I am relatively new to the realm of basements. We have a basement area I would like to use for storage, the floor is rough unfinished concrete. It’s not actually wet, but moisture does seep into things, a cardboard box would show wet marks on the side after a while. I have been eyeing the Costco foam interlocking squares, but they are pricey. What is the usual thing to do? Is surfacing the floor with an epoxy or something like that a good option?
First thing I would do is buy a really good dehumidifier and have it running 24/7 down there. In our old house where we had a basement, we set it up in an area that allowed us to run a hose from the dehumidifier directly into a drain so we didn’t have to go down there and empty it every day. Once you get the humidity under control, you may have more flooring options.
If you are just using it for storage and don’t really care how it looks, you could get just get cinder blocks or some bricks and put some plywood down to keep what you store off the floor surface.
Humidifier will help. But if its a leakage problem rather than just moisture from being below ground, other steps may be required.
Get shelves and put things on them…not the floor.
And agree dehumidifier too
Old basements usually have no vapor barrier under the slab and concrete is not moisture resistant. I have had rubber matting on the new part of the basement that I am using as a gym for the last year and am happy with it, but I’d be afraid of mildew building up under it in the old part. By far the easiest solution is pallets or shelves and a dehumidifier won’t hurt if it’s just damp, not wet.
The Building Science guys have a lot of good info: http://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-003-concrete-floor-problems
I agree with others, it depends on the source of the moisture. Try a dehumidifier and see what happens, if you still see moisture, especially after a rain, then it could be ground seep. Does the floor have any cracks in it? If so, that can be an indication of water pressure on the basement. You could use something like an expoxy paint on the floor, but if there is water truly seeping through, that either won’t work or will redirect the pressure elsewhere, which can cause other issues.
There are things you can do to try and help keep the basement dry. First of all, make sure all leaders coming down from the gutters are directed well away from the foundations (if they are going straight down, that is a warning sign). If there is an outside door to the basement, make sure if there is a well at the door that there is a drain there, and it is unclogged. Make sure the gutters are cleaned out and are not overflowing. Around the foundation of the house, build up the dirt so it slopes away from the house. Those are all simple things that can save you a lot of grief.
Do you have a sump pump down there? Have you checked that it’s in working order?
I did add a dehumidifier draining to the outside & I can really tell the difference with that things don’t smell musty. Prior to that many items were ruined by being stored there.
The house is on a hill & the basement is divided into the uphill and downhill sides. The uphill side actually has a french drain and ground water does come through there. The uphill half has an unfinished floor, with that black plastic vapor barrier stuff all across it.
We are generally downhill of a huge area of vacant land, the water there infiltrates the soils & as it comes down the hill & hits clay lands, it will seep out. French drain under the house & also a French drain in the yard. There is a lot of ground water around here, heck, in the PNW, there is a lot of water here! Yes, to the gutters and landscape being properly addressed.
The floor has no cracks, no leaks, no running water. The downhill half of the basement (wall and door between them) has a concrete floor and there is never any standing water or even actual liquid seen, just the sort of dampness coming up from the unfinished concrete such that a box would very slowly show moisture patterns. And things could smell musty if allowed to sit in the damp box.
Good point about not wanting to have moisture under the foam things cause anything to grow between the floor and the foam squares!
It’s clear that the seeping moisture is evaporating where the floor is not covered (e.g., by a cardboard box getting damp on the bottom; everything will get damp on the bottom!). Everything on shelves, or a very porous covering allowing lateral evaporation seems about all you can easily do. The link above shows better but more involved solutions.
Maybe this just applies to my house, but I advise covering anything stored in the basement that you don’t want to be visited by mice.
Thanks for the building link about concrete floors. I’ve been looking for solutions to my own garage floor problem and finally landed on all garage floors. com. after reading. Learned enough to save myself a lot of work and trouble doing things the wrong way.
We don’t have water issues but wouldn’t put cardboard boxes on the floor. Use plastic bins if you need to store something on the floor to protect from future water damage.
@somemom your basement sounds like ours. We store nothing in boxes. Things are on open shelves. We only store things that can be easily washed…extra dishes, large pans and containers, extra household cleaners, some tools.
No fabric or things where mildew could cause permanent damage.
Concrete is hydrophilic-it pulls water into itself. We have a finished basement that’s half below grade and half walkout (on grade). We run a very large dehumidifier which drains into the furnace pump to keep the humidity below 50%.
Anything above 50% and you’ll have mold growth, which can be very bad for your health, and pretty much ruin anything in the basement.
This house has a poured concrete basement (less water intrusion than concrete block) and the outside of the concrete was sprayed with a rubberized polymer to keep the hydrostatic pressure from the surrounding soil from pushing moisture into the basement. We STILL pull about two gallons of water per day from the air in the basement to keep it at 40% humidity down there (we live in the deep south where humidity is regularly 90% outside).
Those interlocking foam squares would do nothing but grow mold between them and the concrete-don’t waste your money and possibly make yourself really ill.
I would talk to a company that specializes in making basements dry-you may need a french drain, or you may need the rubberized spray on treatment on the outside of your foundation (or both, depending on the grade of your yard and your water table).
100% get a big 70 pints/day (I like the Honeywell one you can get on Amazon) dehumidifier, and run it non-stop. That will help preserve the investment that is your home.
Put nothing on the floor without something underneath. I used wood pallets, 2x4s under bins, strips of foam insulation board and basement shelving units. For a time I used a wonderful garage floor paint that held up well, but then they changed the formulation. I also kept appliances up on pallets or 2x4s.
Someone told me the solution is to get a large, powerful dehumifier and suspend it over the utility sink from a frame.
Got a good trick—know those really expensive storage boxes that have the water seal? Take your normal much cheaper “non-seal” totes and add weather seal self adhesive foam (comes on a little roll used for doors) to the lids (or container rim) to keep moisture out of your totes stored in garage or basement. Makes a big difference, cheap and takes two minutes. Don’t know if it works good enough for fabric maybe but works pretty good for most stuff.
Yep, nothing is on the floor, it’s all raised up, mainly the floor is icky looking (professional term) and I would not mind having it look better and feel better to walk on, but no mildew under the squares! So, maybe paint or a paint like treatment is the way to go.
I would give that a shot, and also maybe a more powerful humidifier. Basements in general tend to be very humid, because they are below grade, and many of them don’t have great ventillation. A larger dehumidifier, or a couple of them, might be the answer. I recommend buying a humidity gauge and seeing what it shows, it is a big help in trying to determine what is causing the problem. Painting the floor with an expoxy paint might help stop the seeping, plus it will look better to boot.