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Have you ever noticed that stale smell when you walk into a home? It might smell like last night’s dinner, damp towels or just plain musty, as if the house has been closed up for weeks. 

When air is confined to an enclosed space it has higher levels of humidity and carbon dioxide than outside air, contributing to stale and unpleasant odours. Fundamentally, stale air is caused by a lack of ventilation in an indoor space. Odours in the home can come from many sources but two of the most common are the kitchen and bathroom.  

Bathroom  odours

By its nature, the bathroom is probably one of the smellier rooms in the home.  Fortunately,  odours can be easily addressed with good ventilation, eliminating the need for aerosols that mask the smells, often making them worse.  

Here are the most common sources of bathroom odour and how to address them: 

Toilet

The most obvious and an unavoidable fact of life! The unpleasant smell is usually short lived but did you know it can be avoided entirely? Expella’s Milu Odourless Toilet range features an in-built ventilation system that quietly extracts odours from the toilet bowl and discharges them directly into the sewer before they can be released into the bathroom. If smells from the toilet are lingering there may be other issues that need to be addressed. One of the most common is a deteriorated toilet waste collar which can result in sewer smells being released into the bathroom. This is the rubber seal that connects the toilet pan to the waste pipe and it is very common for this to deteriorate due to dryness or age. Installing an in-wall toilet can prevent this problem in future as it will conceal any sewer gases that are being emitted from the collar.

Mould and mildew

Bathrooms have high levels of moisture and humidity and this makes them the perfect breeding ground for mould and mildew, which usually accumulates in grout, shower screens, walls and ceilings. Some compounds produced by mould have strong smells and are volatile and quickly released into the air, these compounds are known as microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs). Mould is less likely to develop in conditions with lower levels of humidity which is why properly ventilating a bathroom can prevent mould, mildew and the unpleasant smells associated with it. Expella offers a range of ventilation kits that contain quality extraction fans which draw the damp, humid air from the bathroom, ducting it outside the home.  

Kitchen  Odours 

The kitchen is often the heart of a home, and somewhere we all spend a lot of our time. Cooking causes steam and grease and while the smells that come from a kitchen can be delicious, letting them linger and spread through the house can end up being a source of stale air in the home. Good ventilation in the kitchen in the form of a range hood is essential and offers the following benefits:  

•  Minimises accumulation of odours in soft furnishing such as couches, cushions, curtains, blinds and carpet 
• Removes cooking steam and other malodorous gases from the kitchen 
• Helps reduce the build–up of bacteria and mould on benchtops and cooking surfaces. 

Expella offers a range of highly effective fans, perfect for powering kitchen rangehoods and ventilation systems.