HELP! My house smells stale!
lisad71
18 years ago
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sheilajoyce_gw
18 years agoRelated Discussions
My house smells!
Comments (12)Here is a article i ran across this morning. here is the link that i copied and pasted it from, it should answer all your questions.. http://chimneysweeponline.com/library.htm Q: We just bought a newer, tightly built house, and are grappling with a rather strange problem with our fireplace. We might expect to smell a little smoke when we have a fire going, but we don't. We notice a strong smoke smell that comes from the fireplace when we're NOT using it. We had the chimney cleaned and it didn't help (maybe our Sweep didn't do a good job?). Do you have you any idea why our fireplace smells so smokey, and what can we do about it? Lionel A: Wood-burning fireplace chimneys smell smokey whether they've just been swept or not, because no matter how thoroughly your Sweep brushes the flue, he can't possibly remove every trace of soot and soaked-in creosote. Even if he were able to sand-blast every microscopic remnant of wood smoke deposits out of the flue, the very first wood fire would deposit a fresh layer, and the pungeant, smokey odor would return. So the real question isn't why your fireplace smells smokey: the question is, why is the odor entering your house? First, let's consider the fact that even the most tightly constructed homes have many, many openings (or air pathways) to the outside. There are intended air pathways, such as ventilation intakes, kitchen & bathroom exhaust fans, clothes dryers and combustion appliance flues, to name a few. There are also numerous unintended pathways, such as electrical, plumbing, cable and ductwork penetrations, leaky windows and doors, unsealed building cavities, ventilated flashings around vents and chimneys, etc. Companies that perform air infiltration testing express the total of all these air pathways as if they were put together into one big hole. It is not uncommon for a supposedly "tight" house to have an air pathway total of over 400 square inches, the equivalent of an open window measuring 20 inches square! At any given moment, air is transferring out of the house through some of the pathways that make up this 'window', and replacement air is entering through whichever of the others offer the least resistance. The biggest air pathway to the outside in most houses is the fireplace chimney. A fireplace chimney can allow airflow in both directions. When in use, a fireplace chimney is a powerful evacuating force: the chimney updraft created by an open fireplace fire can move hundreds of cubic feet of air per minute out of the house, in many cases more air than the other pathways combined can supply! This is why you don't smell the smokey odor when a fire is burning in the fireplace: it is only when the fire dies down, and the updraft diminishes to the point where evacuation from other sources overcomes it, that the airflow in the fireplace flue reverses and the odor returns. So what other forces are evacuating air from the house, causing makeup air to be pulled in through the fireplace chimney? At any given moment, a combination of evacuating forces might be at work. Some are mechanical, as is the case with unbalanced central heating and air conditioning systems, exhaust fans and clothes dryers. Some are from natural causes, as when the wind blowing against the house creates positive pressure on the windward side and negative pressure on the leeward side. Some are thermal, like the rising exhaust gases in woodstove, furnace or water heater flues. Another example of thermal evacuation is the so-called "stack effect". Heated air has lower density than cold air, so the warm, buoyant air in your house wants to rise through the roof, while the cold, heavy air in your unused fireplace chimney wants to flow downward into the house. If there are pathways in the upper stories or roof to allow the rising room air to escape, the warm air will flow up and out of the house and replacement air will flow down the chimney and in through the fireplace. The stack effect is more pronounced in taller, leakier houses and in houses with cold chimneys (like chimneys on outside walls, exposed to outdoor temperatures for their entire length). Rainy weather also accelerates the stack effect, because the wet air entering the chimney is heavier than the dry air in the house. Whatever the cause, whenever air travels to the outside of the house, an equivalent amount of air attempts to enter somewhere to replace it. If the chimney offers the path of least resistance for the makeup airflow, the smokey smell of wood creosote will enter the house along with the replacement air. What can you do to stop your house from using the fireplace chimney for makeup air? All you need to do is create enough resistance to the flow of air down the chimney so that the other air pathways will provide less resistance to nature's tendency to equalize air pressure inside and outside the house....See MoreA/C emitting terrbile stale smell
Comments (2)Cyninfl, What you have is called "dirty sock syndrome". I've smelled it and it's because the air conditioning coil and drain pan hold water for such a long period. It gets kind of a musty stale smell to it. We've tried a number of different things to rid systems of this smell, including pulling the coil and pan and cleaning and sanitizing it. But, that didn't work. In the long run, you just might be better off upgrading with a new unit. It could cost you several hundred to even a thousand dollars to try and get rid of the smell, when you could be putting it all towards a new system. Trust me, when you change your unit, change the ductwork as well, you'll breathe better. If you burn candles, stop. Where do you think all of the candle wax goes, correct, right through your filter as a very fine particle and into your a/c system. We've long suspected this of causing "dirty sock syndrome"...See Moremy house smells like smoke!!!
Comments (6)jamaraz The flame emblem on your thermostat means nothing other than your furnace or boiler is supposed to be operating. Some digital thermostats have a very tight band of controlling your thermostat setting. Obviously, yours does not. I don't recall my thermostat for my dual fuel system ever overshooting or undershooting stat setting. You might ask your dealer about this as it can affect both comfort and operating cost. It is doubtful that the overshooting that you appear to have is the cause of the "smell". Keep in mind that most if not all nat gas distributors place an odor additive in the nat gas to alert users of a possible leak. Nat gas by itself and carbon monoxide do not smell. Ask servicing dealer to check for both carbon monoxide and nat gas leaks as well as good operation of your boiler. I still think discussing your situation with the local fire dept is a good idea. IMO...See MoreStale cigarette smoke smell on hot days
Comments (5)Thanks for the input. I called a duct cleaning company, and they were very helpful. First, they wanted me to check the cold air returns to see if there was any dust in them. I checked, and not only is there dust, but it is sticky matted dust which I think might be the culprit. So, I have scheduled a duct cleaning. Another thing they suggested was to get my furnace coils cleaned, so they will examine them also, and clean if necessary. They would have suggested this option first if I hadn't found evidence of the ducts needing to be cleaned, since coil cleaning is less expensive. Lastly, they did warn that a duct cleaning won't help if the odor has bonded with the metal of the ductwork. For that, they recommended I contact ServPro who can perform an ozone treatment. Hopefully, though, the duct and coil cleanings will be enough....See Moreearthworm
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