Carpeting Basement Floors And Taking Care Of Mold

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I have my office in the basement of my home. That allows me to have large space of around 700 square feet to work in with all the needed furniture, not only for self but for the visitors too. There is a large desk that includes a TV and all the electronic paraphernalia that you’ll find in any corporate office.

Moisture is a problem therein, not that it ever got flooded. My basement can be treated as dry. But being below the ground level, it attracts moisture. It’s my dehumidifier that makes me realize of its presence - it gets filled up twice a month in winters and now and then once a day when the humidity rises.



I often wonder if my carpet would remain as dry in the absence of a dehumidifier! Would my carpet get sprayed with water? And what happens to the volume of water that the machine is unable to collect for whatever reasons?

Moisture can enter even new constructions despite the provision of a moisture vapor barrier. A French drain around the house or the gutter system could be the cause of it. And, let it be known that moisture leads to mold.

As one can’t see mold around or feel it in the air that one breathes, you are left wondering what’s so bad about mold!

I'm not an expert but I conducted a bit of research on the subject of mold. Mold has tiny spores, with hundreds of thousands of them capable of fitting on the head of a pin. They can penetrate thru our immune system to enter into our lungs. On entering the lungs they can get in our bloodstream and oxygen and may permanently scar lung tissue. Some of the common symptoms are: colds, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and shortness of breath among others.

Fortunately I enjoy good health, yet I can feel it at the end of a day’s work in my basement office.

One way out is carpeting basement floors with area rugs. Applying concrete stains or having sealed decorative concrete floor coatings helps to contain mold. Maintenance of sealed concrete becomes easy and helps preventing building up of mold.



One big benefit of having area rugs is that they keep the basement warm and are conveniently rolled up for being sent to the cleaner. They are conveniently replaced or removed. But, the slight limitation is that you can’t have light easily moveable furniture on the rugs. That’s because frequent movement of furniture adversely affects the life of rugs.

It’s comfortable walking on a wall to wall carpeting. But, it’s frequently glued down on the floor, meaning you wouldn’t like to have it replaced too soon, especially with all the tastefully bought furniture for your office cum home. That’s because it’s quite a task to get them unglued and the subsequent removal of dried gum from cement floor is a tough job indeed. Did you notice that wall to wall carpets have tack strips that have been hammered down along its edges? As you remove them, the holes get exposed and need to be suitably filled up using filler.

Here’s a tip for you if you plan to use your basement more often. Rather than having wall to wall carpeting or even area rugs, you would be better off with a decorative concrete coating!