Removing Musty Smells from Your Home

Removing Musty Smells from Your Home

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

A musty smell or stale odour in your house may be more than just an embarrassment.  Often, they indicate that your home may have a problem that could affect your health – mould.

Mould produces gasses that have a musty odour that can contribute to a variety of different health problems including headaches and fatigue.  Worse, the spores that are released by the mould can trigger severe allergic reactions and affect people with respiratory illnesses.

Mould and mildew spread through the air as tiny, microscopic spores that settle in damp places in your home.  In most cases, this will be the “wet rooms” like kitchens and bathrooms, but mould can also become a problem in areas with poor air flow such as behind wardrobes or other large items of furniture.

Why mould is a problem

The immediate risk damp related mould growing in a property is to the health and wellbeing of residents, but if it is not addressed, out of control mould can damage the interior and fabric of the building.

If you do not deal with the causes of mould as well as the surface growth, you risk long term problems including expensive repairs along with long term health risk for people with weaker immune systems such as children and older people.

Getting rid of the musty smells from mould

The first thing to do is clean any mould from walls and ceilings using either a fungicide or dilute bleach.  If you do suffer from allergies to the mould, or the strain of mould in your property is toxic black mould (Stachybotrys Chartarum), you should seek professional help.

Cleaning away the surface mould is only a short-term fix.  Without addressing the damp environment where the mould is growing it will return quickly.

To remove mould and musty smells for good, you need to treat the cause of the problem by taking steps to prevent damp patches from forming, and in most cases, this means reducing the amount of humidity and condensation in your home.

Improving the ventilation in your home will help to remove water vapour from the air before it can settle.  Check that your bathroom and kitchen extractor fans work correctly to remove moisture at source.  You should also take steps to reduce the amount of water vapour in your home by not drying clothes indoors and using lids on pans when you cook.

Learn more about getting rid of condensation >>

Find out more

Mould can be a serious health risk.  If you have discovered mould patches on walls and ceilings in your home, we can help.  Speak to one of our local ventilation specialists.  They can visit your home to carry out a free home survey that will find any the source of condensation and mould problems you have and then recommend a long-term solution that can prevent mould, musty smells, and damp in your home for good.  Enter your postcode below to find an expert near you.