How do I remove the old must smell from the basement?

Question

We are moving into a rental house in a week or so, and the basement of the house has concrete walls and floors, and just has laundry down there. Its a really old house. Is there any way I can get that musty smell out from the basement, or at least lessen the smell? I will take any ideas, but would perfer to not have to wash all the wall and floors cause its gross down there. Maybe something I can just put down there to help?

Answer 1

You can buy alot of baking powder and hope this absorbs some of the smell away. You can also buy some Febreeze and spray some on the walls and floor.

Answer 2

I'm sorry but the first thing I would do is wash down the walls and floor with a bleach water solution, if it smells musty there is a good chance you have mold starting to grow the bleach water will kill it, once it is clean I would well ventilate the basement with a fan if nothing else, put in a dehumidifier this will take the moisture out of the basement which causes the musty smell and turn on lights often mold doesn't like lights then you can sit ( depending on the size of your basement ) a few boxes of baking soda out of sight in different places and replace them about every 6 months, it wont make it smell like a rose garden but it wont smell like wet dirty socks anymore.

Answer 3

My house is 150 years old and has field stone walls and we had that musty smell as well. The biggest cause of that is dampness. Something that will help immediately is to get a dehumidifier and put it down there and set it to run continuously. Get the largest one that you can find (largest quart capacity) unless you can set it up to drain outside by some means. The one that I have you can set it up either way, to drain into the bucket that I have to go down and empty three times a day or you can put a hose on the drain and it will drain to the outside. Being that you have a laundry room down there, the easiest thing for you to do would be to set it up to run all the time with a hose that emptys down your wash machine drain. That will totally maintenance free. I would get the model that has this function and that also allows you to set the level of humidity in the basement. Something around 60% is what you are shooting for.

The smell will still be there somewhat, but you can lessen it with a dehimidifier. Also, if there is anything down there that will retain that smell (cardboard boxes, etc) if you remove or replace all that stuff it will greatly help. Of course, if you also hosed down the walls and sucked up the water with a shop-vac that would also help, but I can understand your desire to stay out of the dirty creepy basement. Hope it helps!

Answer 4

It simply needs to air out.
When we first moved into our home, the basement smelled so musty one could barely breathe. The basement window had been nailed shut! Once I pried the nails out and opened it, I left it that way for the summer. No musty smell at all now. (And the walls still leak when it rains.)
It just needs a good airing out.

Answer 5

Get a dehumidifier. Moisture and darkness also promote mold growth. Check the area for this.

Answer 6

At first try air fresheners, obviously, but if that doesn't work you may have to put up drywall and carpet.