High Humid­i­ty Lev­els and the Impor­tance of a Base­ment Dehumidifier

Feb 28, 2012 • By Matthew Stock with Jim Bright.

I am often asked ​“do I need a base­ment dehu­mid­i­fi­er” when eval­u­at­ing homes with base­ment seep­age prob­lems. Most experts, like the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion, Amer­i­can Lung Asso­ci­a­tion and the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency, all agree that our homes should be kept at a rel­a­tive humid­i­ty of 30 to 60 per­cent. So we can all prob­a­bly agree that it’s a good idea to keep excess humid­i­ty in check.

But let’s take a look at the signs that can help the aver­age home­own­er iden­ti­fy poten­tial humid­i­ty prob­lems in their base­ment and home.

Top 5 signs you need a base­ment dehumidifier/​air fil­tra­tion system:

1. Musty smell or odor

Musty odors are a sure sign that there are mois­ture prob­lems in your base­ment. When a space has con­sis­tent rel­a­tive humid­i­ty above 60% for long peri­ods of time, mold, mildew and bac­te­ria have the ide­al con­di­tions to thrive and multiply.

2. Condensation

Con­den­sa­tion that col­lects on win­dows, doors, exposed pip­ing and met­al such as exposed beams and appli­ances is a sign that you have too much humid­i­ty in your basement.

3. Aller­gies and asthma

If you or any­one in your fam­i­ly has issues with aller­gies or asth­ma, a dehu­mid­i­fi­er / air fil­tra­tion sys­tem can help elim­i­nate mold growth and air­borne aller­gens that can make any­body with aller­gies and asth­ma mis­er­able. Ever won­der why in the world some peo­ple move to hot, arid places like Arizona?

4. Mold and mildew growth

If there are vis­i­ble signs of mold and mildew growth in your base­ment, you most def­i­nite­ly will ben­e­fit from a dehumidifier/​air fil­tra­tion sys­tem. Don’t for­get to look at the cor­ners, base­boards, behind and under stor­age boxes!

5. Bugs!

Yuck! Every­one prob­a­bly agrees that bugs belong out­side, but few real­ize that they are in our homes because we are pro­vid­ing a per­fect envi­ron­ment for them to thrive and repro­duce when we have too much mois­ture in our homes. Dust mites, spi­ders, sil­ver­fish, cock­roach­es and a whole bunch of oth­er crit­ters just love our homes if the rel­a­tive humid­i­ty is too high.

If you have any of the signs list­ed above, you could def­i­nite­ly ben­e­fit by hav­ing the right base­ment dehumidifier/​air fil­tra­tion sys­tem to keep your home a healthy place for your family.

Ques­tions? We’ll be hap­py to pro­vide you with the answers. 

Tags: basement dehumidifier, humidity, mold

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