Local areas: what changes from one part of the west metro to the next
A 1970s Green Mountain bi-level on a hillside, a postwar brick bungalow in Edgewater and a newer townhome near Belmar each trap moisture in different places. These local area notes describe the typical construction, drainage and building contacts that shape a musty smell investigation in each part of Lakewood and its neighbors.
- Basement odor in Green Mountain: what hillside lots change
On the slopes of Green Mountain in west Lakewood, many homes have walkout or garden-level basements cut into the hill. The uphill wall and the way water moves across the lot often explain a musty smell.
- Lower-level odor around Belmar: new buildings and old ranches side by side
Central Lakewood around Belmar mixes 2000s-era townhomes, condos and apartments with the postwar houses that surround them. A musty smell means something quite different in each, and so does the path to fixing it.
- Basement and crawl space odor in Eiber, Two Creeks and the West Colfax area
The neighborhoods along West Colfax in northeast Lakewood include many small brick and frame homes from the 1940s and 1950s, often with partial basements, crawl spaces and decades-old sewer lines under big trees.
- Basement odor in south Lakewood near Bear Creek
South Lakewood, around Bear Creek and its parks, is largely suburban subdivisions with full basements, many of them finished. Low-lying lots near the creek and the sump systems in some homes add their own odor questions.
- Crawl space and basement odor in Wheat Ridge
Wheat Ridge is its own city with its own building department, and much of its housing is single-story ranches from the 1940s through the 1960s on generous lots. Crawl spaces, additions and irrigation are the recurring themes.
- Basement odor in Edgewater's small older homes
Edgewater is a small, dense city between Lakewood and Denver near Sloan's Lake. Many of its houses are compact and old, with low or partial basements, and many lots now sit next to new construction.
- Basement, cellar and crawl space odor in Golden
West of Lakewood at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon, Golden has some of the oldest homes in the area, plus foothill subdivisions and many rentals. Old cellars and sloped lots bring their own musty-smell problems.