cyriousn

haha this thread turned pretty funny but the people who owned the house before us were not very old. I did have a masonry/chimney guy take a look at the roof and he is going to seal up some cracks, fix the flashing, put a new liner in it, and put a cap on the top of it as well. Unfortunatly I have to wait until the winter is over so that the masonry work will form correctly with warm enough temps. We got some rain one day and I could see the water dripping into my fire place and I also saw some water in my basement coming out from the base of the chimney where my furnace connects in. Hopefully the cap can prevent that from happening but the flashing at the top certainly needs to be fixed as well. for as old as this thread is you wouldve thought i got this fixed by now....such is life!

I went into the attic and there are signs of water in the area of the chimney on some boards that were installed on the underside of the rafters. It's some particle board that I don't really understand what they are there for (venting maybee? but the board goes all the way up to the peak so it's not like it would be able to vent to the top...) Maybee they didnt like the look fo the rafters when storing stuff in the attic? Either way I have a masonry guy and roofing guy that will be taking a look at both the chimney items Mike listed below and the roofing where it meets the existing flashing. The room underneath is the living room and the smell is not in that area, the fire place is in there and I've seen no signs of water damage so hopefully the water intrusion isnt bad enough where it makes it past the second floor and into the first floor. My plan is to fix this at the source of the problem and then hope for the best with the walls drying out and the smell going away. I'm a little irritated that our home inspector did not catch something like this, and when we asked the previous owners about the smell in the room they "didn't know what it was" even though it looks like someone did a half-*** job trying to add to the flashing with some tar substance. This is my first home so I guess all I can do is consider it a learning experience. If after I get the chimney/roof area fixed and the smell still persists I will open up the wall in the area of the chimney, but hopefully I do not have to get to that point. I'll post back when I make some more progress. Thanks to all for the help and feedback on this. Allseason, interesting to know that the moisture would creep up the walls like that, was it balloon framing?

I'm wondering that since the chimney runs up in one of the walls maybee the flashing around the chimney on the roof isnt that great and the leak is coming from there...

It's been a while since I've responded to this but it took me a while to get the IR camera from work! The only thing I noticed with the camera was the cold chimney behind one of the walls. It's been a while since the roof has been fixed and some days it doesn't smell so bad and other days when the humidity level is higher the smell gets worse. This makes me think even more that its a moisture problem in the wall.

Thanks Erby, I will need to pop up a couple attic floor boards above that bedroom, move some cellulose insulation around and take a look at the top side of the bedroom ceiling for any signs of water damage. Luckily there is an IR camera at work I can use as well. To be continued....

Another thing I forgot to mention, you can smell the odor from the hallway and as you walk in but when you have been in the room for a minute or two you don't notice the smell anymore, its kind of weird how it works. I took off the outlet cover closest to where the leak was in the roof and the smell did not get any worse. I just tested out the double prong moisture meter and it was within 6-7 percent result on the probe result. Instructions said that it isnt too bad unless its up in the 30 percent range...hmmm It makes me wonder if I gave that room a fresh coat of paint would it make the problem go away.....? Any thoughts about putting a new finish or removing existing finishes?

Yeah the room smelled like that when I moved in but when the guy reparied the roof last week he said that sheathing was pretty well rotten so who knows how long it had been a problem... I'm going to flip the breaker to the outlets in that room and take a cover off to see if it gets worse. I've got my hands on a moisture meter and I'm going to see what it reads at as well. If all fails I might just use a circular hole cutter with my power drill and open up a peice large enough to look in but small enough for a not so complicated patch job. Thanks for the advice!

I have a bedroom in my house that smells almost like Body Odor. The walls and ceiling of the room are of plaster just like most of the upstairs. The house is from the late 20's early 30's and I cannot figure out if I should open up the wall to see if there is a mold/moisture problem going on. I just fixed a leak in the roof right above this bedroom and I'm reluctant to open up any part of the walls/ceiling to see what's on the other side. Any advice for this newbie?