victorian tiled floor smells of onion

[foppish]

at least - I think it's the floor.

1897 semi with original porous geometric tiled floor in hall on lime screed on bare earth - I know this because at one end there is a cupboard which has at some point been excavated below the level of the floor to put a stopc*ck in and is open to the earth up one side (like an archaological dig test pit :roll: ).

on and off - like today and more in the winter than summer, and more when it is wet the hall and this cupboard smell of onions. It's horrible.

The floor is above the level of the land outside by a good 1.5-2.5 ft. there is no wood to rot and it only smells in these places.

what am I dealing with? bacteria/fungus?

do I need to brick up the cupboard wall to seal the floor earth in with a vent or without one to make an anaerobic environment under the floor?

thanks

 

[LadyArowana]

Welcome, Ah yes the "zombie onion apocalypse" scenario has been frequently discussed :lol:
I jest of course, not a topic I can recall, just bumping this post up for a new member. Someone sensible will be along later.

 

[malcolm]

A sewer caused my last onion smell, but I recall a much simpler and easier explanation for the smell that someone else found (I think it was on this forum but I can't find the post). The earth in the cupboard will be damp and evaporating into the house, supplied by plenty of water underground. The smell is likely organic matter in the soil steadily degrading and evaporating into the house.

I guess you can't bury the stop cock but I imagine the smell would go away if you had some sort of floor in the cupboard. Maybe put a metal cover over the stop cock, treating it like one of those stop cocks you see in the pavement outside, and limecrete the rest of the floor.

 

[foppish]

thank you both - sorry for late reply - have had distinctly 21st C tech problems with interweb for the last few weeks.

that's an idea thank you, hope to goodness it's not the sewer .

it has been considerably worse lately - however I solved that one when clearing out son's bag and finding the remains of his cookery class ingredients loitering - which included ..... an onion. :wink:

that doesn't explain the past 10 years though....

 

[Feltwell]

it has been considerably worse lately - however I solved that one when clearing out son's bag and finding the remains of his cookery class ingredients loitering - which included ..... an onion. :wink:

Don't you just love kids. Our "family bus" (people carrier) had this sort of seaweedy, fishy smell after we came back from holiday a couple of years ago. I just couldn't work out why but it was getting worse and worse. Then I spotted a little gap at the back of one of the door pockets, into which one of the kids had posted some seashells after a trip to the beach one day. Trouble is, the shells still had their original occupants inside......

 

[LadyArowana]

Trouble is, the shells still had their original occupants inside......

Even if they had recently moved out you could still have that problem, as I discovered when I took home some rather lovely shells from a Chinese restaurant.