Attic smell piv unit

Lillysue99

Hi,

I had a piv unit installed about ten days ago. The smell of insulation and dust from the attic is now flowing through the house from the fan on the ceiling. It gets stronger the closer you come to the fan.

I'm so disappointed because it was supposed to cure the humidity problem and the damp smell that was throughout the house. Now the smell is actually worse.

Can anyone recommend a solution.

Sleeper12

What type of ventilation does the attic have? Ventilation from the attic to outside the house?

embracingLife

Op does that piv unit have fabric filter covers on it/on the outside of it? Any chance of any photos of it or manufacturer name/model name/number of the unit so we can search for it

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121182055#Comment_121182055

This is a key question.

If the attic is under ventilated then your unit will not work to spec.

Poor attic Ventilation is super common in Ireland.

Lillysue99

There is no felt under the tiles... It's just bare tiles. You can see some daylight. I'm not sure if there are vents into the soffit. There are no roof vents. Maybe that's what is needed.

The surveyor told me there was enough air up there when I asked him if it was a good idea... I guess he was wrong. The attic does smell of insulation and dust.

Lillysue99

The make is envirovent. It's a black square unit with white filters around it. I don't know the model.

embracingLife

As Sleeper12 says its worth finding out whether there's any ventilation between the attic and outside such as attic soffit vents. The easiest way to see this is to look up when you are outside the house and see if any vents in the soffit under the roof edge - in case you don't know what soffit is, no offence - or see if any roof tiles vents which can be seen when looking at the roof from away from the front of the house and also go into the back garden and look up at the roof and see if there's any roof tiles/slates that are different shape to the others usually have a raised bump feature to them.

There wouldn't be any soffit or roof vents if its an older house and then there no large vents in the roof for the attic. So your attic is relatively "closed" and that's why the piv unit is now drawing all the smells from attic into the house.

It's a pity now that this is happening to your house. Tbh it's best to turn it off until the smell is rectified. Basically the installer of this unit is negligible for installation of this unit as they didn't seem - by the limited knowledge I have of the situation - to take into account the lack of adequate/sufficient ventilation of your attic to the exterior which has now resulted in the piv blowing bad smells into the house.

Best advice is to turn off the piv unit then have a look at the outside of the house to see what if any vents/grille are in the soffit and also roof tiles/slates vents. Then contact the installer and question them about the smells coming out of the attic into the house. Whatever their answer, then ask them did they identify whether the attic is sufficiently vented to the outside before installing the piv unit.

The installer is definitely at fault here for not considering the existing ventilation of the attic before installing the piv. The solution to this is to get vents fitted into the soffit or install the piv unit directly to the exterior of the house either through usually ducting (pipe can be flexible or rigid) to the exterior can be through the soffit as that'd be the most practical solution instead of the roof vent. Then again don't know if that specific piv can be connected to the exterior.

Anyway it's up to the installer to give you solutions to this or at least help you out to rectify the issue. It's seriously sloppy - in effect a cowboy behaviour - to install this unit and not identify problems in the attic before doing so.

whizbang

There is no felt under the tiles... It's just bare tiles.

Too much ventilation.. lifting the dust and blowing it into the house.

I suspect your big problem always was damp in the attic, now not just permeating into the house, but activly been blown into the house.

Another question.. is there enough ventilation in the house ?

Lillysue99

Thank you so much for your advice. I paid a lot of money to them to get this problem sorted out because of the damp smell in my place that has annoyed me for at least a year... The surveyor cost €500 and the piv unit cost over €2000.

I trusted that they knew what they were doing and were professionals. The surveyor spent an hour testing humidity and walls and vents and did go into the attic.

I don't have roof vents. That's definite. I will check if there are vents in the soffit.

I will ring in the morning and ask them to fix this. I hope it won't cost any more money because as you said, it's their fault that this is the end result.

Lillysue99

I have interior insulation and lots of vents. I use a tumble dryer always.