Who knew?

I had no idea so much water was just floating around in the air in our house. That sounds odd right? Maybe its just me. Anyways our basement always seemed dark and dank and musty. Maybe even a bit humid. Ick.

I've learned over the last couple months that apparently concrete is not a material that keeps water out. Who knew? I certainly didn't. Most basements just have insulation or other things on the inside of the concrete (or its sealed) before the wood and drywall and any other layers, so that when moisture comes through it evaporates and its fine. (ok this is my basic understanding from what Matt and others have tried to explain to me so this may be somewhat wrong, haha, but I trust that others know what they are saying).

Long story short, our basement is more moist than most...probably because its so old. And we noticed it even more after all the drywall came off and the insulation and wood framing. So we bought a "de-humidifier". It was about $200 (Matt found an online deal) and plugs into the wall. It arrived in the mail this weekend and after being plugged in for about 3 hours there was already about a litre of water! Geez.

We plan to keep using it. And once we get to the point of leveling the floor and improving the structure in the basement, we are looking into sealing the concrete also to keep it even more dry.