Bought an old house. Put new flooring carpet in it. Painted everything. Still had this old musty mildew smoke like odor.
How do you get rid of old house smell?
Bought an old house. Put new flooring carpet in it. Painted everything. Still had this old musty mildew smoke like odor.
could be from inside the walls or ceiling, paint won't help trapped moisture. is it insulated?
No just brick and plaster
should've cleaned the walls first with tsp substitute, then primed with either oil or shellac based primer
as for floors, if they were hardwood you should've had them refinished, vinyl floors just rip them out
You get use to it…just think of all the dead skin cells, dripped cum, puke, piss, food, drink thats embedded in the subfloor.
ozone generator and run dehumidifiers
This. Got an ozone generator from the grandparents and ran it my new old house. Ozone fricks up most organic molecules and so annihilates the smell. You don't want to breath too much of the ozone though.
Hmm could be based if hooked up to a smart outlet so that it could be set to run when leaving for work, and turned off a few hours before getting home.
DO NOT breathe any of the ozone
Here's how I do ozone. I use a generator attached to an 18v to 120v inverter (any tool brand's version 100w or higher works) via extension cord. My ozone machine has a mechanical timer. I set it to just past 30 min. Research what you need to set to. Take inverter outside and shut the door. Turn on the inverter which will automatically turn on my ozone. Do it on a sunny day and fill indoors with sunlight which will cause the ozone to go back to oxygen faster.
Go somewhere else for a couple hours. Come back and open windows (hold breath) ...for a couple hours, go somewhere else again.
Done.
Search for any wet and/or weak spots in the house, and then fix whatever is allowing the moisture to build up there before disposing of and replacing the impacted materials.
Follow up with this.
Just burn a few pine incense sticks or a bit of sage and sweep up the floor
You don't wanna annihilate the biosphere new bacteria will move in and they could be deadly
morons nuking their living space with ozone and shit and wondering why they get autoimmune disorders all the time
I’m as schizo as the next guy but autoimmune diseases being caused by ozone generators? Come on. Go drink some raw sewage, the israelites don’t want you to know this secret to optimal health!
use a sponge mop and 1 part bleach, 4 parts water.
do a quick wetting of every surface you can: floor, walls, ceiling, furniture.
(assumes you used white paint)
liberally sprinkle baking soda all over the carpet. Let sit for a few days and then vacuum. Smell gone.
Ozone machine
tear down the house
>Still had this old musty mildew smoke like odor.
Tell nana she has to go.
Had to get rid of some smell when we moved into this house.
Owners had some medical emergencies between the time we last visited and when we officially took possession.
(literally had a hospital bed in the livingroom that marked up the hardwood floor)
We felt too awful about all the horrible shit they were going through to even dream of complaining about the state of the house.
Anyways, I sealed all the windows tight and dehydrated the frick out of the house. Kept it at the humidity of a freaken desert for months, and then winter came which helped even more.
Several months of the house being dry as a bone seemed to do the trick.
Run an ozone generator in there for a weekend while you go camping or something, when you get back hold your breath and open the windows as quick as you can and leave the house to air out for a day or two.
Your house will have that new car smell in no time.
Is it possible to locate the smell? I dont know frickall about american construction techniques and your house but it should help if you seal the gap between the concrete floor slab and wall structure and install an air intake valve in every room. This way the house doesnt draw air from places with mildew, ie. the soil.
It might actually be active mold, very likely a leaky pipe in the walls or under the house. Search for the source or you WILL regret it. It will resurface or crack the foundation. In fact the pipe could be under the foundation. If you feel a hot spot on the floor especially near the water heater, kitchen, or bathroom that's almost certainly where the leak it at and you'll have to replace all the piping either bypassing the old piping entirely and leaving it in place or breaking the foundation to repair it. If it's in the walls it's much easier to fix of course. Hot water leaks like that are more common than cold water and are easier to detect because of the heat you can feel, but either way it's a bad sign. If it's just a house that's been closed up for a while airing it out should fix it. If it's just cigarette smoke it will fade in time, but a product called liquid alive will help. But you describe mildew smell. That means water leak probably. So find it, fix it. And then it'll fade.
Dealing with the same lingering smell issue, but the odor source is biological, mold,ect
Besides a ozone generator which works for a few days before the odor comes back, what is the best type of Odor Bomb one can buy, you know those seal the room and set it off type of items sold.
>inb4 get rid of odor source
i've tried, its not a option.
If you want to keep the odors out you HAVE to get rid of the source, there isn't a way around it.
Somewhat related anecdote...I was in Germany staying in an old hotel that used to allow smoking. The room didn't smell at first, but when I went to sleep with the windows shut and the bathroom exhaust on, it eventually just started pulling the stench out of the walls and it would smell horrible until like 10 minutes after I turned off the fan.
clean central climate control vents
leave the windows open to a crossbreeze as often as possible
For ongoing air purification, these are nice...they work well, don't use a ton of power or have any bulbs or other consumables, are self cleaning and don't generate ozone. They're made to be diy additions to existing air handlers so don't assume that what the HVAC companies charge for a turnkey installation is your only option....the unit itself is under $400 and well worth the improved air quality...not just less musty/mildew smells but smoke and cooking smells go away faster and there's less airborne dust.
https://iwaveair.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Nu-Calgon-4900-10-iWave-C-Commercial-Cleaner/dp/B072N1M4JS