How do you remove moisture and condensation from basement walls?

A
Aaron Keating
Updated: Aug. 4, 2020

We recently moved into a 15 year old home and have a smell coming from the basement. We had a mold inspector test and look everywhere and found no issues. We took down our insulated wall panels and there is a clear plastic barrier then pink fiberglass insulation right on the foundation. The insulation and barrier/plastic sheet are from floor to ceiling. We opened it up and found the insulation is very damp on the foundation side. There is no mold in there but my hand got wet in the spots I stuck it in. We have been running a dehumidifier for a couple of weeks and it hasn't fixed the issue or smell. I smelled behind the insulation and found that to be where the smell is originating...just damp concrete and insulation. There is no wood as the wall frames are metal. No leaks from the outside coming in either. 

I feel like the insulation is wrong and the insulation and the plastic barrier are creating the issue. What should be done to remedy this? Replace insulation with foam insulation and have no plastic barrier? Would it be wise to pull down all the insulation in the meantime to dry things out or would that cause other issues? We live in the GTA.

Thank you,

Aaron

Responses (3)

A
Aaron Keating 4 years ago

Hi, if we replace the insulation with spray foam or rigid foam and do not change the exterior waterproofing, will that stop the moisture from coming inside? Or is digging down and adding a waterproofing membrane and also replacing the insulation the only way to fix this? I have read that the external digging and waterproofing is very expensive. 

Thank you,

Aaron

Ecohome
Ecohome 4 years ago