There are basements where people enjoy spending time. They’re warm, dry, and cozy, and they make great playrooms, or guest rooms, or media rooms. We imagine they’re something like Shangri-La: happy, idyllic, and – let’s be honest – fictional.
Most of the basements we see have more in common with Atlantis, especially after a few days of the kind of rain we’re seeing this week. They’re wet, and musty, and creepy, but it isn’t their fault. Almost every basement in Midcoast and central Maine is set upon hard packed marine clay, a substrate with an incredible ability to absorb and hold moisture.
Whether your basement has a dirt floor, gravel, ledge, or a poured concrete slab, water will find its way through the foundation, and it will bring more than an inconvenience. Unwanted moisture causes major structural rot problems, fosters the growth of unhealthy mold spores, and contaminates your breathing air with unpleasant must and odor. You can move the laundry to the mudroom and avoid the basement at all costs, but as long as you’ve got a sodden sponge for a foundation, you’re living with mold, mildew, and structural decay.
The solution is simple: If you can’t dry out your foundation – and you can’t – encapsulate it. Install drainage inside or out, lay a flexible drainage mat to channel water effectively, and top it with a vapor barrier to keep moisture out. As a bonus, basement encapsulation and air sealing also prevent cold air from infiltrating your foundation, so the improvement that keeps your home dry this spring will keep it warm next winter.
We can’t promise Shangri-La, but we can protect you and your home from the dangers of a wet basement.
This is the perfect time of year to evaluate a damp or wet basement, and Evergreen offers FREE consults to help you discover how a dry, pleasant basement can improve the comfort and efficiency of your whole home. Contact us today and learn how long-term, low-interest PACE or PowerSaver loans from Efficiency Maine make home energy efficiency projects easy and affordable.
