Discolored Basement floors & walls - should I be worried? - Reader Question.

Basement walls have been constructed many different ways in the 1900s. Most of the homes we live in have been built to standards created in the 1970s based on the last energy crisis. However older homes have foundations that were created using techniques that predate American History.

With so many different types of basements, wall coverings, and materials used, discoloration could happen for multiple reasons.

The most common foundations that are seen today are: Crawl Spaces (brick, block or poured concrete), Full head height basements (stone, brick, block, or poured concrete).


What having a discolored basement wall could mean:
As I mentioned discolored walls can mean quite a few things. Depending on the history of the house, these stains could be insoluble materials like oil, paint, ink, or anything else that can be washed out of a porous service. The more common cause for discoloration of a floor or a wall is water or fire damage.

Water damage leaves residues behind like efflorescence that is much like a fine powder. Efflorescence is simply the left over minerals from water that has evaporated from the service. Brick or stone foundations that have had plaster laid over it to produce a smooth finish to the wall could also soak up the water, mold, rot and flake off. During this process the plaster will change color. Browns, yellows, oranges and greens are typical to see on a plaster that is coming in contact with water.

Same basic rules apply to the floor.

If you think you have water or fire damage in your home or basement, have your home inspected by a professional to see if there are any possible damage issues that need to be corrected. If your foundation is in fact leaking, or allowing water into your basement, consider correcting any foundation issues that need repair and hiring a basement waterproofing contractor to fully protect the basement from future floods.

Related Reading and Links
Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make. See what other readers have asked in Safe'n'Dry Basement Blog's Reader Questions Section
Ask Jacob A question Directly on Pioneer Basement's Help Forums!
Image thanks to http://www.ehow.com

How can I cover up water damage for a Home Inspection - Reader Question.

I was actually quite shocked that someone asked me this directly.
My major suggestion: Do the right thing, and don't cover it up.

Water damage can be caused by a number of things in the basement - flooding, pipe bursts, wall leaks, floor leaks, a tub overflowing on the 1st or 2nd floor - so it's important to know how the damage occurred in the first place.

Knowing how the damage occurred will allow you, as the current homeowner, to be able to do 2 things:

1- Know what kind of disclosure you need to put in the open on your home if you're putting it on the market.

2- Know what type of repair is needed - depending on the damage, how it was caused, and how much water you were dealing with makes a difference - Plumbing issues need to be fixed by licensed plumbers, landscaping issues can be corrected, and a basement waterproofing system can be installed - but the key is to know what happened, from where, and what your options are.

Quick story:
Young couple buys a home and on the home inspection report there's no evidence of water damage or previous issues with flooding. A few weeks into ownership, they flooded.

Now the real thing that happened was that there was evidence of water damage on some of the finished areas of the basement, studs, dry wall, and even the foundation walls. Now the previous homeowners put a coat of paint on it, dark color, to cover it up - inspection went swimmingly and house is now passed over to this new homeowner.

So now the new homeowners are trying to sue the previous owners for knowing about the issues and passing known issues onto them.

So - you don't want to be the new couple and you also don't want to be on the other end of a law suit.


Best way to do this is to be honest, repair the cause of the damage, repair the damage and be upfront with a.) what happened and b.) what you did to fix and repair it all.

Related Reading and Links
Read about the Top 6 Basement Mistakes that contractors and homeowners make. See what other readers have asked in Safe'n'Dry Basement Blog's Reader Questions Section
Ask Jacob A question Directly on Pioneer Basement's Help Forums!