user 35841
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- Nov 25, 2015
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Hi all, first time home buyer here in need of some advice. My wife and I just bought a townhouse, originally built in the early 1900s, with a finished basement. Every time we visited the basement has been dry without any hint of a musty odor. It's divided into two parts: a water-sealed storage area in the back and a drywalled portion in the front that I was hoping to turn into a game room.The former owners disclosed that there was a bit of leakage in the back, but that was fixed by adjusting the drainage spout and they fixed our gutter concerns before closing.
We've been painting some rooms before moving in and last night we noticed that there was condensation under the plastic sheeting in the basement. The sheet has been there since Saturday and carpet was wet enough that there was some water on my hand after pressing down on the carpet. It's a berber carpet and feels like it's laid directly on the slab. We weren't sure what to do, so we opened the door between the front and back of the basement where the humidifier is and turn on the fan in the house's HVAC in hopes that it'd dry out over night.
So here's my question: where do people think the water is coming from? The drywall of the basement is not completely flush with floor, could vapor be coming out from there and getting trapped under the sheet? Could there be a leak in the slab? Would resealing the slab do us an any good at this? Do the former owners have any liability here? TBH I'm freaking out a little, one of the main reasons we chose this place is because the basement seemed really dry.
We've been painting some rooms before moving in and last night we noticed that there was condensation under the plastic sheeting in the basement. The sheet has been there since Saturday and carpet was wet enough that there was some water on my hand after pressing down on the carpet. It's a berber carpet and feels like it's laid directly on the slab. We weren't sure what to do, so we opened the door between the front and back of the basement where the humidifier is and turn on the fan in the house's HVAC in hopes that it'd dry out over night.
So here's my question: where do people think the water is coming from? The drywall of the basement is not completely flush with floor, could vapor be coming out from there and getting trapped under the sheet? Could there be a leak in the slab? Would resealing the slab do us an any good at this? Do the former owners have any liability here? TBH I'm freaking out a little, one of the main reasons we chose this place is because the basement seemed really dry.