Hi everyone first time poster here, long time reader though and must say that a lot of questions ive had in the past have been asked and answered on these forums.
We recently purchased a 1930’s bungalow and are staring to do it up as its outdated and needed work.
What we have found is that there is a musty smell in certain parts of the house, where there are gaps to the under floor.. for example
1: in the airing cupboard where there are holes for pipes to run into the floor area.
2: in the kitchen in cupboards where there is gaps to the floor area below.
3 in the master bedroom where the carpet was old and crappy and had patches etc.
I have lifted a few boards and inspection holes throughout the bungalow and all areas of the floor underneath look the same. There is a dirt solum under a suspended floor. I have checked as much as I can for dry rot and wet rot and there doesn’t appear to be any, as per some of the photos.
The solum however is covered in a white deposit with yellow looking sandy type substance covering most areas. I am assuming this is a mould or spore of some kind?
I have cleaned the air bricks out around the house however at the back of the property a conservatory has been built which makes the air bricks on the rear of the house actually internal. This conservatory is being demolished and built into a permanent extension in Feb/March. So this issue will be dealt with then.
Now onto the actual question, We are decorating the bedroom, and I need to know whether we should not worry about this under floor solum and just ensure that there is a vapour barrier under the new carpet, or whether i really need to get someone in to do something to stop the smell at the source. I am also considering installing more air bricks as there is currently 3 in this room.
I hope there is someone who might be able to advise what we should do so we don’t end up getting caught out. In the future.
Here are some photos of the issues.....
Floor boards underside
Solum
We recently purchased a 1930’s bungalow and are staring to do it up as its outdated and needed work.
What we have found is that there is a musty smell in certain parts of the house, where there are gaps to the under floor.. for example
1: in the airing cupboard where there are holes for pipes to run into the floor area.
2: in the kitchen in cupboards where there is gaps to the floor area below.
3 in the master bedroom where the carpet was old and crappy and had patches etc.
I have lifted a few boards and inspection holes throughout the bungalow and all areas of the floor underneath look the same. There is a dirt solum under a suspended floor. I have checked as much as I can for dry rot and wet rot and there doesn’t appear to be any, as per some of the photos.
The solum however is covered in a white deposit with yellow looking sandy type substance covering most areas. I am assuming this is a mould or spore of some kind?
I have cleaned the air bricks out around the house however at the back of the property a conservatory has been built which makes the air bricks on the rear of the house actually internal. This conservatory is being demolished and built into a permanent extension in Feb/March. So this issue will be dealt with then.
Now onto the actual question, We are decorating the bedroom, and I need to know whether we should not worry about this under floor solum and just ensure that there is a vapour barrier under the new carpet, or whether i really need to get someone in to do something to stop the smell at the source. I am also considering installing more air bricks as there is currently 3 in this room.
I hope there is someone who might be able to advise what we should do so we don’t end up getting caught out. In the future.
Here are some photos of the issues.....
Floor boards underside
Solum
but it`s most likely the consevatory stopping a through flow of air - I had a similar issue with my garage stopping through/cross flow of air - I piped a duct to the outside . I also had airbricks that went into the cavity but not across to the solum 
