Need help airing out a basement

July 12, 2008 5:17 PM

What is the best way to air out a basement? The house I am renting, the landlord smoked in the basement and the smell is driving me crazy. There are no windows in the basement and I can't paint the walls or ceiling without violating my lease. There is carpet in the basement too which might be holding in some of the odor.
posted by thebwit to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

I'd talk to the landlord about the possibility of you painting or him replacing the carpet. He'll probably be okay with you painting under the circumstances as long as you agree on a colour beforehand and you do a good job.
posted by orange swan at 5:25 PM on July 12, 2008

Oh, and try shampooing the carpet.
posted by orange swan at 5:26 PM on July 12, 2008

Response by poster: Owner won't pay for new paint since they did it a year ago or whatever it was - its a crappy job, but they won't pay for the paint as it "doesn't need it"
posted by thebwit at 5:29 PM on July 12, 2008

Just ask if you can paint. If you pay for it yourself, the landlord/owner probably wouldn't mind. Yeah, shampoo the carpet, and if none of that works, find an aroma oil or even an incense that you don't mind and keep it going in there.
posted by zardoz at 5:46 PM on July 12, 2008

The smoke is actually greasy.

You have to wash everything thoroughly, rinse just as thoroughly. Every surface: walls, ceiling, fixtures... everything. Shampoo the carpet, maybe twice.

A big job, maybe you can make a work party of it and get your friends wet and sudsy.
posted by reflecked at 5:59 PM on July 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Agreeing with all of the above... then, turn on an ozone generator overnight to remove any lingering smells.
posted by oceanmorning at 6:04 PM on July 12, 2008

You're going to have to do something about the carpet - I would have it either professionally cleaned or removed. If you want to air out the basement, you can put a fan at the doorway of the basement blowing outward, but you might want to take off for a few days because it will bring the smell into the rest of the house.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 6:10 PM on July 12, 2008

You're not going to be able to get the smell out 100% short term even if you paint. It's going to take several months for the smell to dissipate from stuff like electrical boxes, HVAC piping, hidden spaces inside stuff like kitchen cabinets, etc. Washing will help a lot though, use a TSP (available at home improvement borgs and paint supply places) solution to cut the smoke.
posted by Mitheral at 6:34 PM on July 12, 2008

Bin Primer is great - If you do decide to pay for the painting yourself, priming with this is going to go a long way to permanently getting rid of the smoke smell.
posted by extrabox at 6:53 PM on July 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

I've had good luck with spraying Ozium around to get rid of lingering smells that remain after more heavy-duty cleaning has been done.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 8:31 PM on July 12, 2008

Speaking as a landlord: Remove the carpet. If you can't, then shampoo it. Using the anti-smell (maybe "pet odor") formula. Twice. If you have a furnace/AC for your unit, make sure you change the filter. Wash down every wall surface using an appropriate cleaner.

I don't understand why you CAN'T paint the walls or ceiling, as long as it's the same color the landlord used. Generally this rule is because people do wacky things like paint it black or fluorescent orange, or paint right over electrical or windows.

If you do go the painting route, B-I-N is good as is KILZ. These are intended to seal in and kill mold, but will also encapsulate smelly deposits of whatever.

As for the no windows thing, that's concerning. The national building code requires windows, certainly two separate human exits. When rehabbing basements into living spaces, some places will make you put a deep well in one window as a fire exit. If you do have a separate exit, well, it's summer here, right? Install a screen.

Another option, if the landlord agrees, could be a basement exhaust fan (this one is in a window, but you could do one like a bathroom fan and cut a hole). Just be sure you have a critter screen.
posted by dhartung at 11:55 PM on July 12, 2008

I've heard that putting a bowl of white vinegar in a car can take the smell out of the car. Maybe a few bowls of white vinegar sitting around the basement would help accomplish the same thing? For cars, you let it sit for 24 hours. I would assume it'd be the same for a room.

If you Google, you'll see a lot of sites that recommend this method.
posted by hootch at 9:52 AM on July 13, 2008

Air filter and de-humidifier- I can't emphasize enough how much a de-humidifier helps with basement funk...
posted by mistsandrain at 6:56 AM on July 14, 2008