Musty Odors in Living Area

[bplouhar]

I was wondering if anyone could help me out here.

I have a home that was built in 2000, and it was built in an area with a high water table.

I had a 4ft dirt crawlspace when I first moved in.

Shortly after I moved in, it was towards the end of winter and rained really hard and melted a bunch of snow and my crawlspace ended up getting a couple feet of water in it. This posed a huge problem seeing that my furnace is also located in my crawlspace.

I helped this problem by burying some drainage tiles and putting in a sump pump, then I covered the ground with 3 in of concrete. Now when the ground thaws or we get heavy rains I get some seepage or the occasional small puddle.

My biggest problem now is that when it thaws or rains hard I get a musty odor in my living area, because the high water has a musty odor to it. I don't always have the odor, only when it rains hard or thaws from winter.

I tried to fix this by placing a 5mil plastic vapor barrier on the underside of my home, but this does not seem to cure the problem.

So finally to my question, because I am running out of ideas.

I am wondering what else, if anything I can do to eliminate the odor problem?

Will a powered ventilation fan help this by sucking in fresh air and exhausting the staggnent air?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks
-Ben
Muskegon, MI

[richard]

Ben,

The musty smell is coming from mold or mildew, the water itself shouldn't have any odor.

We recommend encapsulating the crawl space with the CleanSpace (http://www.basementsystems.com/crawlspace/) liner at the perimeter, making it as air tight (and water and mositure tight) as possible, and then conditioning the air. There will be some concern here as you have your furnace here that will need air, but your local Basement Systems dealer will know what to do for this.

The issue with a power fan is that it sucks unconditioned outside air into the crawl space very rapdily, so in the winter that would be cold air and in the summer it will be air with higher relative humidity levels (thus bringing in more moisture at a faster rate).

Your local Basement Systems dealer will be able to help you with the issue you are experiencing in your crawl space. Call 1-800-638-7048 or contact us online (http://www.basementsystems.com/forms/contact.php?utm_source=Forum%2BLink&utm_medium=Forum%2BLink&utm_campaign=Forum-Link-Contact-Page) and we'll get you in touch with the dealer in your area.

-Richard