House smells so musty

[ToysRus56]

Hello

Looking for advice. Whole house smells musty. We moved about two months ago. Fairly freshly decorated, everything gets a regular airing and cleaned, all wooden floors etc.

Will it be the cellar? It's particularly bad downstairs. It's so horrible and making me a bit miserable, I'm a bit embarrassed! Who should I ask, a damp specialist? Someone to insulate the cellar? I'm worried that if we insulate the cellar where does the damp go?! Just feels a bit gross. We have a plate in the kitchen that just gets mould on the bottom of it so there's clearly damp in the air. When we looked round both times the owner was burning oils...now I realise why!

Help!

Try running a dehumidifier in the cellar as a starting point - you can hire them

Get humidity monitors in each room. Try and identify which is the dampest and where damp might be coming from.

get a dehumidifier going in the damp room.

i am a bit obsessed with all this after buying my house 2 years ago and it being damp and musty. 2 years later it’s really only one room that is the issue.

it can take a long time to dry out a house .

Check to see if there is visible cracks that are letting water in . Repair the problem, dry out house then .

How is the cellar ventilation? What sort of survey did you get?

Do you think there is a leak anywhere? Even a microscopic one? Can you track it down to one specific area/source/room? Definitely get a dehumidifier, but there must be a source also I’d think. There are leak detection/damp specialists, we just got a quote, and it was about £1k for them to come do a survey

I’d also run an air purifier if it’s a mouldy musty smell

You say you're regularly cleaning wooden floors. Are you washing them and making them damp? That can cause a really musty smell.

Thank you everyone. I think its just very damp - we ran a dehumidifier in a room upstairs and it was really high. I will look into an air purifier. Its weird because the upstairs feels fine, but the downstairs definitely feels damp, it just never really came up in the survey...Like hats on our shelf feel damp to touch. It's horrible! I'm a bit worried the answer is tanking the cellar (i barely know what that means) which will be thousands....

If you've only been in a couple of months I guess your survey was done during the long run of very dry weather.

Yes that is an excellent point!

Tanking doesn't cost huge amounts of money - as long as there isn't a leak. But yes, the cellar is probably a good place to start. Be wary of damp specialists - they mostly are a bit of a con - only use one if you get a personal recommendation. https://www.spab.org.uk/sites/default/files/SPAB%20Technical%20advice%20note-Control%20of%20Dampness.pdf

This is helpful.

Also - don't worry, often there is a not that expensive solution. Check airholes and airbricks as well and make sure they aren't blocked.

Also open all your windows on a nice day!

Which type of survey did you pay for?

I had family who had cellar and used to run a dehumidifier in it constantly, it made a huge difference.

@ToysRus56look into a PIV unit. Game changer in this sort of situation. We went for Envirovent but there are cheaper options.

How old is the house? Can you see the DPC? Is it rendered?

It could be all sorts of things. A leak in a radiator, a leak in a water pipe, a collapsed drain( we have just discovered one of those via a drain camera)
Start with checking the pipes which lead to the sink. If all wooden floors you can lift a floorboard. If it's engineered floors you could have rotten joists under them.
Is ground higher outside than the original airbricks..sometimes soil builds up or there's a new path done too high.

Cellars keep the damp away from a ground floor they don't tend to cause damp.

A surveyor might help. Do not ask a damp proofing company they want to sell you tanking etc

Ok, so would you guys get a surveyor in rather than a damp specialist? Ideally I think I'd find an independent damp specialist. Before that though we'll get a dehumidifier going down there, although id be worried about running that pemenantly given how expensive it would be. I honestly have no idea where to begin looking for leaks.

Put one of those little humidity monitors in each room and aim to keep humidity below 60% - ideally low 50s. You can buy pack of x4 online for a tenner. Your book pages will curl if it goes above 80% and you will get black mould problems. The monitors will help u monitor your living practices and identify problem rooms.
Yes to a good dehumidifier. Fresh decoration may be covering ongoing issues.

In my experience a damp specialist will try to sell you whatever system they're promoting. In the past I've been recommended tanking/damp treatments when all that was really needed was proper ventilation.

Is your house attached? Have your neighbours had similar problems? What have they done.

If I were you I'd put a post on local social media/ask neighbours for a recommendation for a good general builder/handy person. Ask them to come and have a look at it. It could be something as simple as the outside path/soil being above your damp course or a rainwater pipe not emptying in the right place. Start with the small things and build up.

You have only lived there a few months op. Hold off on the specialist. Do your own investigation with humidity monitors and de humidifiers and see what happens. This will tell you which rooms have the highest humidity and where the problem is. Also put your findings into AI and tell it about your house . Over time you will learn loads and get a big picture

if you are lucky the previous owners never opened windows, dried loads of washing inside etc and the house has got musty and just by living there with good living practices and being there next summer things will improve.

i found my damp this way and it was actually because one room was so much colder than the rest of the house. Turned out there was a leak in the chimney breast . Sorted now.

like I say i do still have one room that is musty i am fairly sure there is no leak but it has a concrete floor so I think condensation is an issue on to that and then this gets into the carpet .

The first two years we lived here the windows would be wet when we woke up, I was constantly wiping mould off the ceiling and windows, the conservatory kept going black. It smelt damp and we were concerned. Turns out we needed a dehumidifier- DH did some research and we bought a until that’s big enough for a house of 5 bedrooms (we are in a bungalow anyway) it cost less than £300. First three weeks we ran it the reading was really high, and filling up constantly, then after that everything was dry, no wet on windows - an absolute game changer. 2 years on we it situated outside the bathroom and have had it back on for the change of weather for about a month now. Still fills up about once a day, with our breath and whatever else, but no damp or mould.
The brand is Meaco

when we had a pipe burst and a leak, we had industrial drying equipment from insurance. This is similar to what we had. https://www.hss.com/blog/pumping-and-drying/dryers/the-hss-guide-to-flood-recovery-drying-restoration

id guess it was the cellar. My relative had a problem like this and unfortunately it was a natural spring under the house.

so, fan, dehumidifier and air purifier.

good luck - this kind of thing can really get to you

The cellar is the obvious place to start. It could be natural or it could be due to a leak. It needs ventilation. What does it have currently if any? If it has none it would have in the past, which means at some point it’s been
blocked up. You need to investigate and reinstate. In the meantime your need dehumidifiers.
Id be very wary of getting a “damp specialist” in as they will more than likely try and
sell you a solution you don’t need/doesn’t work. If you do go that route you need to find a truly independent expert not some
local bloke of Facebook.

The cost of running the dehumidifier wouldn't be a factor for me if the house is damp. All of your belongings could be ruined if you dont get a hold on it.

My sister lived in a ground floor flat with a damp cellar. Her sofas, all of her clothes, everything thay wasn't glass/ceramic/hard plastic literally had to go in a skip.

I would start with a dehumidifier in the cellar and a couple downstairs. Then call a damp specialist, a builder and a surveyor and see what each one has to say.