Odor of "dirt" in home

[Jim Bebeau]

compute_1 Hi all ~ Hope to get some sage advice on this!!!! I have a 1930's Cape Cod that has a basement (split into unfinished dirt cellar and a finished laundry and utility room, even a full bath). Off of one utility room is a crawl space that is also dirt (under the rear ell of the home). Anytime that someone goes into the unfinished areas of the basement (the dirt cellar areas) for routine inspections or repairs, the odor associated with the 80 year old dirt just floats through our home for days. There are even times that the odor stirs up after long and heavy rains.

SO, I wanted to know if a plastic cover (vapor barrier, cheap painters drop cloth, or any other suggestion) over all of the dirt areas would solve most of the problem, and not create any new problems. No water problems exist. The floor joists are insulated with fiberglass batt fairly well. Old house with all hardwoods would seem to be impossible to completely seal from below joists cost effectively (would love to get that spray on poly-iso stuff that expands and fills in everything). And of course the HVAC ducts are also somewhat at fault with their joints leaking. All those problems make me think covering the source of the odor would be better - cover the dirt.

Is this a waster of time and energy (and money!)? Will I create problems trapping the moisture in the dirt? And the big one, will it work - has anyone else seen (or really, "smelled") this problem?
Thanks in advance!

[Bumblerazz]

My parents cottage had a similar set-up. Covering the dirt is only a short term solution. The result is the same as you have now when you open/close the door to those areas.

Soil is always "wet", constantly releasing moisture into the air. The best solution would be to open some ventillation to the exterior of the building. Not only will this prevent odour from getting into the house but it will let the crawl spaces breath, reducing moisture build-up and protect your floor joists from dry rot.

During the winter we would close these vents to help keep the floor warm, and then opened them again when the warm weather returned. Though my father professed to love the smell, but my mother wouldn't have anything to do with the "mushroom farm" smell in her home! :)