Thread: Unheated Basement Ventilation

Hi everyone;
I am just starting out and have a question about an unheated basement. There is not any outside ventilation to the basement visible. My question is this to be treated like an unheated crawspace and requires vents to be installed or a fan to vent the area?
Thanks
Barney Cheeseman

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If it has four walls and a concrete floor I don;t see where it needs ventilation. If it has some exposed dirt I would take a second look at my response.

No it does not have any exposed dirt, floor is all concrete.

I run into this regularly. Just did a report on a 12 unit apartment building yesterday. All basement windows were boarded over. Utility basement. Windows and ventilation 'required'? Don't know, don't care, not my job to determine the use of the basement or what Code will apply after the purchase. What I do know is that basically every basement I go into that doesn't have ventilation has problems because of it.
Maybe it's different in Utah, around here basements have problems. There's always some amount of water intrusion or moisture producing elements. Walls, floor drains, slightly leaking pipes, stone foundations, leaking humidifier, whatever. Without some sort of ventilation, that moisture just hangs and rots things.
In this particular basement, air was damp and funky. Steel posts and beams had massive rust. I recommended the client spend $4K to install vented glass block windows.
It's not my place to dictate what clients do, I can only give them options and recommendations. Whether they follow them or not is their choice. Relying only on what is 'required', isn't always in the clients' best interest or the health of the building. It's better to be a little more proactive on some of this stuff.