Musty smell mystery

Hello,

I am hoping that someone can help, or has been through something similar. I hope that you may be able to give me some valuable information. My home has become very unhealthy for my family and I. We have been suffering some serious health problems that we believe are directly related to our home. We have tried everything under the sun to figure out the problem, but can't find anything visual going on. Our basement smells very musty. Anytime the furnace is not running: a/c or heat. We have tore out all carpeting and walls in the completely finished basement thinking there was mold in the walls or carpet, but there was none. It seems as though the smell even got worse after tearing everything out. The basement seems very dry. We have always run a dehumidifier 24/7, and the RH always read around 35-45. It is taking out a full gallon daily of water vapor from the air. The concrete walls behind the paneling still look good, and sealed from before they were covered. The studs were clean and dry, and there is no visible mold or moisture anywhere. What are some things that could cause this smell? Where else could the smell be coming from? We did an air quality test, and it showed high VOC's. No mold levels were indicated. My 24 year old daughter is starting to have some very troubling symptoms, and we have no way out of this home. We own it, and can't afford to just walk away from it. There doesn't seem to be any professionals to help in this area; none that can tell us what's going on. The mold remiediator told us he would pull the walls out to find the mold, but they wanted 20,000; so I did it myself, and found nothing. The smell has not changed. Could a big tree that was removed in our front yard have rotten roots that could be causing this smell coming into our home? Please give me any information you might have. I am desperate to find and fix this before something happens to one of my family members, or myself.

 

Welcome to the forums.

I moved your post to an area where subject matter experts are more likely to see it.

 

High voc's is an sign of low ventilation. I'd start by placing the basement under negative pressure and then treating all walls floors and ceiling with a mold product like Foster 40-80.

 

Thank you for your reply. Ever since the humidity went down outdoors I have had the only two openings down in the basement open with fans. One is pulling air in, and the other is sucking air out. Is this the same as what you stated? The openings are only 5"x8" openings in glass block windows. These are the only means of getting fresh air into the basement. Would this be sufficient to achieve what you said about negative air pressure?

 

What do you mean these are the only ways to get air into the basement? Is this not conditioned living space? Is this a crawlspace under the house?

Negative air pressure would be like having both the fans you mentioned drawing air from the basement.

 

No, This is a basement, but all of the windows are glass block. Other than that, the basement is sealed off from the rest of the home. There are two vents from the furnace ducted into two of the rooms in the basement. But they only run during winter and summer months. I dont think there is any cold air returns down there though. unless that is drawn from the upstairs ones. This house seems pretty wierd because heat and AC run 100 percent when on. It never stops with the AC, and Heater will start cycling as soon as it stops. I hope this makes sense.

 

How old is the home and how long have you lived there? Have you investigated the HVAC system? Is the smeel in the entire house or just the basement?

 

5x8 is not much for negative air from a home owner might look at renting a fan that you can duct ion the window. I'd look at at least 800 cfm.

 

Thanks Drooplug. The smell is isolated to the basement and goes away anytime the furnace is turned on AC or heat. The home was built in 1965. It is a ranch 1300 square ft.
and I have lived there for 13 years. The smell just recently started. There has never been any issue of musty smell in the past. I am having the HVAC system cleaned next week for dust control though.

 

Thanks, I will see if I can find one. Would a bathroom type vent typically draw that amount of air flow? I could install one of those.

 

No, a bathroom fan would not draw that much air; not even close.

 

I found an inline duct fan that is 800 cfm. maybe I will cut out the glass block and install this through that opening. Thank you so much for your time and expertise. I hope this works. I am afraid that by drawing more air in, it will suck the smell even more from under the house; and potentially make it worse. We'll see. I have already dumped over three grand into trying to find the problem, so what's another couple hundred. Thanks alot for everything. I really appriecieate people like you who take the time to help others in need.

 

Just so we are clear the fan is to draw air out the basement during the cleaning. This is for anything that gets airborne will be blown out the house. This is not a permanent thing only for cleaning.

 

The idea of the fan is to exhaust the smell to outside the building, I don't know how you think that would make it worse; it gets worse as it's allowed to accumulate in the basement.

 

The only reason I stated that is because the smell seems to be drawn in from under the home or somewhere not in the basement. The basement is completely gutted and no mold was found. The smell is only downstairs though. Really bad. When I run regular fans or dehumidifier, it gets worse. Everyone seems puzzled by this, including me.

 

I just came across this thread. May I ask, does your home have a partial basement and a partial crawl space or slab on the ground? Might there be a musty smell coming from a crawl space into the basement?