musty smell... maybe from under floor ?

C

clocon

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We live in a cottage built in the 1950s and has been renovated and added on to over the years. my hub has done alot of work inside the house and out but we have a bedroom that has a musty smell that keeps coming back.we thought we sussed the prob as being poor ventilation under the wooden floor (the rest of the house is concrete floors except for the smelly room and the master bed)so we put in another vent but so far there is a hint of the smell still lingering. its not always noticeable and yet sometimes it would hit you between the eyes. i defo get a whif from the semi solid pine floor at times so is it possible that the smell is now in the flooring. or will it go in time now a second vent under the floor or are we looking at rippping up the floor, and simply concreting it. that would be very messy and a lot of hassle. has anyone any experience of this at all.
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

Could it be dry rot? all the ventilation in the world won't get rid of it.
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

i dont think so but hub not here to check with but im sure all the woodedn floor joists were replaced 7yrs ago when we moved in here and the palace was gutted bit by bit. how would i find out dry rot could be the prob
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

obviously i meant place not palace....would that it were so..........
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

i take it that no one has other suggestions on this one... im ready to tear my hair out and am seriously thinking of having floor ripped up and pouring concrete floors instead.
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

Hi

before you rip up the entire floor take up one or 2 planks and have a look and a sniff. A similiar smell emerged in an old house C1920 I lived in once and on inspection there was a 2 foot gap between the wooden floor and the sub floor (God knows how or why), anyway there were puddles of stagnant water there which we had to pump, dry out and lay a damp proof membrane.

Betsy
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

Rip it up I say and check it out good and proper
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

ok i think we will do a partial rip up under closet and see what the craic is under neath. we really dont know what to expect but the smell is doing my head in and as luck would have it the husband has no sense of smell and probably tinnks im looney!!!!fortunately i have independent people who also smell it. yikes im going mad with all this carry on ....thanks ffor the input....Clocon
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

just a further query on the musty smell, Davyjones possted tht he thought it mite be drt rot... and fter consulting a few people via my husbands work contacts it does indeed point to dry rot....so does anyone have any experience of having dry rot in the house and getting shut of it... all roads seem to be pointing to ripping up the floors, filling them in, putting down the damp proof plastic and pouring concrete....arrghh...there was a mention of ripping up the floor and spray cuprionl fungicide but my husband feels if hes ripping up the floor hes eliminating the possibility of having rot come back and going the whole hog and concreting it.look if anyone has any thoughts we'd be happy to hear, and thanks to Davyjones for startingus on that line of thought...
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

If it is puddles underneath the floor, can i suggest a spray on dpm. Easy to do yourself if your any way inclined. Other than that creating air vent to the outside wouldn't be the end of the world to create airflow under the floor.
 
Re: musty smell... maybe from under floor ??

hi there yes it would be great if u could reccommend a spray....we havent yet ripped up any part of the floor to suss underneath it, mostly we are putting it off cos the thoughts of yet more dirt and dust after all we have done in theis house is enough to drive me mad. yep if u want to pm me with the name it would be great....thanks very much. and have u seen used this stuff yourself ?
 
It might seem a bit left-field, but does the smell only come at night? e.g. after you have turned on a light in the room for a while? If so then you may have what I consider to the bizarrest thing we ever came across.

A couple of years ago we noticed we were getting a musty smell in the bedroom. Now we were as worried as you were - what is it! was it from the roof, the sewer etc etc! But then someone said somewhere - electric light bulbs can be a bit funny smelling in some situations. so - we had got 2 bedside locker lights some time previously - sniffed them out - and lo and behold when I changed the bulbs the smell had gone! weird or what - but it worked!
 
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