“Making Your Basement a Livable Space”

Posted by Andre & Erika Lacroix on
basement ventilation - ez breathe ventilation

We have seen a growing trend in the number of homeowners remodeling, renovating and generally improving their basements to make them usable, livable spaces. Home Gyms, Rec Rooms, Home Offices, Man Caves and additional bedrooms seem to be the most popular inspiration for this wave of basement improvement. The current tight housing market has also contributed to the growth in renovating our own spaces, rather than look for something new/different. It’s also one of the best home improvement projects for ROI.

HGTV shared, “The last annual ‘Cost vs. Value’ Report from Remodeling magazine put the average basement remodel at a 70.3 percent payback, which made it among the smartest redos, along with an attic bedroom, minor kitchen redo, deck, and new entry door.”

Basement Ventilation is something that is necessary whether you are considering remodeling or not – Basements are considered one of the biggest contributors to indoor air pollution for any house whether a new house, an older home and especially those that are being remodeled.

Why? 60% of the air in your home was once basement air – Basement air is arguably the worst air inside the home/building envelope.

  1. Research from the University of Wisconsin reports that “Basements and crawlspaces absorb 10-15 gallons of water VAPOR every day!” Consider the analogy of gallon milk jugs – 10-15 milk jugs of water vapor EVERY day coming in through the porous walls and floor. The natural transmission of the moisture in the soil surrounding the house migrating through the walls and the floor is based on the physics Law of Thermal Dynamics – Wet moves to dry. We can address bulk liquid water intrusion with drains and pumps redirecting that liquid water away from and out of the home’s foundation, however, that is not what we are talking about here. There is very little we can do to fight the water vapor – Water in its gaseous form – from absorbing through the walls and the floor. Once the humidity is trapped it becomes a food source for mold, mildew, and pests and encourages rust, dry rot all of which requires a damp environment to thrive. Ventilation reigns supreme in providing an escape, a way out, for the trapped moisture vapor and has proven quite successful in managing the humidity problems in basement/crawlspaces to ensure healthy and clean air.
  2. By Ventilating the lowest level and sourcing the draw of air (or the intake) on the lowest level of the basement, the worst, most polluted and damp air is exhausted first and does not allow for the large build-up or concentration of humidity/pollutants that we so often see in unvented basements.
  3. This air exchange becomes even more important when remodeling or renovating these below-grade spaces – one must have a plan to address the large volume of water vapor absorption, but also consider the chemicals and toxins being introduced into the underground space during the construction process. Glues, Paints, Carpets, Off-gassing of Epoxy and Resins, Varnishes and Glazes. Many of the materials used in this process are highly toxic often requiring those working with these materials to wear masks and containing warning labels that instruct “Only use in a well-ventilated area”. The subterranean or below ground nature of these spaces means that basements are the opposite of well ventilated! They are notoriously stagnant, stuffy places. The EPA & American Lung Association have identified Ventilation as a “key strategy for reducing indoor air pollution” and considering the EPA reports “the air in the average home is at least 5x more polluted than outdoor air” ventilation should not only be employed throughout the construction phase but is also critically important as a finishing touch to ensure all those chemicals and toxic materials do not build up and contribute to even higher toxic levels of air quality. See, the off-gassing of new materials can last for decades! That “new” smell is actually highly toxic for humans to breathe.

We so often hear of people that are looking to get rid of that musty basement smell by slathering on a fresh coat of paint! Not only does that not solve the root of the mustiness, but it contributes even more contaminants to the already poor air quality problem in spades.

  1. Our proven solution that we have been providing for over 20 years now is the EZ Breathe Basement Ventilation System that addresses not only the moisture vapor issue, but also reduces all the other airborne pollutants and contaminants. It’s not complicated, it is simple air exchange! By creating a path of escape from the lowest level, the EZ Breathe Ventilation System exhausts all the pollutants, toxins, allergens, mold spores as well as the heavy, humid air that gets saturated daily by water vapor. Turning the air over has proven to decrease airborne particulates by 85% – when a basement is properly ventilated, nothing can build up or concentrate to unhealthy levels.
  2. This is not just our theory – Basement Ventilation has been widely accepted and now mandated by a growing number of US State’s building codes as essential to creating a healthy indoor air quality.  We have seen a growing number of homeowners calling us frantic for a basement ventilation system in order to secure building permits for their basement remodeling project. We are thrilled to offer them a solution they can count on to provide a better air quality for their basement and beyond. The update in building codes to include basement ventilation is reminiscent of bathroom ventilation codes from many years back. Mandating ventilation fans in bathrooms is commonplace now, but we still find homes that were built before those codes were enforced that have un-vented bathrooms. We all know how damaging (and gross) that can be. Where there is a source of moisture or pollutants – ventilation is a must!
  3. We have found with our on-going scientific air sampling/testing that the air quality improvement is not limited to the basement alone. Once the air is ventilated out of the basement, we find significant improvements in the air quality in the upper levels of the home as well. In our early days this was quite surprising and unexpected. After receiving years of feedback from customers thanking us for less allergy symptoms or finding that they do not snore or cough as much or no longer require breathing treatments/allergy medication as they had before their EZ Breathe installation, we were able to quantify that improvement through testing.  We have seen first-hand the significant improvement Ventilation has provided not only in air quality that we can quantify, 85% less pollutants through our decades of air sampling and testing before/after scenarios, but also the improvement in the quality of life for so many homeowners over the past two decades.

 

*** In honor of April being Healthy Home Awareness Month we are offering 20% OFF EZ Breathe Ventilation. Get ahead of the musty, stuffy, mildew-smelling basements that those dog days of summer bring NOW with proper basement ventilation. Addressing the issue sooner than later is always best practice! This issue never gets better on its own, it only gets worse as time goes on.  Now is the perfect time to protect your home and health, even if you haven’t started that basement remodel project quite yet!

Written by Andre & Erika Lacroix

We are a 2nd generation family owned and operated business that has been working in homes with basements and crawl spaces for over 35 years.  We have been waterproofing and sealing about 500 foundations a month during that time as the largest Waterproofing contractor in the Midwest with 15 locations servicing 8 states.

20 years ago we would seal a foundation and recommend a standard dehumidifier to address the additional water vapor (humidity in the air) inherently found in below grade environments, such as basements and crawlspaces.  Back then, dehumidifiers were the industry standard to help with this problem. However, many of our customers were looking to us as the “foundation expert”, asking…

“What else do you have? I really am not getting results with this messy, expensive dehumidifier. My foundation is dry, walls are dry, floor is dry, so why does it still smell and feel like a basement?” 

We needed to find something better. Our company’s core values include offering world class customer service to every customer, every time.   So, we challenged our Research and Development department to find a real solution for our customers to combat not only the moisture, but also the odors, pollutants and unhealthy environment our customers were concerned about. We found, tested and installed a ventilation product for a period of three years. We private labeled that product as the EZ Breathe Ventilation System. The feedback in those first three years from our customers, as well as our installation crews, did not live up to the standard of quality to be included in our waterproofing process that offered a life time warranty. Once again, we needed something better.

We valued not only the results, but what we were learning from our customers. So, we went back to the drawing board, took matters into our own hands and made quality improvements to that first generation ventilation unit.

Our own EZ Breathe Ventilation System was born…reengineered, redesigned and much improved! We quickly learned that our crews were thrilled with the quality improvements, ease of operation and installation, but more importantly, our waterproofing customers loved the new, improved EZ Breathe unit as well.

Their feedback told us the air in their basements and crawlspaces felt better, but their entire home was benefiting from their EZ Breathe as well. We received countless letters thanking us because their whole house felt different, less odors, fresher air upstairs too, family members were feeling better, needing less allergy medicine, husbands were no longer snoring, children were no longer coughing as much, the home and it’s family were living healthier lives!

It was time for us to move beyond simply offering this innovative technology to just our waterproofing customers. Our passion and commitment to helping people improve their indoor air environments is what drove us to incorporate EZ Breathe Ventilation Systems as an independent company in 2003. We strongly believe that homeowners everywhere deserve a healthy indoor air quality.

We have spent the last 15 years dedicated to learning about the relationship between our home and our health; indoor air quality, the home as a system, building science and how it relates to indoor air quality as well as the challenges our modern day practices pose to the quality of air we breathe in our homes.