Smell coming from attic vent in hallway Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[Diynovice10]

We recently bought a property and have noticed a musty smell in the stairwell. It seems to be coming from what we think is an attic vent as it links to a large tube/vent in the roof space.

The house was built in 2017 so it’s not an old property - what could be causing the smell? It’s just musty, not necessarily foul but definitely something.

We got pest control out who confirmed nothing alive in the attic and we set traps to confirm this, no action whatsoever.

Not sure if this is from the attic vent thing, but every so often there’s a noise which sounds like a door banging and my husband maintains it’s the vent making the noise. It’s the exact same noise every time so it’s not an animal causing it either. I hope it’s not a ghost! Don’t give me another reason to want to move already :-0 haha any help anyone could offer would be appreciated!

[stoneyboy]

Hi diynovice10,
This is just a suggestion:
It sounds like you have a passive vent in your stairwell, this is to take damp air out of the house, through the loft and outside. It may have a damper flap in it to stop backdraughts hence the banging noise which may happen with changes in wind direction.
The problem with any vent is that dust builds up in the ducting and if the backdraught flap is sticking damp dusty smells may be push back through the stairwell vent.
Remove the stairwell vent and have a look inside the ducting.
Regards S