Basement flood

blushingbride_08

Somehow my washing machine overflowed and made a flood in my basement. Now the house has a wet, mildewy smell. We already have a dehumidifier in a storage part of the basement but not in the laundry area of the basement. Do we need another dehumidifier? What's the best way to get rid of that damp smell?

cmrand4

Is drywall wet? Is carpeting wet? you have to cut out the wet parts and throw them away.  We live in the midwest so we run a big dehumidifier in our basement during the summer months.  So sorry about the flood.  We've been through that twice.  What a hassle!

likeanoldtimemovie

This happened to us last week. We used a shop vac to get all the water and cut out any wet parts of the drywall. We aired it out with a huge fan and I used vinegar in a spray bottle to get rid of the smell. Just spray it everywhere several times a day until the mildew smell is gone.

ConnieRob

We had a toilet overflow into a carpeted hallway. I used my wet vac to suck the water out and them sprayed it with this stuff called odo-ban and then sucked it some more and laid down a crapton of baking soda to help pull out extra moisture. The odo-ban kills the mildew spores (and just about everything else. I love that stuff). You can get it at Home Depot type stores. It comes concentrated so you need to buy a spray bottle to dilute it. I keep it on hand all the time now and use it to refresh the house.

MesmrEwe

Providing the drywall didn't get wet - If you've got them, clean your carpets (get a Rug Doctor and go over it with just the vac feature first to get any residual liquid out before doing a regular carpet cleaning)...  This should also help you discover just how far that water damage really was. 

 Then get that dehumidifier going 24/7... But what REALLY helped - we spent about $200 on a Ridgid "Air Mover" at Depot!! That thing moved air to the point I could feel it moving upstairs.  they're nice to have around even though it wasn't a small chunk of change but at that point the cost of pulling up/replacing carpets was becoming very real, and for a huge basement room it was worth the gamble. That is also what my carpet/floor cleaning friend recommended for what they do when they go into places that've had water damage - sometimes they'll pull up the carpet to dry out the pad, but the key is getting it dried out as quickly as possible and without air movement the dehumidifier only goes so far.  The air mover got things dried out in our basement in less than 12 hours (it had been 4-5 days and the fans/humidifier weren't getting the job done, and yes, "the smell" was gone).