Airbricks

moneyistooshorttomention

Update - I've had a tradesperson inspect inside my roof and he said that that isn't the cause of the smell - it's all totally dry and said he couldnt smell anything himself. So that's a relief at any rate.

I shall still have him install a loft ladder for me anyway - so the loft can be easily enough accessed in future that I can do so myself.

The hunt continues as to the source of it...

I'm currently in the process of buying a replacement for an item of soft furniture I brought with me from my previous house (ie Victorian terrace) - in case it brought any mould spores with it. I know I've had to clean mould off it before that I discovered. That will be being chucked and I shall get a new one. Maybe that'll do the trick and the smell will be gone...:cool:

Davesnave

It's a good thing to be able to access your loft. Imagine if there was another area of your house or garden that you couldn't reach or see.


As regards the sofa that might have 'mould spores,' would those be like the millions of other fungal spores that surround us all the time?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm a bit paranoid about damp - after my last house being a Victorian terrace. The jury is still out re the two basic viewpoints I've encountered to date - what seems to be basically the American viewpoint of "Warning/warning/danger alert" or what seems to be basically the British viewpoint of "Shrug shoulders". So I watch videos of Americans doing "urban exploring" in abandoned houses (complete with protective masks on sometimes) and I see my mother (who has developed asthma as an adult - or worse) and I err on the side of caution.

Anyway - my replacement sofa has been ordered and that sofa is destined for the tip. Thankfully it was only a "cheapie" anyway (ie £250). It's cheap replacement will cost me about 3 times that - as my secondary sofa. Hey-ho....but at least it will be noticeably better quality.

As you say - a good thing to be able to access my loft. I was used to being able to do that in my last house and could keep an eye on things. In this house I found that a workman took advantage of my obviously not being able to do so to tear to shreds some new loft insulation I'd booked him to buy and install. It came in silver-covered rolls (as I expected) but he didn't just lay those rolls down properly. He took the "covering" off and tore them to shreds and threw it all around:mad:

Whilst this new workman was up there he commented that the roof felt was what he expected it to be - old-style and old. But he said it was perfectly serviceable and I don't need to replace it unless I want to. Hmmm...1970s roof felt...thoughts? (I know he's correct re the roof felt - because the survey when I bought did mention that fact - if not other stuff I wanted to know:cool:).

EDIT; ...and..yep...I could still smell that smell in the house last night....

Davesnave

1970s roof felt will probably be less than perfect at the edges and fine in the middle. It doesn't 'breathe' like the modern stuff, so eaves ventilation needs to be good.


You won't be wanting to change the felt. If you did, it would probably just be at the edges because of cost. I replaced mine because I was re-profiling half the roof anyway and had all the scaffolding etc in place.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'll get the guy to check the eaves ventilation then when he's here and see what he reckons about it.