Pigletjohn or anyone with damp experience!

[spikeandbuffy]

My bathroom smells damp, like a wet towel or mildew
Nobody else can smell it but me, however I have a nose like a bloodhound
En suite bathroom with shower cubicle, toilet and sink which is all 17 years old. Everything is bone dry, and I have been round sniffing on my hands and knees

Disclaimer I am not good at this DIY stuff!

It has a extractor fan which makes no difference to the smell
A dehumidifier doesn't change it and it doesn't show high humidity
To me the smell is worse the day after I have showered at night

So far I have
Treated condensation mould behind toilet (normal, had it before and no damp smell)
Looked behind toilet and cistern with a torch (dry)
Prised off shower tray plinth (nothing but builders rubbish, dry)
Checked behind sink to find nothing but cobwebs
Resealed a part of the shower tray
The annoying thing is everything else is boxed in including behind the toilet and all pipework

I had a new shower door fitted ages ago which got this weird red mark not long after
Photos attached

Get a plumber in to have a look that nothing is leaking. P.s who/what is pigletjohn?

He gives really great advice on here, has been about a long time and helped me before

Plumber will be coming to have a look but he said it's a can of worms and could start being ££££ which I don't have

Also been around all the boxing in with a damp meter thing and nothing showing

Could any water have got underneath your flooring at all?

Not that I have noticed

It's a ground floor apartment so concrete floor and I have fairly thin non slip lino on it

Have you had the extractor cover off because I'd imagine water in that would quickly start to smell

Adding that to the list thank you! It doesn't seem to smell up there

I notice it most when on the toilet (facing the shower!) or when I first walk in there

Pigletjohn is legendary in the Mumsnet plumbing department

I too have a nose like this. It’s a curse.

Today I lifted the lid off all our toilet cisterns and discovered a bunch of brown spots on the top inside the lids.

I think they cannot cope with the awful summer rain and humidity that is constant. I even have condensation inside bottles too. I guess I need to get the bleach at them.

Sniff your towels and floor mats too. A build up of limescale in our machine plus the mistake of using fabric softener has made all of ours smell damp. Now I only ever use laundry gel and every month put a cup of 10% vinegar through the machine on a 90 degree cycle.
Apparently using fabric conditioner on towels causes a build up of bacteria.
You can get rid by a few washes with 10% vinegar on 60 degrees.

Definitely not those - I use persil powder, no softener and bath mat is hung to dry and washed weekly. I've sniffed every towel, flannel, and mat in sight
The cat thinks I've gone insane

The only other weird thing that happened
Before this started, I opened the en suite door and was hit with a gas smell like a wall of it, so strong . My neighbour said "I can't smell gas but let me... FUCK ME you need to ring the gas people"

Gas people came out and found nothing, the smell eventually went after 2-3 days

My money is on the drains …one of the plug holes

That’s odd. I can only guess that is coming up through pipes.

But do check the inside of your cistern lid.

Bung a bunch of sink and loo unblocking fluid down showers, baths, sinks.

Have you looked outside for dripping gutters, blocked drains etc that could be causing rising damp?

What do you mean by "damp smell"? We had a weird, earthy smell in our kitchen, and I was convinced it was damp. I checked everywhere but couldn't find the problem. I kept moving a water catcher around, but it caught no water. The smell got worse and worse. Then I worked out the smell was coming from the sink waste pipes. In our case, in the kitchen, it was decomposing food scraps, but maybe it could be hair/product build up etc in the bathroom? Drain unblocker didn't work BTW, we needed to physically remove the u-bend and the dishwasher pipes and physically wash them out.

Yes, there's not much about TBH as it's only a block of 4
Gutter looks ok as there was a roof repair a week ago and I asked them to check while they were up there, they removed a few leaves but said nothing else there

One of the walls (toilet and sink on it) is an external wall and the gas meter is right outside, the gas people checked everything and it wasn't even throwing up the tiniest alert

Upstairs is empty but regularly checked
I'll get some drain stuff again (recommendations welcome)

@pigletjohn is indeed wonderful but you have to tag them!

Hmmm so as if you have a wet bath mat and leave it or a damp towel, that kind of damp smell? Not earthy really
More mildew/mould maybe? I would say a mouldy smell if pushed as in a wet mouldy towel that's been forgotten about

@pigletjohn

Layout in case it helps, cross in red is where the gas meter box us

Have you looked under the bath?

Have you tried a water catcher in there? (Just one of the pound shop type ones that's a salty type substance in plastic pot with a filter paper type top). I needed to do that to realise that the room wasn't actually damp, I needed to look for a source of "smell", rather than a source of "damp". Obviously, don't leave it on there during or just after showers, etc, when the air is naturally damp!

It's very clear what's happening. It's the ghost. Get a priest in .

If it’s a small leak and seeping into plasterboard or wood it soon starts to smell.
If you are on a water meter and you turn off all taps and ensure no water is being used and then go and watch the water meter. Larger leaks are easier to find this way.
Is it an overflow from some thing? Especially the hot water system. Have you checked radiators. They rust and can start to leak. Have you got any cisterns in the loft.
Do you have an external stack or an internal stack for the loo. Internal ones are usually boxed in. Boxing in hides all sorts.
Is it a damp smell or a drain smell? It stinks when the traps on showers/basins don’t work properly but that’s often when they haven’t been used for a while and the water has evaporated.

Water also travels really well so the leak could be elsewhere. Just try to eliminate as many possibilities as you can before ripping anything out

No, shower cubicle only in en suite

Main bathroom smells lovely!