Banish Musty Household Smells For Good!
Of course musty odor is a far from desireable quality, it leaves the impression on visitors of an unclean place, whilst it might not be easily discerned by anyone living there permanently it will be much more obvious to guests. What is more musty odors may indicate the presence of mould which in turn can kick off allergic reactions.
Musty odors can come and go dependent upon the time of year and the weather. For example, you may well leave the air conditioning unit on all the time during the hotter times of the year and the odor may go unnoticed but when the weather turns bad in the colder seasons the air-con will be off and the odor may comeback. Home dehumidifiers can definetely help here.
One of the main causes of musty odors is that of poorly maintained basements that have high humidity possibly due to wall cracks or condensation both of which give water an easy way to enter the property. If you want to stop musty odor you really need to put a stop to the cause of the smell but there may well be more than one cause. The following will enable you to track down the cause of the problem most quickly:
To prevent condensation on water pipes which can be a source of moisture particularly in winter months is to cover the water pipes with an insulated pipe wrap, these are relatively cheap and are an easy w3ay to prevent moisture dripping of the pipes and onto the floor.
A musty odor can permeate through an entire house when a households basement is allowed to develop high humidity levels through lack of air flow. Installation of a basement dehumidifier can prevent this problem from occurring and remove excess moisture, just make sure you have a drain available in order to take away the excess water gathered by the air dehumidifier otherwise you may have to purchase an air dehumidifier with a hose pipe and pump.
Make sure that the suspected condenstion is not water that is not just coming out of pipes with really small holes. This problem can be prevented easily by making use of a pipe leak clamp, if the hole is tiny a small epoxy compound may well be able to fix the problem, get in touch with your local builders merchant for this.
A problem of a more serious nature is that of walls that weep allowing water to seep through from the outside. This next technique should restrict the amount of water entering the house through the walls
Ensure a dry forecast.
Run home dehumidifiers and fans to dry the walls.
Using a brush with strong stiff bristles scrub the weeping areas with trisodium phosphate, which can be found at most regular home improvement stores and will clean the surface for you, allow the scrubbed walls to dry again completely.
Following the manufacturers instructins use latex concrete sealer to fully seal the walls.
This single procedure is usually enough to prevent anymore weeping, if this isn’t the case then give the professionals a bell.
Cracks in walls are a further possible source of moisture and these may even happen in new houses also. The cracks will either be classed as active which means they may still widen or as inactive which means that they should not get any larger. The majority of cracks in walls can be repaired quite easily with a knife and ready mixed concrete.
By following the suggestions provided above, dealing with your specific probelms and with the use of a dehumidifier it is quite possible that you will be able to cure the problem for even the most pesistent musty household smells. Remember that home dehumidifiers and an air portable dehumidifier can help considerably
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Tags: air conditioning, air dehumidifier, air dehumidifiers, home dehumidifier, home dehumidifiers
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