The Causes of Wet Maine Basements

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You may have heard in the past that you shouldn’t let moisture linger in your basement (perhaps you even heard it from us, a year ago…). But what is it that can cause moisture to infiltrate and collect in that space under your Maine home, and most importantly how can you prevent it from happening in the first place?

Whole Home Moisture Issues

It would be easy to assume that if you have moisture in the basement, the basement is also the only place where the issue stems from. However, there are areas all over the home that can contribute to the moisture and humidity that make their way down to the basement. 

Air Leaks

The easiest way for moisture to infiltrate the basement is through the visible and invisible holes, cracks, and gaps in the construction of your home. These leaks are common in the attic and basement, as well as around improperly installed windows and doors and even right through concrete foundations!

Insulation (or Lack Thereof) 

It surprises many homeowners to learn that insulation plays an important role in the overall moisture control in a basement or crawlspace. Insulation prevents the transfer of heat between your living space, the outdoors and / or basement and attic, meaning a home that is properly insulated will have more stable temperatures all year round. As these temperatures are stabilized, there will be fewer indoor drafts, and the moisture in the air will be less likely to settle out (condense) on the surfaces in the basement. 

Whole Home Moisture Solutions

Gaining total control over the moisture in your home isn’t usually a quick fix. Even if you have removed the current moisture or resulting mold from your basement, it is vital to the long-term health of you and your home to make sure the underlying causes of the moisture have been remedied from top to bottom. Here at Evergreen, we do this through a number of home improvement upgrades — and we determine which upgrades each home will need with a home energy audit. 

The Evergreen energy audit utilizes an infrared camera inspection to locate weak or missing insulation, a blower door test to determine exactly how much and locate where leakage is present in the home, health and safety inspections to ensure your equipment is operating properly, a look at your historical energy usage, and an overview of the design of your home to locate any structural factors. Once your energy audit is complete, we will develop a customized plan to tackle your wet basement issues, which can include the following home improvements:

A Drier Basement Means a Healthier Home!

Mainers know the problems that come with moisture in a home. Mold, water damage, and musty odors aren’t something any homeowner wants to deal with once, not to mention over and over again. If you are ready to take control of your wet basement and rid your home of moisture issues once and for all, schedule an energy audit with the home performance professionals that homeowners throughout Southern Maine trust, Evergreen Home Performance. 

You can even take a look at what it took to relieve this 1930s bungalow home of almost half of its total air leakage, cold morning floors, and headaches that came with moisture issues in the basement. From your first consultation to the final day of work, Evergreen Home Performance is here to help you feel more comfortable and spend less on your energy bills!

Ready to take action against your wet basement? Get started with an energy audit from Maine’s basement experts at Evergreen Home Performance. Call 207-594-2244 or get in touch here.

Looking to dry out your wet basement?

Talk to our team about a solution. 207-594-2244

We needed basement encapsulation to stop moisture coming up into the house from our regularly flooding basement. We had mold growing on windowsills and furniture. All the staff were friendly, respectful of our home, and easy to work with. Humidity has gone from 70% down to 40% and mold has not grown back after two months. Very grateful.

Sarah C.

Belfast

I have always been impressed by the high level of service, quality of work, and excellent follow-through provided by Evergreen Home Performance in the three projects that they completed at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm over the past several years.

Paul D.

Wells

The Evergreen crew who installed insulation in my attic were fantastic! They were very professional, worked exceedingly hard, and they did an excellent job. They were very pleasant and friendly to be around. They cleaned up beautifully after each work day, and left my home in great shape on when they walked out the door for the last time. I can't believe they were able to accomplish all that they did with heat soaring into the 80s and 90s. It was pretty unbearable up there! They have my highest praise and my gratitude.

Cynthia F.

South Portland

I never leave reviews, but had a great experience with Evergreen and wanted to spread the word! In short, we worked with them to insulate our roof this winter and have noticed surprising immediate results. The constant ice dams I have wrestled with are completely gone, and the home is noticeably more comfortable. It's a little too early to tell if our oil bill is going to reduce, but I imagine we will see an impact there as well.

Joel W.

Portland

The Evergreen team was amazing from initial assessment and planning to the crew that came to complete the work. Our basement encapsulation is the best money we've spent on our house by far. The work was thorough and high quality. And what a wonderful group of people to work with. I highly recommend Evergreen!

Martha Bracy

Very Satisfied with the work performed by Evergreen. Professional employees, high quality work done in a timely manner. My sales rep was Justin, and he was phenomenal During the initial walk around my house, he gave me great ideas for how to improve the efficiency of our home. We will consult with Evergreen for our future home projects.

Adam G.

Westbrook

Really great experience from start to finish with Evergreen. They helped us prioritize what needed to be completed first, and has made a significant difference in our hearing costs already. Plus they were really friendly and considerate to work with!

Amy W.

Kennebunk

We couldn't be more pleased with the easy, professional, high-value service from Evergreen. Having purchased an older home that had been in our family for generations, we needed multiple upgrades, including insulation throughout. Evergreen insulated our attic with blown-in cellulose, built a new, super-insulated attic hatch, sealed off the old one (which was just a piece of plywood in a closet ceiling), and also talked us through our best options to upgrade our heating system given the plans we have to add onto the house.

Tom G.

South Thomaston

We initially contacted Evergreen through Efficiency Maine for an energy audit, which was conducted promptly and professionally by Justin McEdward, one of their Energy Advisors who is BPI-certified. After a thorough inspection of our newly purchased home, Justin explained in great detail what we needed and did not need. It was agreed that Evergreen would remove all of the existing attic insulation, which was not adequate, and replace it with blown in cellulose, to a rating of R-60.

Thomas W.

Scarborough

My husband and I bought a home on the water in Owls Head and decided to make the investment in Evergreen's recommendations for insulation. Brian Robinson spent 3 hours examining every nook and cranny before he made practical suggestions and explained them thoroughly to us.

Marie McNeely

Owls Head

Bryan, Dave and the entire Evergreen team are wonderfully professional, prompt and thorough. I enjoyed working with them and look forward to continued work as we upgrade our home! Thank you so much for your professionalism, fairness, time and diligence.

Cait

Yarmouth

We had Evergreen come out to our tiny old (100+ year old) house to see what they would recommend for decreasing our carbon footprint, saving money, and increasing our comfort in the cold season. Richard and Bryan were great to work with, patiently answering our many questions and walking us through multiple options. We could only afford to tackle a few areas this year; we ended up replacing some windows and having them weatherize the entire house.

Alan M.

Falmouth

We had a fantastic experience working with Evergreen to insulate our roof this winter. Everyone was extremely friendly throughout the process - the crew at our home worked hard, were approachable with questions, and the team leader even showed me around the project to point out specific areas they were working to improve.

Joel Wentz

We had Evergreen Home Performance of Rockland come in to make our home more energy efficient, and what a TOP notch crew. Brian and his crew did an amazing job from start to finish. Very knowledgeable and professional. We would Definitely highly recommend this crew to anyone who is looking for energy efficiency in their home with a company that truly is an expert and knows how to do a quality job and truly cares about their customer.

Melissa S.

Owls Head

I waited a year to write this review. Evergreen finished our job late last winter. Terrific results!!! we've gone from 12-day propane deliveries to 30+ day propane deliveries. The house is noticeably warmer. The Evergreen crew was/is professional, prompt, thorough, scientific, gracious and immaculate with respect to keeping our house clean. Money well spent.

John E.

Boothbay

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