Basement Waterproofing and Crawl Space Repair News

I read and hear about it over and over again… to eliminate a damp, musty smell in the basement, or crawl space for that matter, open a window (or vent).

Yikes! What’s the weather like outside? Isn’t the relative humidity at 70%, 80%, even 90% on the East coast and in the south?

So opening a window and letting in humid air is going to do what? Right- it’s going to bring the humidity in. You’re going to cool that air in your basement or crawl space. So, if it’s 70% relative humidity and 85 degrees outside, and you bring that air into a 65 degree basement, what’s going to happen?

Well, the relative humidity is going to go up 2.2% for every degree that the air is cooled. So 85 to 65 degrees is 20 degrees – that’s a 44% relative humidity increase, for a total of 114% relative humidity. Can we have over 100% relative humidity?

No. So what happens next… the moisture in the air condensates out on cooler surfaces. That’s why cold water pipes, water tanks, soda cans, etc. get wet with condensation. They cool the air touching their surfaces and the moisture condensates out.

Uh-oh. Didn’t we just open the window and let that air in? What’s it doing? It’s supporting mold and mildew growth and compounding the musty smell that you opened the window to eliminate.

What’s the answer?

A dehumidifier. And one that can handle the size of your basement or home is important. If you can’t tell which way the air is moving through a dehumidifier, it can’t dry your space.

Basement Systems SaniDry Basement and Crawl Space air machines are the right choice. These heavy-duty dehumidifiers also filter the air. Call us at 800-638-7048 or contact us online and we’ll connect you with a local SaniDry dealer.

Tags: basement, basement dehumidifier, musty smells

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.