Basements

I washed the floors and walls with some soap and bleach and it took the damp smell out. I also used several fans to help dry the floor and walls. Hope this helps.

When my Grandma's basement flooded years and years ago I remember them using dehumidifiers and leaving out bowls of ammonia to get the smell out.

Don't want to stress you out or anything, but the mustiness could be coming from inside the walls or behind the baseboards. If there's a way to either pull back some of the baseboard or cut away some drywall where the odor is the strongest, that might help pinpoint where its coming from. Otherwise, run a dehumidifier and some fans to dry up whatever moisture might still be left. Good luck!

Our neighbor has a restoration company, and is the expert on this. I can give you his info if you're interested. I would completely trust him. Basically, from what I understand, you've gotten some great advice here. You need a dehumidifier and as many fans as you can find. Blow the fans at the walls, and anywhere is was wet. He also suggested to our other neighbor who got water, that she crank up the a/c because it acts as a dehumidifier. It probably wouldn't hurt to get a company out to look at it too. They have equipment that can check for moisture (and maybe mold?) behind the walls without ripping them out. Good luck!

A dehumidifer is a must. Any basement, even if it doesn't get water, is below the ground and there will always been dampness/ moisture. A dehumidifer will get rid of any moisture. Also, add a room air purifier and the smell will be gone almost overnight. I agree with the bleach cleaning. Any mold/mildew spots should be treated with a 2 to 1 water/bleach mixture. If your carpet is gone & it's just the bare concrete, you can spray the floor and put on a dehumidifer & your basement will smell fresh. Good luck!

One thing that would REALLY help is buying a de-humidifier for the basement.

This probably won't help much with the current smell.... but you should always keep a dehumidifer running from early spring thru the fall.

D. - We're right there with you :( We got about 2 ft. of water in our basement due to the power outage & no sump pump. We are running a dehumidifier 24 hrs. and taking alot of the moisture out that way & also fans. We did have a couple restoration co.'s out & we do have some mold. Alot of them offer a free estimate, if I were you, I would have at least a few come out & check out your basement to be on the safe side.

Hi D.,
The problem may be worse than you think. The water could have gotten into your drywall and started mold. Have someone check your insulation also. If all that is okay KILLZ has a paint that will work on walls and floors to block smells. You may have to go that route after letting it dry for several days.

We're all in that same boat! If you took the carpet out, that is key. But depending on what your basement walls are covered with ( paneling, drywall, etc.) it may be hard to get the smell out if there is mold or mildew growing behind the wall. Did you get sewage overflow in the basement, or just seepage? We get a little seepage, which is not as bad, but if you get overflow it smells just awful!

Get a dehumidifier and keep it running for starters. I would also say have someone professional come out and look at your foundation and try to see if you still have damp behind the walls. Then at least you'll know how bad an issue you're dealing with.

Good luck!

I'd get a de-humidifier as mentioned earlier and go to the hardware store and buy a few containers of a product called Rid X. It is some type of granular chemical mixture that comes in a plastic container. You open it up and place it in the areas of the home that have that damp and musty smell but keep away from kids and pets. Placing it up high in a secure place is best. This product miraculeously absorbs moisture from the air by traps it in the base of the container then you dump it and start over. You may have to use a number of them until the moisture is gone, it will eliminate the nasty smell too. Good luck

Thankfully it has been a little over 6 years since we had water in our basement. When we did, we washed the walls, floors, etc. with a soap that was recommended to me by someone who has had a flooded basement many times. It was called Dirtex and we were able to purchase it at Ace Hardware. It wasn't too expensive. In addition to getting rid of the smell, it is supposed to prevent mold, mildew, etc. Our basement was not finished at the time so I'm not sure if it is safe to use on carpet or not. It did work well though as far as the smell and we never saw any mold. Good Luck to you! I'm sorry about your basement - that is a horrible mess to clean up.

Air needs to get down there...do you have a fan...can you open a window? I would do both. I would also make sure to spray places that are moldy with a water/bleach mixture...venting and fans are a must! The other thing you can do is get a dehumidifier. It along with the other things I listed will help.

It depends on what's going on. We got water too. We ran 4 fans plus a dehumidifier for 3 days. Hubby also took the floor boards off the walls and made sure the dry wall wasn't wet.

So, if you have a furnishing basement, a good place to start would be to get at the "wet" stuff," i.e. the dry wall --which at this point is probably starting to grow mold. If you don't have dry wall, what you are smell is wet earth.

Go buy yourself some DampRid. You need to bring the moisture down.

Our neighbors had a professional "dry out" company come for their basement, probably the most reliable bet! Generally it takes a couple weeks for things to totally dry out.

If you had sewage water I would HIGHLY recommend getting a professional company to come in and spray and dehumidify your basement. Sewage water (which comes from any drain in the floor or toilet) is considered to be category 3 (grossly contaminated water.) You can learn all about it at the Red Cross website. Bleach water does NOT clean category 3 only microbial sprays can effectively get rid of that. You would need to throw anything away that touched the water. If it is just rain water that you got, then I would go and rent a large dehumidifier and place some fans down there. Open any windows you can. Check with your local hardware store or Home Depot and see if they have any disinfectant sprays that could help with the smell. It will eventually smell better, I promise. Also check your drywall, if you have it, and make sure it is not wet. Because if it is wet, then you will get mold and that can be very harmfull as well. Good luck with all of this. There are a lot of us in this same boat.