Outside Air into Basement Boiler room


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Old 09-15-09, 09:11 AM
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Outside Air into Basement Boiler room

Could someone please suggest a good reliable way to seal an opening in a basement wall? How to best seal the cut in the wall that allows the air to leak directly into the boiler room. It is too big for one can of caulking. We are most concerned about how the air leak would affect the furnace not to mention the entire house during the cold Vermont winter ahead of us.

Our house is built onto a 45 degree slope (approx). Walk out basement on 3 sides. Walls on all four sides are concrete block. A cut was made (approx 1" wide x 3' high) through the concrete block wall that separates garage from interior basement/boiler room, temporarily covered in thick plastic and duct taped on the inside (boiler room). You can see the breeze move the plastic when the garage is open not to mention the rotten mildew odor. Untapped drywall/wallboard on side facing garage covers entire wall.

Apologies, I don't know how to write a short story!

Thank you in advance for advice and/or ideas!
 
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Old 09-16-09, 06:45 AM
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The cheapest way is portland cement, 3 sand to 2 portland. Add water until it's like sherbet.
 
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Old 09-16-09, 07:13 AM
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You should also locate the source and cause of the "rotten mildew odor" and correct it. Not sure if it is being caused by the opening in the wall. The cement as Pulpo suggested would be a quink and easy fix for the cut.

Bud
 
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Old 09-19-09, 06:08 PM
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Thanks to both of you for your responses. Source of the mildew is our other concern. We want to fix air leak with out making mildew worse until we can get a professional in to eval in the spring. What we see so far are leak stains and mildew in the garage where wall meets ceiling on wall opposite the garage/basement air leak side. That wall divides the single car garage from another garage. Strange that most of the stains & mildew seem worse on that opposite wall where garage ceiling and wall meets. Leak stains/mildew on garage/basement wall but not as bad. Livingroom is directly above both garages with fireplace. Hope that eliminating air flow may save us on heating costs and overworking the boiler. Thank you!
 
 

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