My husband also demo’d the chimney and fireplace. I definitely noticed a mildew-y smell in the soot and mortar when he did the chimney. Now our whole main house smells like mildew.

Since you think the odor resulted from the demo of the fireplace & chimney... Now that those are gone, I would expect the odor to dissipate given some time & good ventilation. Hopefully you don't have a lot of soft furnishings in the house that can absorb odors. If so, then you may want to have those professionally cleaned if the odor persists.

Cat_ky and ci_lantro, thank you. I did not see your responses until just now.

I am very interested in anyone else’s insights or opinions. If we could afford to be somewhere else during the renovation we would. We are living in a mostly closed off section of the house while the work takes place, and our kitchen is now a microwave and toaster oven in the garage. Which does get some of the construction dust blown into it.

Again, our contractor says he sees no signs of water damage anywhere or mold, which is good, but it’s a really really intense musty smell. It is the same smell as in our attic after we had our roof replaced a few years ago. The roofers just let all of the debris from the old roof fall into the attic. And it’s extremely musty smelling.

I am really hoping somebody can tell me that they had the same experience and that it all went away after the walls and floors were closed back up.

Weve demod sections of our 1960 home and yes there has has been musty smells. We had both water damage and termite damage. Weve replaced some of the studs but also kept some. We did remediate the areas and sprayed with clorox. I dont smell the mustiness in those areas after cloding the walls back up.

Bless you Becky H! That’s encouraging!

Hi Lynne3450! Just wondering if you have any updates on this? I'm in the EXACT same boat (also in L.A.!) -- we went down to the studs since the plaster in the house smelled horrrrrible, but the smell is really embedded in the wood of the studs itself and even though it's been airing out for weeks now, it's not going away.

Did you try bleach, as BeckyH suggested? Did the smell go away after drywall was back up?

Our contractor is telling me not to panic, that once the new drywall is up it will block the smell... but I don't want to take any chances.

Thank you!

Callie- I smelled the smell through much of construction and was very concerned, but once drywall, flooring, cabinetry, tile went in (and now we’re moved in!) it’s gone and the house smells normal.

I wish you the best of luck! We’re in the Baldwin Hills area, fwiw.