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mayax68

how to get rid of musty smell

Mayax68
17 years ago

How do I get rid of a musty smell in the basement?

Thank you.

Comments (5)

  • chris_ont
    17 years ago

    Musty smells can have different causes. You should be able to find articles by doing a search for "basement odor" or "smell in basement" some some combination like that, both here or using a search engine.

    I just went through this. I purchased a house that had a very strong musty odor, mainly in the unfinished part of the basement. I was also getting it in the kitchen and bathroom.
    Not a moldy smell. More like old pipes or something. Definitely musty, but there was no dampness and it hadn't rained in days.

    I hosed down the cement floor with bleach, then tried Lysol. No go. I washed down the pipes I could reach. No help there. I am running a dehumidifier. Tried fans. Tried air fresheners.

    Finally, the plumber was here to replace a section of galvanized with copper. I asked them about it.

    They found that the bathtub did not have a P-trap on it and that there was a sewer pipe in the basement (the big one that sticks up in a stumpy way) that wasn't properly sealed. In other words, I was smelling sewer fumes!

    All is well now, and my house smells very pretty :)

  • pianolady
    17 years ago

    We've had problems with this too, sewer smells coming in through the basement shower drain. We have to keep water in it at all times. A dehumidifier in the basement takes care of the rest of the musty smell.

  • fnmroberts
    17 years ago

    If you have a forced air furnace, tap into the cold air return near the furnace. This will enable your air conditioner to dehumidify the damp basement while recirculating the otherwise stagnate air.

  • chris_ont
    17 years ago

    What do you mean with "tap into"? Do you mean adding a cold air return to the basement so that the AC/Furnace drawn basement air? Won't that make the whole house smell basementy? Isn't that why that duct is tightly sealed in the basement?
    Please elaborate.

  • fnmroberts
    17 years ago

    Yes, by tap into, I am suggesting a cold air entrance in the basement and the easiest place is at the bottom of the cold air return, next to the furnace. In ours I cut a 6 x 12 and installed a closable register the first summer we lived here - 10 years ago.

    I suppose there may be some odor brought into the rest of the house until the basement air is dehumidified. Doing this solved the matter in our basement, never a musty odor there since and the basement is warmer in the winter too.

    No idea why the duct is sealed when installed. In our community when a basement is finished a cold air return is required.

    Hope this helps.

    Forrest

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