Smelly Floorboards!

MaximumFish · Post by **MaximumFish** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:10 pm

Hi,

We've recently moved into a house that was last decorated 25 years ago, and as we're finding out, most of that decoration was bodged...

The kitchen floor was covered with ugly lino, which we removed, and underneath that were very old looking lino tiles. We're guessing these tiles are the originals from when the house was built in the 50's.

As soon as we pulled up these tiles there was an overpowering stench that we were worried was something under the floor itself. Further investigation revealed that the smell was in fact the old glue/tar that was used to put the original tiles down.

After sanding the glue off with a floor sander we thought that would be the end of the smell, but unfortunately some residue seems to have seeped in to a few of the floorboards, and no amount of sanding or planing will go deep enough to remove it.

We then varnished over the floor, as the idea at the time was to have bare floorboards throughout the house, but the smell just returned through the varnish. White spirit also had no effect.

Unfortunately, as these floorboards were obviously laid when imperial measurements were in place, they're slightly too wide (5 inches/127mm) to replace with a few new ones (120mm), so we'd likely have to replace the entire kitchen floor if we went down that route.

So it is to you that I come, hoping that maybe someone's experienced a similar problem and can recommend a course of action for banishing this smell forever. We've considered treating it with an all purpose rot treatment (although the boards are otherwise fine) and also using floor wax instead of varnish, but obviously we don't want to spend a fortune trying every little idea if nothing's going to work.

In your collective wisdom, is there anything you can recommend we try?

Thanks a lot for reading, and for any advice you may be able to give!

Max

Jaeger_S2k · Post by **Jaeger_S2k** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:15 pm

Can you describe what the smell smells like?

I don't think its likely to be the adhesive

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi MF.
from the sounds of it you have tried anything i would have tried.
sounds like you may be wasting your time and that changing them may be the best way to go.
unless as you didnt say you could smell it before the lino came up, you could maybe ply over it and tile it or amtico or lino or actually put timber floor over the top.
personally i would make sure and rip it up. it can be a pain with proper floorboards though as the joists will move etc and you will have to reset them all.
just thought that if you are keeping the kitchen then this will be impossible to do without carefully extracting it and then refitting.
cheapest way....ply and tile/vinyl etc
expensive way.....replace floor.

MaximumFish · Post by **MaximumFish** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:32 pm

Wow, quick replies, thanks!

Jaeger_S2k wrote:Can you describe what the smell smells like?

I don't think its likely to be the adhesive

It smells like nothing I've ever smelt before, and it's really quite bad, my girlfriend wanted to vomit when the tiles first came up. I really don't know how to describe it. I can take a picture of the affected boards if you think it would help?

panlid wrote:Hi MF.
from the sounds of it you have tried anything i would have tried.
sounds like you may be wasting your time and that changing them may be the best way to go.
unless as you didnt say you could smell it before the lino came up, you could maybe ply over it and tile it or amtico or lino or actually put timber floor over the top.
personally i would make sure and rip it up. it can be a pain with proper floorboards though as the joists will move etc and you will have to reset them all.
just thought that if you are keeping the kitchen then this will be impossible to do without carefully extracting it and then refitting.
cheapest way....ply and tile/vinyl etc
expensive way.....replace floor.

That's what we were afraid of. We do plan to get floor tiles down there when we refit the kitchen, but as we have gas installation and then a full heating system to pay for before the Winter I don't think that's going to be happening any time soon.

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:34 pm

I came across this on a job I did.

If this is a suspended wooden floor it might be that the smell is coming from the foundation void. Check any air bricks are clear around the outside of the house so that air flow can clear any damp type smells coming up.

I think that the floor would be best coming up and you can check the floor joists are sound and free from rot. Do not panic if there is evidence of rot as it is fairly easy to treat and lay additional support beams if necessary with the floor open. At least you can check the rest of the floor under the units before deciding if it all has to come out. Laying a new ply floor or patching in with ply is easy enough. You may wish to add some additional support under heavy appliances whilst you have the chance. It just depends ho much crawl space you have.

Come back for more advice if you need it.

DWD

Hitch · Post by **Hitch** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:38 pm

We lived in a house that had smelly floorboards, after i pulled up some old carpet.
Smelt almost like cat urine.
Looked a bit like there was slight staining (like a water mark) on the boards, around the chimney breast area, where it seemed to be coming from.

New underlay and carpet, and a good airing and it was never noticed after.

I wondered if it was damp of some description.

MaximumFish · Post by **MaximumFish** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:39 pm

dewaltdisney wrote:I came across this on a job I did.

If this is a suspended wooden floor it might be that the smell is coming from the foundation void. Check any air bricks are clear around the outside of the house so that air flow can clear any damp type smells coming up.

I think that the floor would be best coming up and you can check the floor joists are sound and free from rot. Do not panic if there is evidence of rot as it is fairly easy to treat and lay additional support beams if necessary with the floor open. At least you can check the rest of the floor under the units before deciding if it all has to come out. Laying a new ply floor or patching in with ply is easy enough. You may wish to add some additional support under heavy appliances whilst you have the chance. It just depends ho much crawl space you have.

Come back for more advice if you need it.

DWD

We thought it might be something under the floor when we first got the tiles up. We were half afraid there was something dead under there! So we pulled a few boards up, checked the joists, which were fine, and had a good sniff in the void. Nothing. It's definitely coming from the boards themselves.

Oh, also when you touch the boards, while they feel dry and are not crumbling or anything, the smell can transfer to your hands.

Jaeger_S2k · Post by **Jaeger_S2k** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:43 pm

It could be all sorts of body fluids either human or animal.

But if you've varnished it's strange it's not sealed them.

Old remedy for most smells is Bicarbonate of Soda, mixed quite thick paste for spot treatment (if you know the spot), mixed in water for more all over spray type treatment.

Have you got the stomach to get on your knees and sniff around and locate the source?

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:43 pm

the only time i have had something similar is when a customer had just bought a house, we had to hack off all the plaster in the kitchen and reskim due to it reeking of curry.

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:46 pm

It probably is the old bitumen glue that has been absorbed in to the wood surface. This stuff stinks as it seems to trap the smell of ages and it probably means replacing the boards affected. Not a job you want t do I guess but easily done.

Good luck chum

DWD

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:55 pm

I once tiled a solid concrete floor that absolutely smelt disgusting.

It was carpeted and when I lifted the carpet there was cat feaces under the carpet :pukeright:

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:57 pm

ive taken a fair bit of lino from round toilets

MaximumFish · Post by **MaximumFish** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 6:06 pm

Jaeger_S2k wrote:It could be all sorts of body fluids either human or animal.

But if you've varnished it's strange it's not sealed them.

Old remedy for most smells is Bicarbonate of Soda, mixed quite thick paste for spot treatment (if you know the spot), mixed in water for more all over spray type treatment.

Have you got the stomach to get on your knees and sniff around and locate the source?

Yep, I've got on my knees and sniffed around. It's definitely coming from these patches on the floorboards. It's pretty obvious where it is.

The bicarbonate of soda thing is worth a try. Just mix that and water then, yeah? Put it on the boards and leave it for how long?

dewaltdisney wrote:It probably is the old bitumen glue that has been absorbed in to the wood surface. This stuff stinks as it seems to trap the smell of ages and it probably means replacing the boards affected. Not a job you want t do I guess but easily done.

Good luck chum

DWD

That sounds like what's happened. Something's definitely been absorbed into the wood as you can see what looks like wet patches, but when touching it it's quite dry, and yeah, the "smell of the ages" pretty accurately describes it. There's nothing you know of to neutralize it?

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 6:24 pm

There is a spray that you can use that neutralises cats wee for those accidents that can happen with pets. It might be worth having a go with that as it is liquid you could rub it well into the wood. You can get it at Petsmart.

I was thicknessing some old oak yesterday and that smelled a bit. I have to say that the smell went in 6mm and it is still a bit musty today.

DWD

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 7:01 pm

the problem here is you will have to strip the boards for any remedy to touch the flooring and possibly neutralise the smell then maybe several weeks to fully dry

odd sized floor boards arnt a problem your woodyard will run them up for you

or replace all the boards with whatever size you like
or replace the bad ones rip up the odd size on a table saw or hand circular saw

complete replacement will look best or if you have an odd bit put it under the skirting unless its nearly a full plank