Midwest Basementy Blog - Is your basement or crawl space making you sick?

The science of the way air flows throughout your home is commonly known as the stack effect, or chimney effect. As warm air rises in a home it leaks out of the upper levels through cracks, gaps, doors and windows. New air must enter to replace the air that escaped.

On average a home loses about 50% of the air in the home every hour. This air has to be replaced and the suction created by the air exiting above draws the new air into the lowest level of your home, generally a basement or crawl space.

This bottom to top air flow, or "stack effect", throughout your home means that on average 50% of the air you are breathing is air that has been circulated through the basement or crawl space.

Therefore whatever is in your basement is in the air you and your family are breathing on a daily basis; while you're eating, watching TV, sleeping, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter if you ever enter the basement or crawl space.

If there is mold in your basement, you are breathing in mold spores upstairs. Even if mold isn't visible yet, your humidity levels may be allowing spores to exist and circulate in your home.

Dust mites are the largest allergen within your home and they feed off the moist air in your house. Where do you have the most moist air? You guessed it, your basement. Air that then raises up to the upper levels of your home for you to breathe in and could be making you sick.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? The best way to keep your air healthy and safe is to keep water out of your basement and keep your relative humidity below 50%, the number at which dust mites and mold spores can begin to thrive.

Midwest Basement Systems mission is to keep your basement dry and keep it dry all of the time with a permanent basement water proofing solution called water guard. And keep your humidity at a level where your air remains mold and dust mite free with our dehumidifier and air purifier mixed into one, the SaniDry XP. Normal dehumidifiers do not have the capacity to run for hours at a time cleaning and drying your air without constant emptying and they can't clean the air like the filtering process of a SaniDry.

Call Midwest Basement Systems if you think this is an issue occurring in your home.