Musty Smell in House

[Anonymous]

We've noticed a musty smell in our house. We checked out all the potential problem areas inside and do not any leaks or water damage but there must be something that is causing the musty smell. How can we pinpoint the cause of the musty smell? I did a google search and someone posted about they had that smell too and it turned out to be coming from inside the walls. That freaked me out at the thought of the potential cost to fix that problem. Who can find the cause of our musty smell?

[Anonymous]

Where is the smell coming from? Musty smell usually mean high humidity in the house, particularly in the basement. Dead animal behind the wall won't smell "musty"... It smells like "dead."

[Anonymous]

Dehumidifier in the basement. Air out the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is the smell coming from? Musty smell usually mean high humidity in the house, particularly in the basement. Dead animal behind the wall won't smell "musty"... It smells like "dead."

That is why I'm asking the question. I stated that we can't pinpoint the cause of the smell. We have no idea where it is coming from. We do have a dehumidifier in our basement. Haven't started it running it this season but in years past, we never had to run it this early in the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is the smell coming from? Musty smell usually mean high humidity in the house, particularly in the basement. Dead animal behind the wall won't smell "musty"... It smells like "dead."

That is why I'm asking the question. I stated that we can't pinpoint the cause of the smell. We have no idea where it is coming from. We do have a dehumidifier in our basement. Haven't started it running it this season but in years past, we never had to run it this early in the year.

Oops - ignore my sentence about running the dehumidifier. I was thinking about the whole house humidifier. But we do have a dehumidifier in our basement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is the smell coming from? Musty smell usually mean high humidity in the house, particularly in the basement. Dead animal behind the wall won't smell "musty"... It smells like "dead."

That is why I'm asking the question. I stated that we can't pinpoint the cause of the smell. We have no idea where it is coming from. We do have a dehumidifier in our basement. Haven't started it running it this season but in years past, we never had to run it this early in the year.

So start running it and see if the musty smell goes away.

[Anonymous]

musty smell is almost always due to humidity. is your basement dehumidifier working properly? has it been running? can you tell if smell is from upstairs or downstairs??

[Anonymous]

We had a very damp spell recently in this area. I have been running our dehumidifier since the beginning of last week.

[Anonymous]

NP. I run our dehumidifier constantly in our large-ish finished basement, pulling out a pail a day. I try to keep the humidity level below 60%.

[Anonymous]

The times of the year where neither heat nor air-conditioning are running are times when my house will smell a little strange once in a while. Switch your thermostat to circulate or a constant on fan setting, you won't be adding any cooling or heat to the house but you will be moving the air around and that may help get rid of the smell.

[Anonymous]

Op here - I checked the dehumidifier when I got home and it indeed is running and has been running. Humidity is at about 50%

[Anonymous]

wet laundry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The times of the year where neither heat nor air-conditioning are running are times when my house will smell a little strange once in a while. Switch your thermostat to circulate or a constant on fan setting, you won't be adding any cooling or heat to the house but you will be moving the air around and that may help get rid of the smell.

HVAC guy just mentioned this to me. When outside temps mean the heating and cooling aren't running, the air inside doesn't move, when combined with all the rain we've had, the indoor humidity goes way up. People's hardwood floors are buckling, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I run our dehumidifier constantly in our large-ish finished basement, pulling out a pail a day. I try to keep the humidity level below 60%.

get one that hooks up to your sump pump with a long hose. So worth it never to go down to empty.