Why Your Basement Gets Musty in Spring & Summer (and What to Do About It)
The year is flying by, and summer is quickly approaching. Mid-spring is typically when homeowners in Connecticut and Massachusetts begin to feel the effects of the changing seasons. The temperature goes up - and with it, the humidity both inside and outside of your home. Humidity can cause a range of issues. The biggest issue? Mold and wood rot in your basement or crawl space. But what can homeowners do about it?
Humidity In Your Basement and Crawl Space
As the temperature rises, so does the humidity. This warm, humid air from outside meets the cold air in a basement, and condensation forms. The condensation turns to mold, growing on wood, drywall, and insulation. It can even grow on your personal items like furniture! This mold is what gives basements the heavy, musty air that homeowners know all too well.
In a crawl space, it can get even worse. Most homeowners never go down to their crawl space, so they may not even know they have a problem until it's too late. The humidity can cause mold growth, sagging insulation, and wood rot. The homeowner won't even know until a contractor goes into their crawl space, or they begin to feel their floors sag.
What Can You Do?
Once you have a mold and humidity problem, you need to address it before it gets worse. Lowering the relative humidity of your basement or crawl space and removing the mold are two important steps to make your home healthy and comfortable again.
SaniDry Sedona
You need to address the humidity before you can begin to heal the rest of the basement. We have the perfect solution! Our SaniDry™ Sedona dehumidifer is amazing. It removes up to 100 pints of water a day from your home. It also has a MERV 8 filter that can remove particles from the air down to 3 microns in size! That means that mold spores, dust, and other particulates are taken out of the air. It can also move over 300 cubic feet of dry air per minute. The lower relative humidity prevents mold growth. It even has automatic drainage into a sump pump, meaning you can "set it and forget it". It is a perfect addition to a humid basement or crawl space.
Mold X-2 Cleaner & Botanical Treatment
For Fogarty's Home Services, mold removal is a two-step process. The first step is our Mold-X2 Cleaner. We simply spray it on to the affected area - normally, the wood in your basement. The cleaner works to eliminate mold and mildew staining on contact - it disappears in less than a minute! After the mold is removed, the crew will then spray on our Mold-X2 Botanical treatment. This is sprayed over the same surfaces, and helps to prevent the mold from growing back. It also smells great!
These solutions combined with removal of moldy insulation and proper basement insulation or crawl space encapsulation can prevent the mold problem from reoccurring and keep the humidity in your basement or crawl space low. If you're in Springfield, MA, Pittsfield, MA, Windsor, CT, Northampton, MA, and the surrounding areas, we can help you!
