Help me find out the damp smell in my bedroom

[elm26]

Every day I get home from work and my bedroom smells damp, it's driving me mad as I can't find where it is.

Double room, 2 chest of drawers and built in wardrobe, fabric headboard bed and curtains, no blinds.

I always leave the top window open on the latch so it's constantly airing and when I'm drying laundry, I open a window fully although don't dry clothes in bedroom.

I've looked behind the bed, the chest of drawers, no damp, no wet patches.

Curtains are fine, windowsills dry and clean.

Change bedsheets once a week, no clutter or clothes on floor, washing hamper is near enough empty apart from a few white socks and I've stuck my nose in there and nothing.

It's driving me insane and I don't know how to get rid of it. Help!

Not sure what sort of telepathic or v psychic powers you expect users to have to be able to answer this.

But check the mattress and/ or carpet.

If you are drying laundry in the bedroom it's going to smell damp.

Look inside the full length of the built-in wardrobe particularly if is not built in on internal walls.

Mine was coming from the bathroom next door, the carpet had got damp from a damaged seal and started to smell.

We ripped out my mothers fitted wardrobes and the walls behind were full of mould!

OP says she doesn't dry washing in bedrooms

@Oopswediditagain2023

I misread that completely!!

Leaky radiator valve?

Check your wardrobe.
A damp, musty smell in my bedroom turned out to be a pair of suede snow boots buried in the back of my wardrobe. I'd worn them for a walk in snow and they must have been a bit damp when I put them away. They was nothing that I could do to get the smell out and the smell had even got into other shoes too. I had to throw them all away. Got rid of the smell though.

Have you actually tired using a dehumidifier in the room to see if the room itself is damp? The fact you dry clothes in the room, even with the winter open doesn't mean there is anywhere for the moisture to go. I dry our clothes in the spare bedroom and unless I run the dehumidifier it does smell damp in there. That seems the most likely explaination.

Also have you thought about the wardrobe? If its on an external wall you can get slight condensation forming on some clothes - as I discovered last month. This tends to happen more often if you've been running the heating cold.

Just go around sniffing everything individually

Agree. Dehumidifier to see how much water there is

Look at what is against the external wall/s. If it is your wardrobe I'd bet my bottom dollar that's where the smell is coming from.

@BabyOnBoard90 why so rude? I was clearly asking to get ideas from anyone that might of had the same.

Have you washed and pillows or duvets recently? I found a terrible damp smell which was coming from a pillow which I'd washed but it hadn't fully dried inside.

Thanks everyone will ask DH to pull the wardrobes out as I'm 6 months pregnant so don't want to pull anything heavy. They are on the internal wall and bathroom is other side of the flat.

I don't dry washing in the bedroom.

Will check in the wardrobes too. Thank you 😊

Not washed duvet or pillows recently, I send them all to the dry cleaners with my mattress topper every 4 months and they're due to go but I did smell them and they're fine.

Will see if I can order a dehumidifier

Have you looked at the ceiling and checked fora leak from the roof? (Assuming your bedroom is upstairs and the ceiling is below the attic). Tell tale signs are a yellowed patch on the ceiling surface. Does any of it feel damp to the touch?

Also check all the clothes in the wardrobes, especially any on an outside wall.

It could just be that you are a pregnancy super smeller, and are detecting something that isn’t really there!

Is your house a new build? Our last one was and had really good energy efficiency. This also meant that it didn't ventilate well, and we had to invest in a dehumidifier to stop the problem. House was brilliant otherwise and cheaper to heat!

I bumped your thread and gave a suggestion, if anything I've helped you

Just a thought. Have you any foam cushions or a mattress in the room that you have had for a few years? When these get old, they can give off a mouldy or cheesy smell.

Could you have a problem in the bathroom pipes which could have burst and gone through the wall behind your wardrobe on the other side? We had a horrendous leak and the water came though the walls into the adjoining bedroom.

Sorry, missed that you said bathroom was the other side of the flat!

Trainers or boots that have gotten soaked outdoor and just left in a wardrobe?

When mine smelt like this it was a thin layer of surface mould on the chipboard back of my chest of drawers, I find that sort of wood much more prone to mould than 'proper' wood.