will no one rid me of this troublesome damp smell!!

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Greetings

Are you sitting comfortably? then i'll begin...

I have a problem with a damp smell..the sort of wet earth/musty smell...in my porch

i'll spin you a tale to set the story...last year around june time i came home from work after a night shift and as soon as i opened the door i was smacked in the face by the smell of damp, i took the coconut hair type carpet out and noticed that damp was coming from below the old stone doorstep on the inner door...got someone in to rip it out..lay a membrane dpc and concrete me a new step..he did a great job...and sorted the damp under the step..BUT!!

a few days later i came home from work and noticed the smell again....got the guy back in who then took the skirting boards off and told me whoever i got to do the membrane dpc in the walls the first time around had done it wrong...put it too high up..which he sorted...BUT!!

the smell was still there a few days later..looking at the floor it seemed to be coming out in the corners near the door..got the guy back in and explained that i thought that it was coming up through the floor to which he told me that he didn't think it was coming up through the floor as the floor would have had a bitumen base when the house was built (around 1900) at the time he was concreting the back garden so he said he would sort the floor for free...

He dug out the floor and discovered that it wasn't the original floor...whoever did it..didn't use a membrane so the damp was coming up between the floor tiles!

HOORAY!!! Problem sorted...or at least i thought it was...yep the smell came back :evil:
i lifted the rubber backed coconut mat up and the underside was wet.... and the damp patch on the floor in the corner was still there.

hmmmm condensation?? i thought so i took the mat out and dumped it outside, the damp patch on the floor dried up but..yep , you guessed it..the smell was still there...

got the guy back this morning and he couldn't find anything wrong...no smell, nothing..he felt the ground in the corner but said he couldn't feel anything?? he assured me that there was nothing wrong with the dpc he'd done so it must have been condensation!!

all he did find was that in the corner between the outer wall and the separating garden wall had, had a chemical dpc (i found through the documents the solicitors sent me that the house had a chemical dpc in 1977) and the holes that were drilled were left open and these holes should have been plugged...so moisture/ rain water could be collecting in there and travelling down the walls..

Could this be possible? i came home from work at 2:00am tonight and could smell the damp smell again

there are no signs of mould on the walls but i can't seem to find the source of the smell and it's driving me mad

Forgive me if i've waffled...i've had a few :oops:
 
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You won't get condensation in June. My guess is that you've got a leak under the floor somewhere. Copper pipes corrode if they are not protected properly.
 
Can't. Be a leak as there are no pipes in there ....the water supply comes in round the back so it can't be that either :( leave the inner door open and the smell goes away , it only happens when both doors are shut
 
Well you don't get damp without water - so it's coming from somewhere.
 
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Your problem was rising damp. Although you have taken the rite steps to deal with the problem it will never rid you of the smell. Damp caused by clean water only needs to be dried out. Damp caused by dirty water I.e from the ground has florescence in it. It's the salts that are left behind the keep the odour of damp in the air. Injecting and rendering the wall on the inside a meter above outside ground level will rid you of your problem.

Hope this helps message me if you'd like anything explaind better
Ricke :)
 
Are you on a flood plain? Sounds like a water table problem to me.
 
Then it's definitely a water table problem. You may one day find yourself knee deep in water if the table rises.
Can you remember as a kid you dug a hole on the beach and it filled with water? That's the water table.
 
I think i may have found the source of the problem...

I painted the skirting boards then decided to paint the bottom of the walls in the corners next to the door.

after 3 and a half hours one side is dry but the other side right at the bottom (which is below the membrane dpc) is still wet :eek: ...and the smell has gone

i'll check again in another few hours then call Mr "i can't find any problem " to come and have another look and hopefully sort it for good :mrgreen:

or...are there any products out there that i could paint/spray on the little section of wall that might act as a barrier?
 

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