Our house is 5 years old and over the last couple of years we are getting a horrible smell in two of the rooms. The smell is not constant. It comes and goes lasting about 45 minutes once or twice a week ~ mostly in the Spring and Summer.
In our downstairs bedroom it seems to come when we move things that have sat on the floor (boxes, etc) for quite sometime. We've ripped the carpet out and bleached the floors but it still comes when we do the above. We have a dog but when we ripped the carpet up, we found only on spot where she peed (and we had know about that and cleaned it several times).
It our upstairs bedroom there doesn't need to be activity in the room for the smell to come. It's not as frequent in that room. The rooms are not over each other. The dog has never peed in there.
I don't know who to call ~ how to track it ~ etc. It doesn't happen at all upstairs unless it's spring or summer. The other room has it every now and then in the winter. Please also know that we have an office next to the room upstairs/above the room downstairs that doesn't have this problem as all.
I apologize for this being so long but I don't know what to do, who to call and we are frustrated.
TIA,
Sue
COMMUNITY FORUM
- Forum >
- Miscellaneous >
- strange odor ~ it's long
Greetings Sue,
There have been posts about odors on this site for quite some time; they can be very frustrating and difficult to figure out.
On the other hand, it might be as simple as a P-trap that just needs water in it. This happens in plumbing that isn't used often--the water in the trap dries out, allowing foul odors to escape.
In the meantime, someone might better be able to help if you can describe a little better. Does it smell like sewage? Animal? Mildewey or ? And are there any circumstances that seem to bring it on more so than others? Does time of day seem to be a factor? Anything else you can think of to help define. Heck, you might get lucky and solve it on your own this way!
Best of luck with this odiferous problem!
In the meantime, you might check out this older post. I don't think anyone ever got to the bottom of it, but I think we tried just about everything in the process:
http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Plumbing/2451/2451/flat-page1.html
Regards,
-k2 in CO
Moderator, Miscellaneous Forum
http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Miscellaneous
There have been posts about odors on this site for quite some time; they can be very frustrating and difficult to figure out.
On the other hand, it might be as simple as a P-trap that just needs water in it. This happens in plumbing that isn't used often--the water in the trap dries out, allowing foul odors to escape.
In the meantime, someone might better be able to help if you can describe a little better. Does it smell like sewage? Animal? Mildewey or ? And are there any circumstances that seem to bring it on more so than others? Does time of day seem to be a factor? Anything else you can think of to help define. Heck, you might get lucky and solve it on your own this way!
Best of luck with this odiferous problem!
In the meantime, you might check out this older post. I don't think anyone ever got to the bottom of it, but I think we tried just about everything in the process:
http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Plumbing/2451/2451/flat-page1.html
Regards,
-k2 in CO
Moderator, Miscellaneous Forum
http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Miscellaneous
That link is exactly what we are experiencing. It's an ammonia smell just like they've described!
Have filled ptraps all the time, bleach, draino.
For the room downstairs ~ it's mostly when we move something or move around in it. It doesn't seem to errupt out of the blue like the upstairs room does.
I wondered if it had something to do with the ground being so wet ~ maybe the smell was coming through the concrete walls. I thought I could smell it every now and then outside but my husband just thinks I'm obsessed (which may be true) with it.
Thanks,
Sue
Have filled ptraps all the time, bleach, draino.
For the room downstairs ~ it's mostly when we move something or move around in it. It doesn't seem to errupt out of the blue like the upstairs room does.
I wondered if it had something to do with the ground being so wet ~ maybe the smell was coming through the concrete walls. I thought I could smell it every now and then outside but my husband just thinks I'm obsessed (which may be true) with it.
Thanks,
Sue
