The great cellar smell mystery

[RedRaven]

I agree with Doogie - as a geologist myself, I'm sure there will be some gases escaping the soil.

Shale often contains a fair amount of carbon - when this comes into contact with air, it oxidises and makes all sorts of stinky gases. And adding to that, many of said gases are heavier than air and will sit in the cellar rather than diffuse out.

I don't think there'll be any radon; that's usually a by product of the weathering of granite.

If there's no actual 'rising' damp in the walls etc, then some simple ventialtion will probably do the trick... works in the mines!

[Chris Parks]

I built a 2 storey structure, the garage being on top and the bottom being partially underground with a damp problem despite major work being done to prevent it at the building stage. It suffered from damp and odours and as soon as I ventilated it through the garage floor the smells disappeared within days. All I did was got some plastic drain grids that go into 90mm storm water pipe and fitted them flush to the floor of the garage. The air flow depends on which way the wind blows but it works and was simple with no need for fans.