We at EZ Breathe get this question regularly. We also get this statement often: “Well that is just the way basements are, and the way they smell.” Of course this is timely in much of the country right now… snow is melting, or has melted. Rain is falling…and more water in the soil outside our homes leads to….
When we are talking about DAMP, let’s be clear, we don’t mean WET. If you have liquid water that trickles across your floor at times, or even pools or floods your basement/crawlspace, that is WET, and it needs EZ Breathe, and some other work. Between EZ Breathe and our extensive family of distributors, we can help you solve WET basement problems.
When we are talking about DAMP, we are talking about air borne moisture, “feels damp”, condensation on cold surfaces, usually accompanied by musty odors.
For more related information about the crawl space conditioner system, click here.
Why is your basement or crawlspace damp? Very simple, even in the absence of liquid water entering your home through the foundation, research has documented “as much as 15 gallons per day of water vapor entering a basement space via vapor transmission through unsealed walls, floors, cracks, and openings and by evaporation from wet surfaces.” (Powell and Rogers, Kansas State University, “Dry Basements and Crawlspaces”.)
And that water vapor can wreak havoc in our homes! What can it cause/exacerbate?
– Mold
– Structural issues
– Bugs, spiders, etc.
– Health issues
How do we handle water vapor in the rest of our homes?
– In the bathrooms, we vent it to the outside
– In the kitchen, we vent it to the outside
– Our clothes dryer? Yep, vent to the outside
Has anyone ever told you to put a dehumidifier in each of your bathrooms, in your kitchen, and behind your dryer?
So you see, it is simple, a great way to handle excess water vapor in our homes is venting it to the outside…and that is what EZ Breathe has been doing for over 12 years!
The same force that causes hot air balloons to rise in to the sky is present in all of our homes. This “stack effect” draws air up from the lowest levels through floors, doors, windows, and up from the basement and/or crawlspace commonly called “chimney effect”. This stack effect or chimney effect is very powerful during the winter heating season actively introducing basement/crawlspace air up into the living environment contaminating the quality of indoor air.
Increased ventilation is an easy and effective way to control poor indoor air by bringing fresh indoor air into circulation. Especially because most heating systems do not bring fresh air into the home. Whole home ventilation systems not only create a path of escape for the myriad of pollutants trapped inside our homes, but also make room for better air to be introduced. Solution by dilution. Increase the amount of fresh air entering the building envelope is an effective way to improve the quality of indoor air