3 Reasons Wet Basements are Detrimental to You & Your Home

Basements, for some people, are used for storage or storm safety, and for others, they are utilized for entertainment or extra living space. Everybody who owns a basement has a different purpose for it, but no one enjoys walking down a flight of steps and finding their basement covered in water, mold, rust and/or rotting wood. Your wet basement affects you in all levels of your home, and it is important to understand the negative effects it has on your health and your house’s value.

Reason #1: Basement Air Victimizes You Inside Your Home

Closing off your basement does not solve any of your problems no matter how hard you try to avoid going down there; your basement may feel creepy because of its awful smell or its dark atmosphere, but despite your fears of going down those creaking steps, your basement – whether or you know it or not – still looms around you like a shadow, and no matter where you go inside your home, it haunts you.

Because of airflow, anything existing in the air of your basement rises and leaks into the upper levels of your home. Air from the basement travels to the first floor and then to the second floor; even though some of the air dilutes with other air in your home, up to 50% of the air you breathe on the first floor originates from the basement. So, if you have mold growing in your basement, there is a good chance you have mold spores in the upper levels of your home. Mold doesn’t just affect people with mold allergies and asthma; studies show that exposure to mold over a period of time can actually cause asthma. Like it or not, your wet basement air can give you a long term negative effect on your health unless the problem is addressed and permanently resolved.

Reason #2: Wet Basements Compromise Your Home's Integrity

Furthermore, having a wet basement not only provides a growing environment for mold, but it also conjures other negative effects as well. Since air moves upward from the basement into the upper levels of your home, it carries the humidity from the basement with it, too. If the humidity in the basement is high, the humidity in the upper levels will be higher. Humidity arises from moisture in the basement, and since the basement is the foundation for your home, the entire structural integrity of your house can be compromised because humidity can ultimately damage your home. For example, humidity can cause sticking (swollen) doors and windows, buckling hardwood floors, and a decreased life of roof sheathing and shingles, etc. While the damage in your wet basement may be obvious, you may not always associate other problems within your home with your wet or damp basement even though they’re related. Without solving your wet basement problem, much more issues within your home may arise, and then you will have bigger problems than just having a wet basement.

Reason #3: Wet Basements Decrease Your Home’s Value

When you buy a home, you expect a dry basement; no one wants to purchase a home with a wet basement. That’s crazy town. However, some people are up for a challenge and want to buy homes as fixer-uppers, and if someone decides to buy your home with a wet basement, they will pay you a 10% depreciation of your home’s property value. If your home is $100,000, you will lose $10,000 for not having a dry basement. Believe it or not, fixing your wet basement is way cheaper than not fixing it, and in case you didn’t know, unfinished space (your basement) is just as valuable as finished space (other rooms in your home). Why? Because whatever you would normally store in your dry, unfinished basement is currently crammed elsewhere inside your home, taking up finished space. If you don’t want buy a home with a wet basement, why expect buyers to do so?

Solution

To cleanse the air and reduce humidity within your basement, you will need to find a way to dry and filter the air to improve your indoor air quality as well as drain the water out of your house to prevent moisture from building up inside your home. By enhancing the quality of the air you breathe, eliminating ground water seepage and moderating your basement’s relative humidity, you not only create a healthier environment for your home, but you’re also taking care of the mold and allergens living in your basement. Drying and filtering your basement will restore your property value as well. If the problem isn’t resolved, wet basements usually worsen over time.

If you think you may have a wet basement, Woods Basement Systems offers free, no obligation estimates on wet basement repair.