3 Reasons Why Your Basement May Smell

12/12/2022 (Permalink)

If your basement smells bad, you might want to think beyond the obvious. It's not just a mildew problem or a rodent infestation—it could be something much more serious. In this guide, we'll take a look at some of the most common reasons that basements smell like rotten eggs or sewer gas and how you can fix them.

1. Poor Air Flow

The first reason your basement may smell is because of poor air flow. A basement is a closed space, which means that if you don’t have an adequate amount of ventilation in your home, the air will become stale and begin to smell like mold or mildew. This can be prevented by ensuring that there are no blocked vents from insulation or water damage.

There are also other factors that may contribute to this problem as well; dirt, dust and debris build up on walls and along the floor throughout the year which can create odor issues because this material needs to be cleaned out regularly in order for everything else inside your home (such as your furniture) not get ruined by these particles directly touching them through daily use over time without any care being given towards removing them right away before they accumulate too much filthiness around them!

2. The Ground is Wet

Another common reason for a basement to smell is that the ground is wet. The most obvious way to check this is to go outside and look, but if you have a sump pump, it's worth checking whether it's working properly. In order to do so, open up your sump pump access door and look inside—is there standing water or has the pump been disconnected? If so, secure it back into place and test it out by turning on one of your faucets upstairs.

If that doesn't help resolve the problem, take a closer look at other possible causes: cracks in foundation walls and floors; leaks from pipes (especially those connected with toilets); water damage from flooding caused by heavy rain or ice dams; mold growth due to excess moisture levels in clothes closets or bathrooms.

3. Sewer Gases

Sewer gases are the product of decomposing organic material in your home, and they can be a health risk to you and your family. Sewer gas smells like rotten eggs because it contains sulfur-based compounds. The same foul odor that hits you when you open a can of stinky cheese or an old pizza box is also present in your sewer system.

Sewer gas corrodes metal pipes and causes basement walls to mold or rot due to moisture buildup caused by condensation on them from moist air entering your home through cracks or gaps around windows or doors (or perhaps even through the foundation).

When sewer gases enter at the main stack—the pipe that brings fresh air into your home—they escape into other parts of the house rather than being vented back outside as they should be if there were no leaks anywhere else along its path (like under floors). This means that any openings between rooms could be letting these harmful gases into other areas where they'll linger until someone opens up doors/windows/ventilators again so they can vent outside instead!

Your basement could smell for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons for a smelly basement is water entering where it shouldn’t. If you experience water damage or need odor removal in your Fort Collins, CO basement, Give SERVPRO of Fort Collins a call!