The mystery of the rooms that make us feel ill.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

This is driving me mad so if anyone can shed some light on what's going on I will be forever grateful. Last year so changed the layout of upstairs taking out and putting in partitioning. The DC's new rooms were created by splitting our room and a small room off it.

DD has always been fine but DS was quite unwell from the first night he was in his room - dizziness, joint pain, stomach ache, very lethargic. Took us a bit of time to make the connection but when we did we moved him back out. Aired the room thoroughly as thought it was the chemicals in new carpet. He went back after a few weeks and seemed ok.

A few months go he wasn't very well again. Pale, lacking in energy, saying he hated the world and flying into terrible rages. One night he said he wanted to sleep downstairs again and he hasn't slept back up there since. He's much improved and like his old self again.

We moved my office in there but very soon I found myself feeling unwell in there - burning throat, headaches, feeling anxious, heart rate slightly increases. We thought it might be mould as I've reacted to that in path and have chucked loads out, no difference. Both DS and I found we react in DD's room as well so thought it could be the carpet and have taken it out of DS's old room. Aired for a week, various air filters, ionizers etc running and I went to try it today. 10 mins and I had to come out, my throat is still funny. I'm fine in my room which is the other end of the landing and all of downstairs is fine.

The boiler has been checked as is underneath, no gas leak or CO. It's just me and DS, DH and DD are fine and everyone ls who has visited. Sorry to go on for so long, just wanted to give the whole picture. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be?

OP
ULTRASOUND
somehow your changed layout is picking it up
the classic version is "the hum" which I can hear and DH cannot
in our area it is in fact pulse waves in gas main pipes underground which once you have "tuned in" to are a bugger to ignore.
In your house, by removing a wall you may have allowed resonances which are hitting you at 30 Hz (the classic haunting frequency) which are unbearable until
a) you get an oscillocope to test it and then are able to ignore it
b) you get a damper of done sort fitted back to where the wall was moved
c) you move away

Would that cause the physical symptoms TalkinPeace, my throat burns and lips tingle ? I do have very good hearing and you can bet your life I'd be able to hear a hum and DH wouldn't. You have my sympathies, that sound horrible to live with.

Wynken
I meant "infra" BTW (too much wine)
you cannot HEAR infrasound - you are just (unpleasantly) aware of it
DH does a fab demo with a sound generator that gets people spinning in their seats even thought they KNOW that his machine is making the seat twitch etc etc they are uttelry physically creeped out.
It makes your nerves resonate outside any normal pattern, so your body CREATES patterns to fit the sensation
once the science is understood, the whole thing is less scary

The Hum : I've learned to treat it like tinitus.
I have a volume knob ( a piece of paper on the wall in my office) and I turn it down with physical exaggeration till my brain accepts that that noise is to be quiet now
it works

I hear those hums too, drives me crazy. My hearing isn't great though but I reckon it's over sensitive at some frequencies and rubbish at others.

That is really freaky.

Ah ok, see what you are saying. Have just passed out at cost of oscilloscope, is there any other way of looking at testing this out ?

I really wish we'd extended now instead of messing around with walls , 'twas all fine until then.

I've just been googling about the Hum sound, hadn't heard of it before but has been an issue in some parts of the county.

Wynken
find your nearest university
find their physics department
tell them you have "anomalous frequencies" in your house
boil the kettle
they will come
and check it all out for free
but they will be VERY geeky

Is there any new furniture in the room?

Our local one hasn't got a physics dept that I can see so would have to be another one but they're 30 miles away. DH would be right home with geeky though and I am well used to it as I married him .

He's still promising to pull the floorboards up but has gone to stick kettle on as that was a more attractive proposition than the floorboards. To be fair this is about weekend number 6 of the great wtf is wrong with the bedroom saga and we're both running out of steam with it all.

No new furniture and most of it has been removed along with old book, pillows, duvet, soft toys.

I'm sure they'll happily come 30 miles

How did you check the carbon monoxide levels?
Your symptoms made me think of that - and then you said you had checked it.
I second the comment that you can have voids in chimney stacks which could mean that next door's appliances are affecting you. Your boiler might get a clean bill of health, but could you try a CO alarm in the room itself - if you haven't already?
I think you are wise to not spend much time in there until you have this sorted.

DH hacking away at floorboards.

The house is detached and we're about 20 feet from the neighbour's house. There's a carbon monoxide alarm in there and the British Gas guy had an alarm on him as well when he came today.

It is all very very odd.

This is when you discover a decomposing body under the floorboards...

We have joked about that RM ! He has found a whole load of dead wasps under there and I did wonder if someone had poisoned them. But we've been here for 10 years and I would have thought something would have happened before now.

We've found it !!!!! It is in fact mould under the floorboards.

Went to look at a house at lunchtime which is empty and a bit damp and mouldy , I had exactly the same reaction and it reinforced that it must be mould .

DH continued pulling boards up and has found more. Not sure of full extent yet but at least now we know we can deal with it. Thank you for all the suggestions yesterday. Not sure DH would have pulled the boards up otherwise.

I guess in the worse case scenario the kitchen ceiling will need replacing but even that is easier than moving house !

Glad you've run the problem to ground and hope it's not too expensive to fix.

Yuck to a mushroom. DH been having more of a look, though all a bit rushed as he's working. Seems to be sawdust that has gone mouldy. Probably sawdust from the rewire, not sure where the moisture has come from for it to go mouldy, will need to look into it. He's also seen some old fibreglass that could be a bit suspect.

Although a pain, it's such a relief to have found a reason at long last and I'm sure we can sort it.

Wonder if the dampness has come from the tumble dryer incident.

So glad you've found the source!

I wondered that but it's some distance away, we'll get a better idea when all the boards are up. I'm just so relieved to have found some mould finally. DH came in having been in there with the boards up and immediately I started reacting. He took his clothes off and left them outside our bedroom door whilst showering and they started DS off as he went by.

Got any antihistamines in the house?

I think we're out but do have one of those allergy reliever nose things, will dig that out. Interesting that we both reacted off his clothes. Not surprised DS was so miserable sleeping in there poor thing.

could it be asbestos fumes, after the floor/walls been open?