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Garage Conversion smells of musty wet earth when it rains

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.30 PM

We had a garage conversion done 2 years ago and very happy with it except for one issue. Whenever it rains, there is a rising, strong, musty, earthy smell like damp soil that fills the whole room. It seems to be coming from the walls but it's so hard to tell. When the rains stops, the room slowly returns to normal - we keep the room well ventilated in general. We also run a dehumidifier when this happens but I'm not sure that speeds up the smell disappearing... There are no stains, visible leaks, mould, mildew or anything else like that. It's not a flat roof. The gutters are not leaking. The floor is laminate and the floor does feel very cold in the winter so insulation may be an issue. However, we're wondering if there's some kind of drainage issue that could be causing the smell, having ruled out leaks etc. Is drainage likely to be a possible cause and if so, is that fixable?! The plans give the following info for the floor: "Ground Floor - Solid - Insulation over slab P/A 0.8 65mm Screed, over 500g Polythene separating layer, over 75mm Celotex FR5000 over 1200g Polythene DPM over 100mm Concrete oversite, over Sand Blinded Hardcore. Where a screed or concrete slab is above the insulation layer, a perimeter up-stand insulation with a minimum R Value of 0.75 m2K/W is required for the depth of the screed or concrete slab. This is achieved with using a minimum thickness of 20mm Celotex TB4000 - U-value = 0.22W/m2K" Can anyone help us figure this out? The builder who did the conversion is coming round tomorrow afternoon to check it out and it would be really good to have some ideas or potential causes to discuss with him...

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4 Answers

Anonymous user

This cannot be answered without a site visit. However, give the builder the opportunity to correct any defaults. Should this not resolve the issue, employ a Building Surveyor!

Answered12 July 2020

Mackbuild

No reviews yet

Leigh On Sea

As a builder we record every stage of the build to make sure the costumer is happy with our progress and thus making sure we are putting in the specified materials , without a progress update from your builder or photographic evidence this is hard to tell with out making a site visit to investigate the problem . The materials used in the above seem to be pretty spot on but has he carried this out to the full specification .??

Answered20 July 2020

J&K Maintenance 24/7

Rating: 3 out of 5

Bexhill On Sea

Sounds like there could be a hole in the men brain under the floor when I do garage conversions I normally have a damp then concrete then another damp then a floating floor with 100mm installed underneath because if there is a slight hole in the dpm it the damp smells come and they will keep coming until the problem is resolved

Answered6 August 2020

Space above Ltd

No reviews yet

Dunstable

Underground pipes and connections needs to be checked, also consider any manhole under the floor Rain water it’s supposed to have a different diverts not in the same line with the waste pipes

Answered12 August 2020