Water Damage Odour Removal in Hull

Where the water hides

• Under laminate and vinyl. The top looks dry while water sits on the screed or boards below with no way out.
• In floor voids. Under suspended timber floors in older terraces, water pools on the ground below and keeps the joists damp.
• Inside solid brick walls. Pre-1919 walls with no cavity hold moisture well inside the brick, and the plaster smells as it slowly dries.
• Behind kitchen and bathroom units. Especially after a slow leak nobody noticed.
• Wet insulation. Loft or cavity insulation that got soaked and never dried.

Your nose is a moisture meter

That damp smell is produced by bacteria and early mould on wet materials. It tells you roughly where to look, but not how far the water has spread. We take readings across floors and walls, lift flooring or a floorboard where readings are high, and map the wet area before deciding what to dry and what to replace.

Getting rid of it

1. Open up what's trapping the water: lift laminate, pull skirting, get air into the void.
2. Remove underlay, insulation or board that's too wet or already mouldy.
3. Dry the structure with dehumidifiers and air movers until the readings are normal.
4. Clean and treat the surfaces. The smell usually goes as the drying finishes.

After a Hull flood

If the water came in from outside, the smell may be sewage rather than damp, because most flood water in the city has been through the combined sewers. That material needs removing, not drying. See sewage cleanup. For smells that point to hidden mould rather than damp, see mould odour.

If the smell followed a leak or a flood, our water damage cost estimator prices the drying and repairs that usually go with it.