sill or the insulation in the ceiling/floor structure. Even if the root cause has been addressed, odor-contaminated material may remain, and it might be worth renting an ozone machine and ozonating the basement space for a weekend or a week to see if it helps.
Good luck, drainage, removing organic material, and controlling humidity are good steps forward; you've done exactly the right thing so far!