Stinky crawlspaces and musty basements can be fixed with the proper equipment

Ever wonder why your crawlspace or basement smells so bad? 

Some people think there is a cat in the crawlspace because it always smells like “cat pee.” Others think that maybe something crawled under and died. The real culprit often gets overlooked, and it is often the main source of smells…moisture. The “cat pee” smell usually comes from wet fiberglass insulation which contains a product called urea. Simply put, the glue contains animal pee. This sounds gross, I know, but it’s the way fiberglass has been made for a very long time. When the fibers get wet, it puts off that old familiar scent. Wood rot, mold, and mildew always have very strong smells. All of these problems can be fixed by lowering the overall moisture in the crawlspace or basement.

While is usually takes several steps to completely fix a crawlspace or basement moisture problem, one of the best steps has to be installing a proper dehumidifier. Dehumidifier are pretty common-  you can find them in almost any hardware store. The right dehumidifier is a different matter altogether. Here at DryZone, we use the SaniDry line of dehumidifiers. We don’t actually like to call them a dehumidifier, because they do so much more than expected. The “best” dehumidifiers available at the big hardware stores are usually in the 80 or 90 pints a day range. This means that they will draw 80 to 90 pints of water out of the air each day. This dries the air so that things like mold won’t grow. This is a pretty respectable number, considering 80 to 90 pints is the same as 10 to 11.25 gallons. One might think that these machines will solve the moisture problems in a crawlspace, but unfortunately we replace these units with a SaniDry nearly every day.

The SaniDry line of dehumidifers: a complete air system for your basement or crawl space

The SaniDry CX is our most popular model. We use the term “air system” when talking about it because its not just a dehumidifier. The CX pulls up to 109 pints (just over 13.5 gallons) of water out of the air. It also cleans the air of the mold spores, insect allergens, and other nasty things. So not only does it have a higher output, it also cleans the air, which is something most dehumidifiers won’t do. Another major factor to consider is the CFM, or cubic feet per minute. This describes the amount of air a unit can blow out each minute. Basically, the higher the CFM, the greater area one machine can handle. This means that our SaniDry CX can cover almost any normal sized home. Those little store bought units are a lot like a window mounted air conditioner in the sense that they are great for the room they are in, but will be hard-pressed to cool the other end of the house. Bottom line: you need to lower the moisture in the air under your home if you want to get rid of those smells for good. The SaniDry line of dehumifiers are the most efficient, and effective dehumidifers in the basement and crawl space waterproofing market. 

DryZone is proud to serve all the homeowners of Delmarva, including those in Chester, Millington, Dover, Marydel, and Smyrna with superior waterproofing products designed to help keep your below grade space dry - all the time!  Throughout our years of experience, we know that humidity is not kind to anything under a home and we strive to help homeowners not have to experience the negative consequences of that pervasive moisture.