Whether you use your basement for storage or as an extra room of your home to hang out in, if it stays wet on a regular basis, you may end up having some problems with the structural integrity of your home. Since the basement is the lowest level, making sure that the integrity of the structure down there is crucial to the value of the home.



There are a few different things that can cause a basement to stay wet. Water leaking into the basement from outside the home such as when water builds up around the foundation after a heavy rain or leaking pipes can both cause humidity problems.

Water building up outside after a rain can actually cause the basement walls to crack and leak water inside, so the best thing to do is look for low areas around your home's foundation that you can fill with dirt to make sure this does not happen. You should also make a note to keep your rain gutters cleaned out at least once a year to help prevent water from building up around the house.

Controlling the humidity of your basement can often be a problem if there are leaks in it, but if for some reason you have high humidity in your basement anyway (such as if you have a bathroom or laundry room there), installing a dehumidifier could help a lot. Or if you do not want to do anything that expensive, installing a steam vent in the area where the moisture originates should help solve the problem. Without a place to escape to, the steam that comes from these areas will end up being absorbed by the ceiling or the walls (if your basement is a finished one). Mold growth typically follows and can cause you and the rest of your family all sorts of health problems, even if you do not realize that mold is the source of those ailments.

Having carpet in the basement is alright if you are going to use it for a media or simple family room, but if you have had any wet carpet down there, you need to remove not only it, but the padding that was underneath it. This is because carpet padding, once infested with mold, cannot be cleaned or disinfected. It must be removed. Carpet can be cleaned of mold, but this is typically a difficult (if not expensive) process and should be avoided if possible.