Proper caulking is vital to have within your home. Over time, caulking can experience wear and tear and leave areas in your home open to unwanted damages. Mold can also spread quickly in the regions that are exposed to moisture. Continue reading if you want to know how to properly inspect your basement!

This is a Safety Task!

This allows outside air to circulate under the floor in the summer to prevent the moisture buildup that encourages mildew and mold.

This is a Health Task!

Mold can grow anywhere that there is excess moister. With many different variants, mold can significantly affect the health of you and your family over time.

This is a Preventative Maintenance Task!

A wet basement or crawl space can cause a musty smell and greater humidity. Depending on the situation and time of year, humidity can be good or bad. It can lead to higher heating and cooling costs, damage to walls and flooring, and mold growth. Also, with mold comes wood rot or dry rot, which can be very costly to repair.

Tasks can be done by: Homeowner, Handyman, Home Inspector

How To Properly Inspect Your Basement | Task Steps

Step 1 – Inspect areas for mold, cracks, or loose tiles

• Walk around your home and inspect what areas have problem spots in the caulking.
• Try inspecting the caulking around pipes, bathtubs, showers, siding, and other areas for chips, cracks, or stains.
• Now go around inspecting common places in your home that water frequently touches. Some areas may be under and around sinks, toilets, corners of showers and tubs, caulked areas, windowsills, countertops, shower curtains or doors, floors next to walls, and drains.
• Next, you’re primarily inspecting for house mold, which commonly looks like it has a damp, muddy appearance, ranging in colors from black, pink, orange, green, and white. If seeing the mold isn’t enough, a musty or sour odor in your bathroom is a dead giveaway for mold growth and anywhere that water can get into.

Step 2 – Clean and Prep

• Once you find a spot that needs attention, make sure the cleaning agent you use won’t cause any damage to a specific kind of tile or any other object to which you apply it.
• You can eliminate the mold by putting some distilled white vinegar, mild soap in a spray bottle and saturating the moldy area. Let it sit for 30 minutes, and then scrub with a bristle brush.
• An alternative way to do this is by making a baking soda paste using water and baking soda, then applying it to the problem spots. Let this sit for 10 minutes, then scrub away with the bristle brush.
• The last alternative to get rid of mold is by using baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Make a thick paste and scrub it into the areas you want to clean, then wash it away with water and repeat as needed.
• Make sure to clean up any mold from the problem areas thoroughly.
• Once that’s finished, spray some bleach to do a final disinfectant and let dry.
  • Tool List: Spray bottles, bristle brush
  • Supply List & Costs: Distilled white vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, mild soap, bleach

Step 3 – Repair and Seal

• Once everything is dry, you need to determine what needs to be glued back down, replaced, grouted, caulked, or sealed over to prevent water from seeping in and causing more damage.
• Most of the time, caulking can be easy enough to fix on your own. On these issues, remove the caulking with a razor blade, then clean the area off thoroughly.
• Finalize it by applying a new bead of caulking using a caulk gun or squeeze tube.
• If you’re using 100% silicone caulk, try dipping your finger in rubbing alcohol to smooth out the caulking bead.
• You can use water to smooth out any latex caulking.
• If you don’t feel comfortable enough fixing problem areas yourself, call your HomeTeam professional to take a look.
  • Tool List: Caulk gun
  • Supply List & Costs: Tile glue or cement, grout, caulking, dry cleaning cloth

Hopefully these tips will help you keep your basement in tip top shape! Now you know how to properly inspect your basement!

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Also, check out another interesting article- How To Properly Inspect Your Crawl Space!