75% Humidity in Basement

A basement I'm trying to set up is musty as FUCK and stays at about 75% humidity. I'm going to have a charcoal filter running, will that drop the humidity significantly? Would a $200 humidifier do the job? This is fine for veg but I need to know this can be dealt with to be able to set up shop here.

yes dehumidifier will work for sure.

Not sure how big of a space you are talking about, but a dehumidifier will lower the humidity a lot. Someone in another thread was saying this stuff called damprid (google it) will take it down to almost 0% humidity but I have never tried it.

I'm sure it's just a typo, but just in case it isn't - you want a DEhumidifier.

(nevermind. lots of posts in the same minute)

LOL no, you're right, I did say "humidifier", my mistake. And the room is about... hmm that makes me curious... well I'm not too sure, it's quite big though. Laundry room attached, it's like the length of your average house, and about 10 feet wide. The ceiling is low though-- it's a basement, ya know? I guess I'll grab a dehumidifier, and if it doesn't do the trick, I can always take it back, right?

If it's musty, then theirs mold/mildew in the area this will have to be addressed b4 you set up shop especially if you will be doing a couple grows there. find it and what is causing it,& remove it clean the area with bleach walls,floors, & ceilings then cop that dehumidifier too cause humidity that high starts effecting the way the carbon filter works

How do I look for and kill mold? I'm no mold expert, not at ALL.
I don't know if it's just because the air is trapped down there, or because it actually IS moldy. I wish I had the money to hire some experts to come by and fix the spot up, but if that were the case I wouldn't be growing sinsemillia.... wait, yeah I would. Just more of it.

If you wipe everything down with bleach and put in dehumidifier in you should be good. You say there is a laundry room too, make sure the dryer is properly vented as well.

they also have diy mold test kits at lowes/home depot.

be wary of high humidity with a charcoal filter. it will substantially shorten the life of the activated carbon inside the filter. best bet is to use a dehumidifier like everyone said. It's actually recommended for all basements, not just growing ones

Gamberro said:

How do I look for and kill mold? I'm no mold expert, not at ALL.
I don't know if it's just because the air is trapped down there, or because it actually IS moldy. I wish I had the money to hire some experts to come by and fix the spot up, but if that were the case I wouldn't be growing sinsemillia.... wait, yeah I would. Just more of it.

Click to expand...

I did some research before growing in my basement and I put a fuckton of work into cleaning it up. Damp cardboard grows mold like no other so get rid of any. If you have a hose hookup, connect a garden sprayer with bleach inside and spray everything down. Use a deck brush from home depot ($8 ) to scrub everything, and a wet vac to pick it all up. The worst part about it is doing all that work in a humid environment (I can't open up my basement) so I was soaked in sweat while working.

If you have all that stuff, you can probably pay somebody to do the work for you.

I'd try venting the air before you drop money on a dehumidifier that might not even do much (they also take a lot of power to run) Get a giant fan if you have a door / window you can shoot it out of, otherwise, get an 8" duct fan and a short run of ducting. It's just way more efficient to suck out humidity than it is to try and condense it to water and drain it. My 8 in can fan I got for $100-200 can pull 1,100 cubic meters an HOUR - thats probably more than all the air in your basement. (if you do use an expensive can filter, take the time to somewhat mount it - you can fuck it up if you try and use it like a big portable fan)

Thing to keep in mind is, once the humidity gets too high, water won't evaporate. What you need to do is drop the humidity, then keep it low long enough for everything to dry out. I wouldn't get too crazy about cleaning all the mold either - you control mold by not creating an environment it likes, not by getting rid of the spores -- there are always going to be mold spores.