Morning all,
I very much hope that someone may be able to help; please excuse my novice status.
My house is a terraced mews, that is split over two floors, bedroom, hall and internal garage at groud level and bedroom, kitchen, etc on the first floor. Pretty standard stuff.
I have just finished redocorating the downstairs bedroom and ensuite and in the process fixed bathroom pipes that had probably been leaking for a very long time judging by the pool of water and the sodden breeze blocks of the internal wall that make up the left hand wall of the stairs.
I hope my description is not too confusing but now that the decorating has been done and i was about to carpet the hallway (between the now dry garage and the bedroom) i noticed a damp smell and a general feeling of poor ventilation.
I pulled up part the MDF (!) floor of the hall to see that there is a drop of around 4 to 5 inches to a layer of concrete. This area smells of damp but is not moldy, wet or anything like that, just very cold. I am confident that there are no leaking pipes, but wonder if this damp smell is a hangover from the wet breeze blocks (replaced wher possible) or condensation and poor ventilation causing an issue.
It is now not financially possible for me to pull the new bathroom and bedroom apart to investigate but i may be able to pull a couple of stairs up to have a look.
Questions:
If the concrete is not damp (as far as i can tell) what might be causing the smell.
How do i create better ventilation in this difficult to access area. There are no air bricks to speak of.
Would drilling a series of holes in the MDF floorboards of the hall (and then carpetting and forgetting) make a difference? Increase ventilation?
How do i show my appreciation to anyone that can help me?
Apologies for the long email but this is really starting to bother me as i am living in a half finished house without the time or cash to approach it fulltime.
Any assistance hugely appreciated.
Many thanks indeed,
Anthony.