Sorry son, we can't have Grandpa and Grandma stay in the basement for the Holidays!
It’s not everyday that you will hear your kids ask you: Daddy, daddy, are grandpa and grandma gonna’ spend the Christmas Holidays with us?
You ideally want to say yes to a question like this. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if grandpa and grandma could spend Christmas at your place? Wouldn’t it be great if the whole family could spend all these festive times together, not just Christmas Eve?
Yes, sure, but, where can they stay? We don’t have the space!
This is the first thing that would come to mind. Right? How many of you have wanted to get closer to your family, extended family or just friends by having them stay over during the Holidays.
Yet the space, the space is always the issue. No matter how big you thought the house was when you bought it, you always lack the space. Did you know though that you paid for your basement when you bought your house, and you never use it? Or you don’t maximise your usage of it?
I’ll repeat that..YOUR BASEMENT IS SPACE YOU PAID FOR! And for some of you, it’s a big part of your house! So use it! And use it for something useful, not just for storing all those objects you had been collecting for years, and promised yourself to use…one dayyyyy..
Use it as an extra living space! I mean it’s perfect for occasions like holidays when you do need that extra space.
“Yes Antonio”, some of you will think, but why finish it when humidity and mold will ruin it. And I will probably have a flood one day.
No! You will not have a flood nor humidity if you have a decent waterproofing and humidity control system. However, let’s say you bypass all the good advice and count on your French Drain to “protect you from flooding”, or give you a false feeling of security that your basement is protected from ground water seapage. Then, after a lovely sunny day, rain starts pouring heavily. Unfortunately for you, that fantastic finishing which you decided to go for on that day when your creative juices were high, is ruined. It won’t seem that fantasticwith a ruined carpet, musty wooden floor and blackened sheet rock walls.
Even if you were lucky and this never happened, how long would it be before you start smelling that awful odor in your basement. Well yes, sure, why shouldn’t you have that smell. Wood and carpet and sheet rock are all organic, the perfect food for mold!
So what would be ideal? NON ORGANIC material! Yes, in your basement, you need to have the least amount of organic material possible, call it a DIET FOOD FOR MOLD.
Non organic material like plastic and its derivatives will never get affected by humidity and mold. Your basement won’t smell bad. And, if those finishing materials are designed in a way that they could be easily removed and cleaned in case of a flood, great! What more could you want?!
So, finish your basement correctly and recapture your unused basement space. If you already have a finished basement, rethink your finishing from organic to non-organic and don’t let that creative mood of yours ruin your happy family holiday gathering, be pragmatic!
Basement Systems Quebec is the exclusive dealership for Basement Systems Inc. in the Province of Quebec and the Greater Montreal region. They are specialized in basement waterproofing, basement finishing, crawl space repair, humidity control and foundation repair. For more information about the services and products they offer, call or e-mail today.
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