Avoiding Big Basement Disasters

Posted by jacques in Basement Carpet, Basement Dehumidifiers, Basement Finishing, Basement Flood, Basement Insulation, Basement Insulation, Basement Leaks, Basement Mold, Basement Remodeling Design, Basement Remodeling Ideas, Basement Systems Inc., Basement Waterproofing, Drainage, Finishing Basement Floors, Finishing Basement Walls, Green Basement Remodeling, Home Improvement, Sump Pumps, Wet Basement Repair | 0 comments

Five Common Mistakes People Make with their Basements

After three years of living in basement-related forums & web sites on a daily basis, I’ve come to a few conclusions:

1. Basement-related web sites and forums have become an impossible maze of bad advice, fad markets, and outdated advice.
2. Homeowners are taking this advice & returning to the same forums when the advice fails
3. Repeat Steps 1 & 2

As part of a network that’s been reputable in the basement business since 1987 nationally, we’d like to send some good horse sense into the ether.

Here, unequivocally, are the five most common mistakes that lead to disasters in the basement:

What does Basement Systems do to Solve Humidity Problems?

Posted by jacques in Basement Waterproofing, Crawl Space Repair | 0 comments

A crawl space vapor barrier can prevent humidity and outside air from infiltrating your home.

For a crawl space, we install a 20-mil plastic crawl space vapor barrier called CleanSpace on the walls and floors. We also seal off the crawl space doors and vents to make an airtight space. If the crawl space has block walls, we seal off the open cavity on the top of the block with a clear plastic covering that allows termite inspectors to do their job without interfering with the installation. Once the crawl space is sealed, we can install a drain to take care of plumbing leaks, and we usually recommend a dehumidifier to help dry out the wood and keep the humidity levels appropriate in the space in the future.

Keep humidity out of your basement with ThermalDry basement flooring.

Basement Systems provides a variety of different basement wall products and floor matting, all of which will provide a vapor barrier on the surfaces that will keep humidity from entering the home through the walls and floors. There’s also a basement dehumidifier that we can install that, when combined with the wall and floor system, should help keep mold and dust mites from feeding off everything organic in the basement.

We also have many other products that will keep the house energy-efficient and safe from damage, including energy-efficient basement windows and energy saving window wells.

Which Problems does Basement Systems Solve with their Products?

Posted by jacques in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Sealing and encapsulating a vented crawl space can save a lot of money for homeowners.

There are two major problems with subterranean space in the housing industry- concrete and dirt foundations in basements and vents in crawl spaces.

Concrete and dirt are both porous materials, and when basement and crawl space walls and floors are built out of these materials, moisture from around the foundation is able to constantly pass through. This is what makes basements the infamously damp, dreary, and moldy spaces.

Likewise, the vents in crawl spaces also let in enormous amounts of humidity in the summer. When warm air rises in a home, it exits through the upper levels. This creates a vacuum in the lower levels, which pulls air upwards from the crawl space. This in turn creates a vacuum in the crawl space, and air is pulled from the vents to replace it. So crawl space vents don’t ventilate air so much as they pull air in from the outside. This pulls humidity in the crawl space and home, causing rot, mold, and mildew in the space. Wet wood attracts termites, and rotting crawl spaces lead to sagging floors and possible structural damage, so the problems begin to stack on top of themselves pretty quickly. And in the winter, the same crawl space vents will allow cold air into the crawl space, which also saves on utility bills.