Musty smell lower than floor boards? We've recently (6 months ago) moved into the ground floor flat...
We've recently (6 months ago) moved into the ground floor flat surrounded by a tenement, about 120 years out-of-date. We had some moist proofing about 4 months ago and the artificial walls now give the impression of being fine.
However, about a month ago we started notice a musty smell in parts of the kitchen (no waterlogged work was carried out on the walls here). The floorboards are exposed and hermetic in the entire flat but we have put a rug down in the kitchen which also seem to have picked up the smell. After a short time investigating (crawling on all fours sniffing floorboards) the smell seem to come from where the floorboards join the wall , and also from between the floorboards in a small nouns
We lifted a small paragraph of boards which were loose and a rushed check under the boards revealed roughly speaking a 3ft drop, and no visible humidity. The musty smell was pretty strong down in attendance.
Could it be dry-rot?
Is there anything we could do formerly calling in the professionals?
Answers: First check that the vent between the floor and the ground are clear and the space is cold, this would mean that at hand is a flow of air endorsement through the founds, which is what you want, Check that the ground is not wet as this would impose a damp musty smell, if the ground is drizzly you may need to lay a "sol-um" this would require the found cleared of rubble etc. a cloak of polythene layed and then a covering of concrete resting on this, remember and smooth the concrete with a shovel to sort crawling later easier on the knees, while you are underneath the floor checking for wetness, check the wall plate (the strap of wood on which the floor joists lie) and the joist for wet rot it will appear as a white fungus on the wood, if you find this problem I am afraid you will enjoy to hire a professional to tackle it.
Call surrounded by professionals, dry rot does smell musty and if it is that there will necessitate to be a bit of replacement and spraying. We had a dry rot problem and it be sorted out and the company doing it give you a card with guarantee for 20 years. We be lucky, our house insurance policy actually covered us for it. I don't reason many do immediately though but well worth checking and if they do they will make a contribution you names and address of approved tradesmen.