Damp smell in new house 1 year on??

[mallowchick]

Long story short we move house a year ago into our dream home- needs work done as previous occupants were the sort to do something once, then never update, upgrade thing so the whole house needed tlc. We didn't mind as it gave us scope to do what we wanted. However, we did always notice a fusty library smell in hall butput it down to house being locked up over locked down ( they lived with daughter during lock down ) so no windows getting opened and housework really being done etc. however we have since had house painted abd it gets regularly cleaned, window open so it doesn't smell on a day to day basis but when we are away for a few days the smell is still there when you open front door. I thought once we got our own smell in it would disappear but nope 🤔 FWIW we had full survey done and biting showed up. Do some places just smell that way?

I don’t know… is it just a damp smell or a bad smell (as in something under floor boards?)
have you tried getting a dehumidifier? That will take the water out of the air - maybe helpful to run it constantly for first week then a couple of times a week to see if that helps?
the only other thing I can think of - is to get a damp survey and see if there are any suggestions re damp proofing.

Caveat - Im a complete novice with no knowledge of damp etc but out house feels (partic back room) so much better when we’ve had the dehumidifier on.

Check things aren’t blocked/damaged such as air bricks, downpipes, gutters and drains.
Are floor coverings old and degrading? Do they need to be cleaned? (carpets). Do you store ‘smelly’ coats/shoes in the hallway?
Have you cleaned and decorated the walls - odours can cling to dirt in walls and wallpaper.
Having said that, we lived in a house for 8 years, despite doing all of the above, in hot weather, the stairs still smelt of baby milk and we never had babies (previous owners did). So assumed the smell had somehow got into the floorboards- which we never could afford to replace on the off chance it was that. We had cats and dogs, so you would have though the smell would be ‘overcome.’