Old house smell (worse in summer)

[sj6]

My house is built in 1935 and it has a distinct smell. it's not a musty moldy smell and I recently did a mold air sample and surface sample test of the house which came back normal. I would describe it as a chemical sweet dusty musky (not musty) smell. The entire house has wood plank panelling. 3/4" pine wood planks. walls and ceiling. behind the wood planks is a layer of thin fiberboard and bat insulation. last fall i installed foam insulation in the basement, hoping that would help, but it hasn't. wintertime the smell is ok, but in the summer the smell gets strong. When you first enter it's nauseating, but then you adapt.


any tips for remedying this kind of smell?

 

[mb1280]

Could it be from lead paint? Used from Colonial times, until 1978.

 

[piglet11]

Unlikely to be from paints as the solvents and oils would have dissipated by now.
I did a lot of work professionally with smells while working with a public utility and specifically smells from sewage or waste water.
Complaints were always higher in the summer because higher temperatures would cause the sewage to ferment and it gave off a huge range of gases from fatty acids to sulphur based gases like hydrogen sulphide and dimethyl sulphide.
So i would want to rule out drains and gulleys etc.
I live in a timber framed building and do notice an earthy, musty smell sometimes coming from unlikely places like socket outlets especially when the wind blows. A lot of this nuisance can be stopped by rigorous sealing of gaps like floorboards, skirting board gaps using sealants or aluminum tape.
Could you send a sample of the smell? - joking.
Don't rule out a dead body either. A dead fox can stink like the gases added to gas supplies to aid leak detection.
Happy hunting

 

[henry26]

One simple solution involves vinegar. Just place a bowl of white vinegar in the smelly room, and leave it overnight. That may be enough to get rid of the stench. Baking soda can be a powerful ingredient in removing smells.

 

[piglet11]

henry26
The smell could be a warning of something going on out of sight.
The fact that there is a strong smell tells you something is not right.
On the whole, dry building construction materials, timber, concrete etc., do not give off odours that cause the questioner to call it nauseating. The most you might get is a slightly musty smell in some of the cavities.
Among the things in a house that might cause a strong smell are natural gas supplies with added odour compounds, sewage gases, dead animals for example.
Other things I wouldn't rule out are the possibility that the house is built on a "brown field" site. Where I live, new houses have been built on an old town gas site, and 100 more are being built on a site that was rubbish tip and regularly floods. If anywhere is going stink, that will.

 

[Silentrunning]

Dog dander in older carpeting can give off a foul odor when the humidity is higher. This has been an ongoing battle for me since I usually have 2 or 3 dogs living in the house. Even daily vacuuming won’t eliminate it.