Hello everyone, I’m feeling quite desperate right now and hope someone here can offer advice. We moved into our old apartment building this summer. From the start, I noticed a strange smell and initially thought it was from the previous tenant. Someone also inspected one of the four rooms for mold—everything was below the limit. The building is very old but fully renovated and well maintained. One room has herringbone parquet flooring, the others have plank floors. All rooms except the living room have new plastic windows, on which water also collects at around 0/-1 degrees Celsius (32/30°F).
My problem: the exterior walls have a stony, chalky smell, unpleasant—I can’t describe it better. I was away for a week, unpacked my clothes, and noticed they had fully absorbed this odor. It was really disgusting! I could barely wear them, and it’s driving me crazy. Does anyone have any idea what this could be and how to solve the problem? I feel very uncomfortable wearing any clothes that were on the clothes rack in that room. I’ve moved most of my clothes into wardrobes by now, but that hasn’t solved the problem. When I stand in the room and smell the clothes, I don’t notice the odor, but if I take them out to the balcony and breathe deeply three times, I smell it strongly again. I’ve also placed hygrometers everywhere; the humidity is between 55-60%, mostly around 57%.
What could this be?
Thank you to everyone who responds,
My problem: the exterior walls have a stony, chalky smell, unpleasant—I can’t describe it better. I was away for a week, unpacked my clothes, and noticed they had fully absorbed this odor. It was really disgusting! I could barely wear them, and it’s driving me crazy. Does anyone have any idea what this could be and how to solve the problem? I feel very uncomfortable wearing any clothes that were on the clothes rack in that room. I’ve moved most of my clothes into wardrobes by now, but that hasn’t solved the problem. When I stand in the room and smell the clothes, I don’t notice the odor, but if I take them out to the balcony and breathe deeply three times, I smell it strongly again. I’ve also placed hygrometers everywhere; the humidity is between 55-60%, mostly around 57%.
What could this be?
Thank you to everyone who responds,