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Default Air draft from basement

Is it normal to have a draft of air coming from your basement to the
main floor? You can feel it easily coming from under the basement
door on the main floor level. The Basement windows and doors are
closed and when installed were sealed tight with foam. No draft is
getting in around them. Yet, the door on my main floor leading to the
basement has a fair amount of air draft coming in under the door. What
could be causing this?
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Default Air draft from basement

On Aug 15, 10:51*am, wrote:
Is it normal to have a draft of air coming from your basement to the
main floor? *You can feel it easily coming from under the basement
door on the main floor level. *The Basement windows and doors are
closed and when installed were sealed tight with foam. *No draft is
getting in around them. *Yet, the door on my main floor leading to the
basement has a fair amount of air draft coming in under the door. What
could be causing this?


If you realy want to know and not guess get an energy audit and a
blower door test, even a blower door test itself will give a printout
of how many air exchanges per hour your house has and should have. The
tech then pinpoints all the leaks with a smoke stick. Old houses are
leakers, the test might pay for itself in a few months, mine did. It
might cost 300, a full audit would be a few hundred more but will
eliminate guesswork on how to save on utilities.
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Default Air draft from basement


My Guess....furnace in the basement? Does it happen all the time or only
when the ac/furnace blower is running?


It's pretty much happening all the time. I do have the HRV running
most of the time. But even with that shut off I still feel draft.
The basement is about 75% underground with 8' tall cement walls. The
rear of the house is above ground and about 10 feet on either side
are also semi-above ground. It has to be coming from the HRV or dryer
vent.
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Default Air draft from basement


If you have Central air, and the return duct is on the main floor, it
could be sucking the air out of the basement. If you have a whole
house attic fan, it could be causing the same effect.


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Default Air draft from basement

On Aug 15, 3:36*pm, mm wrote:
On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:31:57 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

My Guess....furnace in the basement? Does it happen all the time or only
when the ac/furnace blower is running?


It's pretty much happening all the time. I do have the HRV running
most of the time. *But even with that shut off I still feel draft.
The basement is about 75% underground with 8' tall cement walls. *The
rear of the house is above ground *and about 10 feet on either side
are also semi-above ground. *It has to be coming from the HRV or dryer
vent.


How about the chimney for the fireplace, the chimney for the furnace,
a demon in the basement sink drain, a demon under the stairs?

What is an HRV? *Human resources vector? *Home repair velocipede?
Human renovation victim?


HRV = Heat Recovery Ventilation
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Default Air draft from basement

check where the drain stack goes through to the upper reaches. See if there
isn't a blast of air coming down from the attic. That's what i found mine
doing. They had cut about a 8" square hole for a 3" pipe, and i stuffed it
full of fiberglass insulation.

s


wrote in message
...
Is it normal to have a draft of air coming from your basement to the
main floor? You can feel it easily coming from under the basement
door on the main floor level. The Basement windows and doors are
closed and when installed were sealed tight with foam. No draft is
getting in around them. Yet, the door on my main floor leading to the
basement has a fair amount of air draft coming in under the door. What
could be causing this?



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Default Air draft from basement

wrote in
:


My Guess....furnace in the basement? Does it happen all the time or
only when the ac/furnace blower is running?


It's pretty much happening all the time. I do have the HRV running
most of the time. But even with that shut off I still feel draft.
The basement is about 75% underground with 8' tall cement walls. The
rear of the house is above ground and about 10 feet on either side
are also semi-above ground. It has to be coming from the HRV or dryer
vent.


My basement is very similar to yours and I experience drafts
under/around the basement door also. It's most noticable when the
ac/furnace is running. I have two hvac registers in the basement, but no
returns. On a windy cold day the drafts are most noticable even when the
blower is not running. I have a fresh air intake for the furnace and a
gas fired hot water heater in the basement that is vented to the
outside. Also, my garage is at the exposed end of the basement but
seperated by block walls. My theory is that there's enough fresh air
from the mentioned openings to create a positive pressure in the
basement and the air has to find a way out and takes the least resistant
route which is under the basement door. Even though the house is well
insulated there's enough openings on the upper level via bathroom
exhausts, kitchen exhaust, and fireplace that it creates enough lower
pressure for the draft to occur. FWIW.


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Default Air draft from basement

TD wrote in news:0401a00c$0$1091$c3e8da3
@news.astraweb.com:

You have ghosts.


Wouldn't suprise me. I live next to a graveyard. That might explain all the
weird noises I hear in the middle of the night.;-
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