Weird smell in bedroom

quietheart

We've been in our house for a year. The front bedroom smelt weird, a big damp stain came through, eventually had to have chimney stack removed. This was a few months ago, now it's got cold the smell is back. It's ok during the day but niffy at night. It's like a fermenting smell, really odd. The patch is still drying out as it had been covered up and the rain had been coming in for years.
We have got horrible aluminium windows that create a lot of condensation - but then so have all the other bedrooms and they don't smell....
Any ideas folks?!

siren13577

I would if it could be a wet rot, it's a type of fungus I think or mould/spore type situation, given away by black spots on the surface, this could be hiding under wallpaper, have a look here to see if you recognise any signs:
http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/diyelem/extwalls/damp/dpmould.htm

The damp won't help and especially if it's a cold room, perhaps treating this will be covered by building insurance. If you rent then your LL should definately sort this out. Good Luck getting it sorted.

chivers1977

I know exactly the smell that you are talikng about. We had it in our old flat. We had dampness in the corners of the room behind furniture etc and had the same windows as you. It wasn't covered by insurance.....we moved......

quietheart

No signs on the plaster in the corners etc. It was replastered before we moved in so it's just painted walls so I think we'd notice that. Could it be wet rot under the floorboards or is that just downstairs? or could it still be the chimney drying out? The room below smelt a bit prior to having the chimney stack removed but it's fine now.

jellymid

Sounds like it would be a good idea to lift the floor boards and have a look.
It might well be something to do with the chimney repairs but it could also be something unrelated. A few years ago we had a horrible smell that turned out to be a bumble bee nest covered in orange fungus at the bottom of our toilet stack. It stank. Had to wait until nest empty before removing it. We turned the house upside down and had the drains all video checked trying to find the source of it. Has anyone put mouse poison down near you recently? Dead mice apparantly smell horrible for a while. Do you know anybody with a sensitive nose who could try to locate the source of the smell for you? Good luck.

pboae

If it was a dead mouse it would stink day and night, I'd expect it to be rot as well. If it's dry rot it can be inside the actual plaster too, there isn't always a great deal to see on the visible surfaces.

ormus

is there ventilation in the room?
has someone covered up an old air brick?

quietheart

There's no ventilation in the room that I know of, I now leave a small window open all day to air the room.
Would it be possible to have dry rot upstairs but not downstairs? We had a damp inspection downstairs recently and there were no problems. I know the smell of dry rot and it's not like that though.
Should I get a damp engineer out?

Ellidee

Err your house didn't have an ex tenant called Tobin by any chance ?:rotfl:

onejontwo

If it's a "fishy " smell I might have the answer, ..............no honestly I'm being serious !
We had this "fishy" smell and it took us ages to finally trace it, and we were surprised as to what it was, as almost every room has one. Let me know if it's that kind of smell and I'll point you in the right direction:)

pboae

Fishy smells, especially ones that come and go, are usually caused by electric wiring or sockets overheating.