Ideas for making a basement smell fresh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DampRid. Nothing will ever remove the smell completely but this stuff works wonders.

agree with DampRid suggestion which I prefer to dehumidfyer which needed constant emptying and reduced the humidity but didn't seem to help with the "mildewy odor."

eliminating mildew odor can really be helped by keeping lights on. I'm not sure why this is, but trying keeping lights on for a few days and see if that reduces the smell.

finally, if you can pull anything fabric out of there and put into the sun for a few days, there may be just some mildew that got into fabrics that would really benefit from being well aired out.

[Anonymous]

Have you considered a different type of flooring since you said it gets damp down there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DampRid. Nothing will ever remove the smell completely but this stuff works wonders.

agree with DampRid suggestion which I prefer to dehumidfyer which needed constant emptying and reduced the humidity but didn't seem to help with the "mildewy odor."

eliminating mildew odor can really be helped by keeping lights on. I'm not sure why this is, but trying keeping lights on for a few days and see if that reduces the smell.

finally, if you can pull anything fabric out of there and put into the sun for a few days, there may be just some mildew that got into fabrics that would really benefit from being well aired out.

I use Damprid in closets, but they wouldn't really be enough for a bigger space. You can plumb a dehumidifier so that it empties into a drain so you don't have to empty it. If there isn't a drain low enough (ours drains into an existing sump), you can buy a pump that will pump the water up to a drain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DampRid. Nothing will ever remove the smell completely but this stuff works wonders.

agree with DampRid suggestion which I prefer to dehumidfyer which needed constant emptying and reduced the humidity but didn't seem to help with the "mildewy odor."

eliminating mildew odor can really be helped by keeping lights on. I'm not sure why this is, but trying keeping lights on for a few days and see if that reduces the smell.

finally, if you can pull anything fabric out of there and put into the sun for a few days, there may be just some mildew that got into fabrics that would really benefit from being well aired out.

I use Damprid in closets, but they wouldn't really be enough for a bigger space. You can plumb a dehumidifier so that it empties into a drain so you don't have to empty it. If there isn't a drain low enough (ours drains into an existing sump), you can buy a pump that will pump the water up to a drain.

I wanted to add that our dehumidifier occasionally gets clogged and shuts down, and I can tell when that has happened by the smell in the basement. It starts to smell musty and damp almost immediately (in the summer -- it really doesn't run much in the winter).