Hi all,
Since taking up the carpets and sanding the floors, a disadvantage I've noticed in the back half of our living room is that there is a slightly damp earthy smell drifting up from beneath. We're talking about a ground floor room in a victorian terrace, where about 18" beneath the floorboards is bare earth. I guess that previously the ratty old carpet plus underlay did a good job of stopping any air coming up through the floor.
I think that the ventilation under there is a bit below par, so I'm planning on putting another airbrick in. In the event that this doesn't solve the problem (or perhaps as well just to be safe) I was thinking of trying to seal off the underfloor compartment somehow. I had thought I could spend an unpleasant afternoon wriggling around on my back in the 18" crawlspace stapling and taping polythene sheet to the underside of the boards and joists. However, I'm now thinking that that might cause the much worse problem of a rotten floor (although there would be some ventilation from above through the gaps that the smell is now escaping through). I'm not a great fan of the mastic-in- the-gaps look, and I'm buggered if I'm lifting all the boards and relaying them to close up the gaps. I guess I could do the masticking (or maybe just taping of gaps with insulation tape) on my back from underneath? Or I could lay the taped polythene sheets on the earth itself, which would be a hell of a lot easier anyway. Any thoughts?
Cheers!
Martin