Ventilation Required for Basement Room

[DIYNewbie1]

Had a bit of a problem with a basement room suffering from damp as water got in due to bad building work. The building work has been rectified and the walls are to be re-plastered. The room has no ventilation as its a basement room and I am wondering how some form of ventilation can be installed.

One option is to try running some sort of piping from the next room where access to street level is available. Other option is to try installing a few air bricks in the room but i dont think there is any access to street level.

Any ideas or anything i should be specifically considering?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Is the basement below ground level, could you use an extraction fan

 

[theoldun]

Stick a dehumidifier in there for a week (hire charge about £100.00 for week). Empty every night, then leave all doors open for a week.
Can not advise on extract as do not know layout of property.
old un.

 

[noseall]

A subterranean room will be damp and suffer from all the symptoms, i.e. mould, damp smells, cool temp's etc. It is below ground after all.

Ridding the room of smells etc will be tough.

Has it been professionally tanked?

 

[DIYNewbie1]

Bit of an update.... the rom was stripped of the plaster and dehumidifier stuck in which helped no end. The room hasnt been tanked and before we could consider if it should be the plasterboard was back up on the walls and plastered! However the good news is when the room was stripped there did not seem to be any damp present it was basically from before when the external of the building was not completed properly allowing for water to penetrate.

The good news is the majority of the room is below ground level but about a foot is above ground level so we have put two brick vents in the room to help ventilation.

This should be sufficient although i have heard people mention about fan assited ventilation what type of products are we talking about? The only type that come to mind are extractor fans such as kitchen and bathroom ones. Or am I confused

 

[theoldun]

I would give it a month to see whether the air bricks are suppling sufficent ventilation. If not think about mechanical venting.
old un.

 

[DIYNewbie1]

Good idea.... although if the weather continues to be good there wont be any problems soon!

Will keep an eye on it and see how it develops. What sort of mechanical ventilation would you suggest....ie which products?