Mushroom smell in new house - dry/wet rot?

[Wizzywoo18]

I moved into a Victorian end terrace house a month ago.
I had a structural survey done prior to purchasing as there were some uneven floor surfaces upstairs in the back bedroom and landing.

It turned out the floor joists were tied in and this work was done under a guarantee (elapses 2028) - the surveyor thought the sellers had done all the right things and he thought this was something that could happen with period properties.

We had heavy rain recently but there were no leaks or damp patches in the loft or elsewhere.

However, I've recently started to notice an earthy mushroomy smell in the front bedroom and front reception room which are north facing. The hallway floor is also very slightly 'springy'. There are signs of damp staining at gutter level in the bedroom but the surveyor said his damp meter readings weren't a concern and he thought it was an old leak. Work had been done on the guttering by the sellers.

After a bit of a google, I'm now panicking about dry/wet rot. Do you think I should brace myself and fork out for a damp survey?

We had a wet, slightly muddy smell in our Victorian terraced last year, turns out it was damp and mould, these houses are a constant maintenance job so I'd say get the damp survey done just to be safe, wouldn't surprise me if there's problems and if something does show up, you can get it sorted before it gets worse

Get the survey, damp can be complicated to fix in old properties. We had a house that had damp walls at the back, it was a combination of rising damp because the damp course had been breached, penetrative damp from a leaky gutter and then also poor pointing on a chimney stack.

@Mumoftwotoddlers @WonderingWanda - sound advice, thank you. Much better to tackle it now than after I've done some work on the house.

Make sure the survey is from someone you’re NOT going to hire to fix the problem. Otherwise they’ll tell you it’s definitely very bad, new DPC, blah blah. An independent who doesn’t do the work. Then go from there

@Glipsy I see - so find an independent damp surveyor? I would imagine they will charge to do a survey?

They will yes - but anyone offering a free one is going to try to sell you stuff which could end up useless and so cost you more in the end!

Yes get a proper RICS chartered surveyor.

Expect to pay £1-2000 and expect to have to lift floorboards etc.

Then you’ll know what’s wrong, otherwise you won’t.

Thanks @Glipsy @Palmasailor - I'm researching surveyors now. I want to get this done before the winter really sets in.

RICS governs all of them, you need one specifically that deals with domestic property construction and problems.

Start there!

Did you try turning on the heating? Quite few people I know haven’t started heating their houses yet. And it’s bed raining non stop for a past few weeks.

@Wanderergirl I'm down south so it's not been too cold yet but funnily enough I was just thinking I need to brace myself and turn the heating on.
I always wonder how much heating makes a meaningful difference? Half an hour twice daily or an hour in the morning and an hour at night?

Very common to have slightly damp/odd smells on the ground floor in wet weather in Victorian and Edwardian houses where there's a suspended timber floor - often there's not much underneath except a foot or so of air, which is there for ventilation. Unless you have visible signs of damp and mould I wouldn't be panicking and paying out for damp surveys just yet. Amazed you haven't had your heating on yet - we're in London and have had it on a few times over the past couple of weeks. I'd try that and see how you get on. And check any airbricks are clear on the outside.

@whenindoubtgotothelibrary I must check the air bricks - thanks for the prompt.
I've had the heating on this evening for a bit.