Home Repair forum - Should I bring in a home inspector?

Author

Should I bring in a home inspector?

Steve K

2006-08-30, 1:25 pm

Sorry for the length...

The problem: Smelly, finished basement. Only in the summer. The rest of
the ywear it's fine. It's not a full underground basement, the rear door
goes out to the lawn. Musty, cat smell, water, etc.

There are three rooms. The main room is probably 22' by 19', the next
room is the kitchen/laundry room about 12' by 12', then the bathroom 6'
by 7'. Then another small room where the laundry shoot it, maybe 7 by
4'. The ceilings are 7' high. I gutted this basement 7 years ago and
framed it with 2 x 4s, new sheetrock, studs, took out some HEAVILY
water-damaged 2 x 4s in the laundry room and bathroom. Put in
indoor/outdoor carpet, new windows, new door, new wiring, etc.

Before we bough it it flooded every timed it rained fairly good. We had
a drain put in around the perimeter of the house and solved that problem.

The wall in the laundry room and laundry shoot room is the one that is
completely underground. I applied Drylock to this wall about 5 years
ago. 5 years is what the can said was it's limit. So that may be a
problem, but we're getting no moisture on that wall.

The other problem. My wife runs a daycare down there and it's
embarrassing when the parents drop off their kids to say the least.

We have a dehumidifier running all the time. But it's just not removing
the odor that well. There are three windows in the main room plus the
entrance door. When we have all the windows open the cross-breeze seems
to mask the smell good enough.

But we don't want to mask it, we want it gone.

Do we just need a bigger dehumidifier or is this problem just inherent
to the house and we just have to live with it?

A one car garage butts up against this living area with an entrance
door. Our two outdoor cats basically live in the garage at night. We
have two litter boxes in there. Sometimes (a lot of times) they miss the
litter box and the garage stinks.

I'm sure this gets into the basement somehow but the smells seem to be
entirely different.

So we're frustrated in not really knowing exactly where the smell is
coming from and how to get rid of it. So much so that we might sell it.
We're worried the 2x4s are moldy and might have to come out again, etc.

I think I should have a home inspector come in and see what they say.

RayV

2006-08-30, 1:25 pm

Steve K wrote:
> Sorry for the length...
>
> The problem: Smelly, finished basement. Only in the summer. The rest of
> the ywear it's fine. It's not a full underground basement, the rear door
> goes out to the lawn. Musty, cat smell, water, etc.
>
> There are three rooms. The main room is probably 22' by 19', the next
> room is the kitchen/laundry room about 12' by 12', then the bathroom 6'
> by 7'. Then another small room where the laundry shoot it, maybe 7 by
> 4'. The ceilings are 7' high. I gutted this basement 7 years ago and
> framed it with 2 x 4s, new sheetrock, studs, took out some HEAVILY
> water-damaged 2 x 4s in the laundry room and bathroom. Put in
> indoor/outdoor carpet, new windows, new door, new wiring, etc.
>
> Before we bough it it flooded every timed it rained fairly good. We had
> a drain put in around the perimeter of the house and solved that problem.
>
> The wall in the laundry room and laundry shoot room is the one that is
> completely underground. I applied Drylock to this wall about 5 years
> ago. 5 years is what the can said was it's limit. So that may be a
> problem, but we're getting no moisture on that wall.
>
> The other problem. My wife runs a daycare down there and it's
> embarrassing when the parents drop off their kids to say the least.
>
> We have a dehumidifier running all the time. But it's just not removing
> the odor that well. There are three windows in the main room plus the
> entrance door. When we have all the windows open the cross-breeze seems
> to mask the smell good enough.
>
> But we don't want to mask it, we want it gone.
>
> Do we just need a bigger dehumidifier or is this problem just inherent
> to the house and we just have to live with it?
>
> A one car garage butts up against this living area with an entrance
> door. Our two outdoor cats basically live in the garage at night. We
> have two litter boxes in there. Sometimes (a lot of times) they miss the
> litter box and the garage stinks.
>
> I'm sure this gets into the basement somehow but the smells seem to be
> entirely different.
>
> So we're frustrated in not really knowing exactly where the smell is
> coming from and how to get rid of it. So much so that we might sell it.
> We're worried the 2x4s are moldy and might have to come out again, etc.
>
>
> I think I should have a home inspector come in and see what they say.

Why hire a home inspector and spend money? Call several waterproofing
campanies and they will check it out and give you an estimate for free.

gfretwell@aol.com

2006-08-30, 1:25 pm

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:30:33 -0400, Steve K <smk17@cornell.edu> wrote:

>Sorry for the length...
>
>The problem: Smelly, finished basement.

With all due respect to my NACHI buddies you really need a water
damage restoration specialist/mold tech.
That is what the home inspector will say and you will save $300 right
off the bat.
You have to figure out where the moisture is coming from, stop it,
them repair the damage and treat the mold

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