Basement suddenly smells musty

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a cat? At a distance cat pee can smell musty.

Can has never entered the basement.

[Anonymous]

This is simple — run an air-o-cell and check the lab report. If there’s mold, it is likely to show up. It frankly sounds like there’s mold and it could be in your crawl space, bottom plates, walls, ceiling. You don’t need to see it for it to be a problem.

[Anonymous]

What’s an air o cell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is simple — run an air-o-cell and check the lab report. If there’s mold, it is likely to show up. It frankly sounds like there’s mold and it could be in your crawl space, bottom plates, walls, ceiling. You don’t need to see it for it to be a problem.

So what do you do? Tear everything apart looking for it?

[Anonymous]

I’d have an inspection by a licensed mold inspector. If there is mold present, the sooner you catch it, the easier it will be to remediate. If you’re running a dehumidifier and it still smells, you likely have mold somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is simple — run an air-o-cell and check the lab report. If there’s mold, it is likely to show up. It frankly sounds like there’s mold and it could be in your crawl space, bottom plates, walls, ceiling. You don’t need to see it for it to be a problem.

So what do you do? Tear everything apart looking for it?

No. You test the air, use the thermal camera and moisture meter. You’ll find it. Here’s a guide (not affiliated) but they’re the only DMV company that puts these on their website

https://valormold.com/what-happens-during-a-mold-test-appointment/

[Anonymous]

Check for a dead mouse. We had a mouse problem last year in the basement and the tipoff that we'd caught one in a snap trap was the smell, which was a weird musty smell.

Also check to make sure your hot water heater or any other appliance isn't leaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check for a dead mouse. We had a mouse problem last year in the basement and the tipoff that we'd caught one in a snap trap was the smell, which was a weird musty smell.

Also check to make sure your hot water heater or any other appliance isn't leaking.

Thanks. There was a dead mouse and I removed it but the smell remains. I sprayed Lysol and turned on the AC but I’m still concerned it’s not the whole story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is simple — run an air-o-cell and check the lab report. If there’s mold, it is likely to show up. It frankly sounds like there’s mold and it could be in your crawl space, bottom plates, walls, ceiling. You don’t need to see it for it to be a problem.

So what do you do? Tear everything apart looking for it?

No. You test the air, use the thermal camera and moisture meter. You’ll find it. Here’s a guide (not affiliated) but they’re the only DMV company that puts these on their website

https://valormold.com/what-happens-during-a-mold-test-appointment/

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Check the filter in the dehumidifier. I just discovered that my dehumidifier has a timer that turns off the dehumidification until you clean the filter (even if it’s not dirty). The dehumidifier fan still “runs” and mine pumps to a drain when the bucket is full, so it wasn’t immediately obvious that was not dehumidifying (except the humidity level didn’t drop). There’s a light and a reset button.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check for a dead mouse. We had a mouse problem last year in the basement and the tipoff that we'd caught one in a snap trap was the smell, which was a weird musty smell.

Also check to make sure your hot water heater or any other appliance isn't leaking.

Thanks. There was a dead mouse and I removed it but the smell remains. I sprayed Lysol and turned on the AC but I’m still concerned it’s not the whole story.

You might have more mouses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check the filter in the dehumidifier. I just discovered that my dehumidifier has a timer that turns off the dehumidification until you clean the filter (even if it’s not dirty). The dehumidifier fan still “runs” and mine pumps to a drain when the bucket is full, so it wasn’t immediately obvious that was not dehumidifying (except the humidity level didn’t drop). There’s a light and a reset button.

If it’s still removing water by pumping it to a drain doesn’t that mean it’s still dehumidifying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is simple — run an air-o-cell and check the lab report. If there’s mold, it is likely to show up. It frankly sounds like there’s mold and it could be in your crawl space, bottom plates, walls, ceiling. You don’t need to see it for it to be a problem.

So what do you do? Tear everything apart looking for it?

No. You test the air, use the thermal camera and moisture meter. You’ll find it. Here’s a guide (not affiliated) but they’re the only DMV company that puts these on their website

https://valormold.com/what-happens-during-a-mold-test-appointment/

Do not use a company that does remediation to test. They are mostly a rip off. Every house has mold spores of some kind in the air. The trick is to eliminate sources of moisture that allows mold to reproduce on surfaces. You must identify the source of the moisture, anyway, so do that first, and see if the smell goes away.

https://www.epa.gov/mold/brief-guide-mold-moisture-and-your-home

How do I get rid of mold?

It is impossible to get rid of all mold and mold spores indoors; some mold spores will be found floating through the air and in house dust. The mold spores will not grow if moisture is not present. Indoor mold growth can and should be prevented or controlled by controlling moisture indoors. If there is mold growth in your home, you must clean up the mold and fix the water problem. If you clean up the mold, but don't fix the water problem, then, most likely, the mold problem will come back.

Who should do the cleanup depends on a number of factors. One consideration is the size of the mold problem. If the moldy area is less than about 10 square feet (less than roughly a 3 ft. by 3 ft. patch), in most cases, you can handle the job yourself, follow the guidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check the filter in the dehumidifier. I just discovered that my dehumidifier has a timer that turns off the dehumidification until you clean the filter (even if it’s not dirty). The dehumidifier fan still “runs” and mine pumps to a drain when the bucket is full, so it wasn’t immediately obvious that was not dehumidifying (except the humidity level didn’t drop). There’s a light and a reset button.

If it’s still removing water by pumping it to a drain doesn’t that mean it’s still dehumidifying?

If you actually see the water draining out, yes. In my case, when I checked, the bucket wasn't full, so I assumed it must have pumped the water into the drain, but in fact, the machine wasn't actually dehumidifying at all, even though the fan was running and it sounded like it was working. Just tonight, I checked on it and the humidity level was 65%, and sure enough, the "filter timer light" was on. I pulled out and cleaned the filter (which wasn't really dirty at all) and reset the timer, and the humidity level started dropping immediately.