Basement Mold Growth, Mildew, and Musty Odors
Chief among wet basement issues is mold growth. Mold spores are everywhere, both indoors and out, including your basement. Mold spores need 3 things to promote growth. They include heat, a food source, and moisture. The basement is an ideal place for mold growth because all the things that mold needs to grow and thrive exist in basements:
- Basements are heated
- Basements have some sort of food source—something made from wood or paper
- Wet basements produce
a constant source of moisture
Mold feeds off of cellulose like that found in a decomposing tree. Unfortunately, mold spores cannot tell the difference between the food found in a dead tree, or those things made from dead trees that exist in basements.
The Stack Effect and Basement Mold Growth
The stack effect is a term for the movement of air through the home. Generally, as air warms it rises upwards. If there is mold growth in the basement, that mold can be picked up by the flow of air from the basement to the upper levels of the home. Mold growth in the home has been linked to health concerns, some minor, and some more serious.
The link between mold growth and health created lawsuits, which created insurance claims, which led to insurance exclusions. Eventually, the real estate market decided it would be wise to include mold growth and moisture problems as part of the property disclosure form. One of the fastest growing home businesses are mold inspection companies. If your basement has heat and food sources, along with a constant flow of moisture, the likelihood of basement mold growth is high.
Crawl Space Issues
The same problems with excess moisture in combination with food sources and heat create the same mold growth problem in crawl spaces. Moisture is carried upwards and into the floor, floor joists, and insulation above. Mold begins to grow, mold odors are created, and the natural air flow of the home brings that mold and odor to the upper floors. As the floors and floor joists above absorb that moisture, and as mold begins to grow, those floors and joists can begin to sag and weaken, creating structural problems above.
Finishing Basements
Care has to be taken when choosing the right building materials to finish off a basement. As mentioned above, all basements have some consistent flow of moisture. This moisture in combination with the wrong building materials—to construct the walls, ceilings and flooring—building materials that are food for mold, can create mold growth, that again, can contaminate the basement and the upper levels of the home.
