Damp smelling house - help?!?

fluffymarshmallow

Hi

I moved into my ground floor flat about 6 months ago and there is always a horrible musty old smell in the flat, even though I always leave the windows and back door open when I'm at home. The smell mostly seems to come from the living room, hallway and bathroom (I don't have a window in the bathroom). We don't have any carpet in any of these rooms, so I can't think what the problem could be? How can I get rid of the smell?

Pink.

Hi fluffymarshmallow,

Welcome to the Old Style board. :hello:

It sounds like there may be an underlying damp problem causing the smell but you are doing all the right things by getting as much fresh air into the flat as as possible. If it is damp, the only way to get rid of it completely is to find out the cause so that you can deal with it.

You may get more help with this on the In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving Let me know if you want me to move your thread over there.

Pink

fluffymarshmallow

How can I find out if there is any damp?

Please feel free to move this thread if you think I'd get more response there Pink Winged.

Pink.

You will probably get more help on Old Style if you just want to get rid of the smell. If you want to find out what the underlying cause is, the thread would be better on the In My Home board.

Why not start a different thread on In My Home to see if any of the experts there have any ideas on the cause.

Pink

Ches

If you have old floorboards the smell is probably coming from the ground underneath them. May even be a bit of dry rot as that smells. When we had a caravan we used ready made boxes of granules in each room to absorb damp over the winter months. Then we found cat litter does the job just as well and cheaper. Its worth a try.

robowen

Smells are difficult to track down as different people smell differnt things.
We had a bad fishy smell, it was coming from between the centre of the lounge and mostly the door. We thought for a long time, that it was coming from in between the concrete flooring, at the seams, concrete is put down in slabs and we thought it was coming up in between slabs.
Turned out to be a light fitting and not water between the concrete. when bakerlite gets hot it can smell.......it was a cheap tatty light made in china :doh:

If it's not the same, I think yours could be a water problem, moisture, maybe a leak or mould somewhere. You'll probably need to get someone in to test for moisture.
Rob

Bambywamby

If you have checked under the floor boards for dead bodies...vermin rather than human :O it might be worth getting a builder in to look at your damp proofing or wait...and see if Summer improves the smell...if so its definately damp and will need addressing professionally.

linzibean

We have recently moved into a new house, which is a small converted chapel. It has a pervading smell of damp (OH and I were sure it would clear when we moved in, and if push comes to shove we can move out in 6 months ). Does anyone have any tips for getting rid of the smell? We leave all the through doors open to get good airflow between the rooms, though as it gets colder we can't really have tghe windows open too much. I have tried Netradol in the rooms as well as copious use of bicarb to try and absorb the smell, and it has improved a bit, but not too much. I'm worried my clothes will start to smell

skintlass

Hi,
Have you had it checked for damp - i.e. is there a smell due to a damp problem? Otherwise damp smells can come from chimneys so if you have fires switching them on can work.
Good luck

Elliesmum

We had a real damp problem in an 18th century cottage we used to have. We used a dehumidifier to get rid of some of excess water in the air. This is not a cheap solution our dehumidifer cost us over £100 and we only really had the problem in one room upstairs.

Not too sure about a whole house. But it could get better over the winter months when you've had the heating on a bit.

EM xx

linzibean

Well we have a small dehumidifier (2 litres) that we use in the bedroom, maybe we should get another for the rest of the house. It probably is a damp problem, in which case not much we can do about it, landlord will have to worry about it! We burn the open fire (coal / logs) every night now so that should help it out. Just hoping it clears a bit