How to Know if You Need to Seal Your Basement

If you’re like many Michigan homeowners, you need to seal your basement – but how do you know if it needs to be done, and what good would it do?

How to Know if You Need to Seal Your Basement

If your basement is wet or musty, you may want to call in an expert. That’s particularly true if you’ve had water damage, although it is often possible to head off water damage by sealing your basement before something bad happens.

Finding Out What’s Causing Wet Conditions in Your Basement

You can tell whether you may need to seal your basement by taping a 1-square-foot piece of foil to one of your basement walls. Leave it in place for 24 hours, and then check it for condensation.

If the condensation is on the outside of the foil, you could just have high humidity in your basement – and you can fix that with a portable dehumidifier (or even a whole-house dehumidifier).

If the condensation is on the inside surface (the side that’s facing the wall) you could have an excess of moisture in the soil outside your house. That could result from a high water table or poor soil drainage, and in that case, waterproofing your basement could be a good idea.