Neighborhoods: how the smell changes across the west metro
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 a different place. These notes cover the construction, drainage and local building contacts that shape a musty smell search in each part of Lakewood and its neighbors.
- Basement odor on Green Mountain: what a hillside lot changes
On the slopes of Green Mountain in west Lakewood, many houses have walkout or garden-level basements cut into the hill. The uphill wall and the way water crosses the lot often explain a musty smell.
- Lower-level odor around Belmar, where new buildings sit beside old ranches
Central Lakewood around Belmar mixes 2000s townhomes, condos and apartments with the postwar houses around them. A musty smell means something different in each building type, and so does the fix.
- Basement and crawl space odor in Eiber, Two Creeks and the West Colfax area
The neighborhoods along West Colfax in northeast Lakewood are full of small brick and frame houses 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 mostly subdivisions with full basements, many of them finished. Low lots near the creek and the sump pits in some houses raise 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 big lots. Crawl spaces, additions and irrigation come up again and again.
- 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 beside 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.