Flood damage = very smelly house, ideas please.

Triker · 5 July 2007 at 11:06AM

Hi all, we were extremely lucky and only lost our kitchen floor in the floods however the water had risen to just under our floorboards throughout the rest of the house and now we are left with a residual damp, musty, rotting smell.

It really stinks and despite putting air fresheners around the key areas, hall and living room, it still smells and feels damp.

Any ideas or does this eventually go away by itself.

Thanks

MrsMW · 5 July 2007 at 11:20AM

Have you contacted your insurance company? When we had this problem they arranged for us to loan driers and dehumidifiers and they did the trick.
Good luck.

WestonDave · 5 July 2007 at 12:10PM

Although the water didn't penetrate the rest of the house its probably soaked the joists that support the floorboards. Those timbers need drying out otherwise they will smell and possibly rot. The smell is the least of your worries if structural floor timbers start rotting!

Your best bet is the insurers but if they can't help or heaven forbid you aren't insured, you need to get dry air circulating under the floor to stop the damp air that is down there now continuing the problem.

Dehumidifiers in the rooms will help draw the damp up from under neath - that may be speeded if you can remove carpets and maybe even open up a few boards. Certainly check any underfloor airbricks around the outside of the house to make sure they aren't clogged with flood debris. Another potential problem is flood debris having been washed under the floor and now rotting - to truely get rid of the smell you may have to fish that out as well.

There are specialist contractors that insurers use in these circumstances but my guess is they will be overwhelmed at the moment so you may need to do what you can yourself to minimise long term damage.

Having said all that try not to worry about the timber - one dunking isn't going to do much if sorted out but my point is that its probably not one to just hope it goes away!

Uniscots97 · 5 July 2007 at 12:35PM

Not really much to add except good luck to the OP.

Triker · 5 July 2007 at 9:50PM

Oopsy, I didn't realise that it may be that serious, another colleague is in the same boat stench wise in the house, and it seems to be getting worse. I'll have a word with my OH and fish out the insurance documents.

Thanks for your advice.:T

wendym · 5 July 2007 at 10:57PM

Water got into this house from the roof down, so I count myself lucky.

According to the bloke my insurers sent out today, any property that actually flooded at all should be treated with fungicide etc, so it will definitely be worth asking your insurers to log it as at least a potential claim.

Mutantk · 5 July 2007 at 11:04PM

Sorry to hear of your trouble....

We had a huge amount of water damage last year when a pipe burst over night. The insurance company sent round a company that specialises in drying out property and 'making good' again. They put big industrial driers in every room and did damp testings each week to check progress and whilst this was all going on I kept windows open as much as possible.
It took a good few weeks to dry out but I honestly think it was just the process of it all drying that eventually eradicated the smell rather than any expensive sprays/air freshners. Would check with your insurers if they can get a similar company round to you...the company we had was called Rainbow.

good luck

mineallmine · 7 July 2007 at 6:41AM

Hi Triker,
Sorry to hear your news. Sounds like some really useful advice has already been posted. But something else which may just help too are bowls of salt (ordinary salt) help draw moisture from the air - or you can get specialist (larger size plastic boxes/cartons) absorbing crystals from caravan type shops.

catznine · 7 July 2007 at 8:28AM

Morning Triker

So sorry to hear about your flooding! ((hugs)) hopefully you can get it sorted asap before more damage done. The humidifiers are definately worth while, always find it amazing just how much water they pull out of the atmosphere.

Thistle-down · 7 July 2007 at 9:03AM

We were flooded a few years ago - the insurance company sent some specialists out who sprayed everywhere with some special strong spray - much flood water has an element of sewage in it and it is very important to kill off that bacteria.

Then we had humidifiers for 6 weeks. Pain in the b*m but it worked - smell was gone.

SJsaver · 25 July 2007 at 4:53PM

Hi, I've just had a hot water pipe go & it flooded he ground floor & whilst I have to deal with head to toe mould everywhere (it was steaming away in the kitchen like a sauna while I was on holiday - yuk!), I am lucky in that the water is clean (no sewage to deal with) It is a horrible experience, but my heart goes out to those who are literally knee deep in it. I have dehumifiers & fans to dry the place out, but the smell remains after 2 weeks. Are there any charities we can donate clothes or money to, in order to help those caught up in the real floods? I want to help!

Flood damage = very smelly house, ideas please.

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