No damp patches but funny smell

[justpounds]

Hi there guys hoping this forum will be able to help as my wife and I have bought our first house and possibly bitten off more than we can chew!

it is mid terrace house with a later added kitchen, referred to by the surveyor as an outrigger.

The lady who had the house for 6 years did not keep up the repairs and there is a fair amount of work to be done.

The floor seems to be concrete in both the original house and the kitchen, there is definately a DPC in the kitchen as when removing the skirting board on the wall buy the doorway in the dining room leading into the kitchne I can see plastic material.

The surveyor also said that looking at the documentation a DPC had also been installed in the main property.

The surveyor noted that on the ground floor there was dampness affecting the walls to some areas which he suspected was due to be localised issues with the DPC.

The lady also never seemed to put on central heating on and after speaking to surveyor it didn't seem like a big issue and I thougth having the heating on and sorting guttering might sort it out.

Problem I have is that kitchen smells funny, can't describe the smell, a bit like cat maybe. and I removed a skirting board from the wall near the the kitchen door and the old skirting board behind collapsed as a prod from a screwdriver. This is directly under a radiator that is not working at the moment.

the skirting board also seems to have rotted on the other side of the door in the kitchen under a kitchen unit.

The walls however do not feel damp?

My questions are do you think this would be dry rot and if so as i'm skint is this something i can treat myself by just curting out the dead wood, spraying fungercide and then replacing with new skirting boards with treatement on?

With regards to the damp I can't actually see any damp patches anywhere and the rotting seems to be occuring not on the external walls but along the old external walls before the kitchen was added.

If I do need the house treated with the chenical injection is this going to have any affect as damp seems to be on the walls which seperate us from our neigbours.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

best regards

Justin

[ultimatehandyman]

Can you post pictures of the rotten wood please?


Did the old lady have a cat?

I have known animals to urinate on concrete floors etc. and it is absorbed by the concrete and difficult to get rid of.

[big-all]

wet the area concerned with a water spray and sprinkle bicarb off soda on it to cover the area then kitchen paper on top

another cause off "fishy" smells is overheating plastic that sockets and light fittings are made from so assuming its a normal bayonet fitting check the light fitting and if the bulb is greater than 60w check for signs off overheating if none are present fit a low energy light bulb as big as you like to rule out the heat issue

if the skirting is rotten/soft remove the dammaged wall/area then you can check any connected timber

[justpounds]

Thanks both for such quick responses - think I'm going to be using this forum a fair bit as I am about as handy with DIY as your average chimp!

Will take pics later (in work today) but stupidly I have removed the rotten wood when I found it and the other rotten bit is under the kitchen units so not sure how good a photo I will get.

She did have a cat and when I say this woman was dirty it would be understatement - I have thorough disinfected kitchen though and smell remains, perhaoas not as strong but not sure if thats just because I've got used to it!

I'm fairly worried that its dry rot but then skirting board around the rotten bit seems fine and I don't remember seeing any cotton wool like spores.

Not sure I can afford to get in damp and timber specialist at the moment and worried that if I do they will breathe recommend damp proof treatment when it could be condonsation from the concrete floor...

Also didn't mention that wall outside kitchen is painted white and read some where that that could cause the masonary to retain moisture. the pain is falking off and i was going to repaint it.

Will get photos up later

Thanks again

Justin

[ultimatehandyman]

Talking of cats and dirty people, I once bought an house and when I was removing the kitchen carpets I found cat faeces that had just been carpeted over

[justpounds]

Please see below pictures of earlier described problem, at least I dont think there are anything like that under the carpet!!

Thanks again

Just

[ultimatehandyman]

Dry rot normally has white stringy looking strands with it, what you have looks more like wet rot. You could do with a damp detector to test for damp, you can get them for about £10 and it will tell you how damp the walls are (if at all) It's hard to tell from a photo!

Wet rot is normally much easier to treat than dry rot.

The holes in the bricks where you have asked if it is where the damp proof liquid has been injected before- they could of been fixing holes for the skirting board. It's unlikely that they would drill two holes so closely together to inject the liquid. Or do all the bricks have these holes in them?

[justpounds]

Thanks for that glad its not dry rot!

Yeah all the bricks have holes in like that where I have exposed them.

Seems unlikely if that is where the walls were injected and there is a DPC that both would fail but still obviously damp as would would noit be rotten otherwise. Perhaps this is condensation problem?

Think I'll clear the dead wood, install new treated skirting boards, get radiator working properly and then look at improving ventilation

Is this what you would do?

Rgds

Justin

[ultimatehandyman]

I'd test the walls for being damp, then if they are damp get that problem fixed first (this could be a big job and require plaster removal to do properly). Then I'd treat any new timber with wood preserver before fitting.

[justpounds]

okay thank you muchly!

[Deleted-user-3]

vinegar is fantastic stuff for neutralising salts in masonary and bad smells like cat urine....
50/50 diluted with water and a drop or two of washing up liquid....
rip out any affected wordwork and get rid....
timber floors affected this way usually have to be removed...

btw i read the title to this thread and the first thing in my head before i'd actually read anything was 'cat p'ss'..... ive seen some gopping properties in my time on council contracts and you would not believe the state some people actually live in...

[justpounds]

Thanks guys - looks like ultimatehandyman you were right and there is no dry rot, looks like wood and there is no damp to worry about.

CWplaster think it was cat p**s and used vinager solution suggested and then disinfected again and smell has gone - wooohooo

Thanks again

Justin