Scariest Room in Your House
Basements and attics are the scariest rooms in a home, according to a Groundworks survey of 2,000 homeowners in the U.S. Here’s how to de-scary your own.
What keeps you up at night? As a homeowner, you probably have a list of things that go bump in the night related to your own home. Is it an old tree that scrapes against your attic window or pipes that creak in the night? Maybe you also have sounds you can’t identify coming from your basement or inside the walls?
As your local foundation and basement experts, we wanted to know what specific room is the scariest for U.S. homeowners, so we asked. We surveyed 2,000 people in the U.S. to find out what rooms rank as the scariest. Can you guess what the scariest room of the home for most people is? If you guessed the basement, you are correct! Almost half of the homeowners we surveyed picked basements as the scariest room in the home.
Lurking Underground: What’s the Scariest Room in Your Home?
What’s the scariest room in your own home? For 46% of homeowners we surveyed, the answer was the basement. Basements have not gotten off lightly in their frightening portrayal in horror-themed books and movies. From keeping captives locked away to things that go bump in the night, we can understand where homeowners get their fear of basements.
But even if you’re not a horror movie fan, we can imagine why you might be afraid of basements. From snakes and rats to dripping pipes and overflowing boxes, basements can be scary places to visit alone, in the dark, or anytime, if you don’t know what’s down there.
What other places topped our list of scariest rooms in the home? Attics were the second scariest, selected by 32% of people surveyed. The other rooms in a home hardly made the scary list:
- Garage – 7%
- Bathroom – 6%
- Kitchen – 4%
- Bedroom – 3%
- Living Room – 2%
Scariest Spots: Homeowners’ Rankings
According to homeowners across the U.S., attics are scary places too. Do your nightmares feature dark attics or basements? Attics can be where scary and unrecognizable sounds come from in the night if we don’t keep up with a home’s annual maintenance. A leaky roof or a cracked window frame can open your home’s attic to water damages, mold and mildew, or sneaky pests. We’re betting those are some of the scary things these homeowners were thinking of.
Basements and attics can be cold, dark, scary places in our homes – according to some U.S. residents. What other spots of the home were considered scary? Six percent of people we surveyed ranked bathrooms and four percent ranked kitchens as scary places. We hope those homeowners weren’t thinking of scary home maintenance fees when they picked kitchens and bathrooms as their home’s scariest places!
Leaky pipes and standing water in bathrooms and kitchens can attract pests and cause major water damage if left unfixed. But a small investment to ensure your home is cared for and a regular maintenance schedule kept up to date can help minimize the need for major repairs in the future. If your kitchen or bathroom is capturing the attention of scary pests, consider whether a leaky pipe, standing water, or moisture build-up is what’s attracting them.
Protecting Your Garage from Pests
Garages also made the list of scariest spots with 7% of people surveyed ranking their garage as the scariest place in the home. Whether your garage is attached or away from the home, ensuring the garage door and all windows and doors are insulated from the outside elements will help create a barrier to repel pests and drafts and make it more hospitable to visitors.
In addition, if you store items in your garage, keep them in airtight containers, especially any food, wood, or other items that could attract pests. Finally, installing a dehumidifier in your garage can also reduce the chance of scary pests calling your garage home.
Is Your Basement Your Home’s Scariest Place?
If you’re looking for a way to make your own basement more hospitable, professional waterproofing can help. In addition to minimizing the chance of future damage from flooding due to weather or other emergencies, waterproofing your basement will also protect it from pests and mold and mildew growth. Keeping the moisture in your basement to a minimum, by protecting it from leaks and flooding, can help reduce its “scare factor.”
One addition to your home’s basement that can also help keep moisture down and water from leaking in is the addition of a sump pump. Including a backup battery in case of power failure in a storm or flood is important to help protect against pricey water damages. Reducing day-to-day moisture build-up can also help make your basement a more inviting place to be.
For a free estimate of how to keep your basement dry, safe, and healthy, contact your local basement waterproofing experts today.