Stopping a leak in a basement can be a very difficult problem.
Especially if there is a crack in the wall where the water in entering. If there are no cracks and your basement still leaks, there is something you can do to eliminate the water running across the floor. It’s not pretty but concrete and mold never is. It is, however, effective to stop a water leak musty smell that arrives soon after the leak starts.
Most of the time when water leaks into a basement it is because there is several feet of water standing against the basement wall on the outside. To stop that, you’ll have to be sure the rain water from the roof runs away from your foundation to help stop the water leak musty smell that will occur in your basement. The water has no where else to go but under the wall or find a weak spot in the wall, create a hole in the wall called a crack and leak on in. And that creates your water leak musty smell.
When your cellar is dug out of the ground, the contractor digs out a trench of dirt all the way around where the foundation wall is going to stand. Its called a footer. It is very important that the bottom and sides of this trench are UN-disturbed dirt and that the forms used to make the top of the concrete poured into the trench flat and level are in fact level and where the foundation wall is supposed to go.
After the footer has cured, the concrete bricks are put up on the footer and fixed in place with mortar. Because the interior of the cement blocks are largely open and they are not stacked one on top of the other. They are staggered to improve the strength of the wall. The webs inside the blocks do not line up. So all the mortar is placed on the sides and ends of the block being careful not to leave any gaps in the mortar.
If there is space between the footers, water can get in. Thus, water leak musty smell. This happens during the winter when the temperatures freeze and thaw. The bricks crack, water gets into your basement.
- Drain the wall into the floor drain or sump pit with PVC pipe and fittings.
- If necessary, you may have to add a sump pump.
- Put drainage on the outside of your house to take excess roof water away from your foundation.
To get rid of the water leak musty smell, Air Quality Manager (AQM) by OdorXit will safely oxidize any mold and musty smells in the air and leave the air smelling fresh and leave no mold behind. It is a chlorine dioxide gas that floats through the air when you turn a fan on. It will work in your basement up to 30 days. Once the water leak musty smell is gone it won’t come back, unless you have another leak in your basement.
If you need to get a mold oxidizer into the walls where water has been siting for months or years, and a gas from AQM just won’t work, a similar product is MOMS – Mold Odor Mildew Smoke by OdorXit . It gets submerged in water and you can spray it wherever the stinky musty moisture was sitting and remove your water leak musty smell completely.
