Who to call about foul odor in my house?

[SlowZ06]

Okay, here's the deal. I haven't been able to smell properly in about a year, so I'm about useless in this situation. I can smell it, and it's offensive even to me, but I can hardly tell if it's stronger or weaker as I walk around.

 

My house smells as if something died in it. It's been getting worse for the past 2 days or so, but today it's so bad that my wife wants to go stay in a hotel. It's got to be a dead animal or something, but I can't find anything. I checked the obvious places that I can access, like my sump pit, looked in the air registers, etc. But, nothing. We have neighborhood animals that live under our Florida room, but I cannot smell anything at all outside, and the smell seems to be concentrated inside the house.

 

I certainly don't want maggots/flies/any other disgusting byproduct showing up either, not to mention I'd like to eliminate the source of this odor. Anyone have a clue as to who I'd call about this?

 

Thanks!

[MrMeanGreen]

http://blogosfere1.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/csi.jpg

[Dave1647545494]

does your basement have floor drains?

 

try putting some water in them and see if the smell goes away sometimes the traps dry out and allow sewer gas to flow back into the house....

[launchin1st]

http://blogosfere1.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/csi.jpg

 

 

LOL

[SlowZ06]

Haha...nice.

 

And Dave, that was the suggestion someone else made to me about the smell; but it doesn't seem very strong where the drain is.... I guess it wouldn't hurt to try that.

[Dave1647545494]

if you can kind of narrow down where the smell is coming from I might be able to be a little more help

 

if not my Dad is a contractor I'm sure he could figure out 203-8844 ask for Dave sr. tell him I said to call

[nurkvinny]

Check around the base of your toilet. Sewer gas may be coming into your house. Happened to me a few months ago; it was DISgusting.

[TurboRust]

who you gonna call?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghostbusters?

[AJ]

light matches and see where it explodes from (read sewer gas on Christmas vacation)

[NTHER91]

have you showered???

[Buck531]

I had this problem up until last week. Do you remember that little section in the back of the house (almost at the garage) where the steps go up from the deck?

 

There's a good amount of space under it so I decided to throw some stuff in there.

 

Car seat, play and pack, plastic baby pool and some other junk I can't remember.

 

We kept smelling this NASTY as smell when we walked up the steps the past few months. Couldn't for the life of us figure it out. The wife said it smelled like mildew or mold.

 

She goes and pulls the car seat out.. WOAH, it was covered in mold. fucking sick. Same thing with the play n' pack. Just nasty shit. We also took out the pool and the only thing in there now is an old snow blower and an old tire.

 

The smell has gone down a lot since then. It's still there, but not that bad.

 

I'm guessing you might have a leaky basement or some mold growing somewhere. I dunno man.

[COLD AIR]

escort service

[MrMeanGreen]

I see you got a computer, Chris

[TTQ B4U]

Not sure if your house is set up like this but check it out:

 

Check the drain pipe from your AC unit that may dump into the drain by the Furnace. If it's like mine, the hot water unit is right near there too and directs it's overflow/blow-off there too.

 

As another said, the drain may have dried up since the AC isn't running and your heat was on. It may be down just a little bit and allowing enough gas to back up but not be noticeable in that immediate area.

 

Here's what happens though....the white PVC drain from the AC Line connects to the evaporator inside your HVAC system. The polluted air is drawn up through the white pipe by the heat in the Furnace / Pilot even that creates a natural current upwards.

 

That small 1" pipe can pump a whole lot of smell into the system and then it spreads it throughout the house.

 

We went through this back in December for the first time ever. Took forever to figure it out. It was so bad I though my son threw his sisters diaper down the heat duct, but that wasn't it. It was indeed the pipe. I capped it off and viola the smell was gone.

 

Obviously I couldn't leave it like that, but I was able to flush a light mixture of bleach and water down the drain. About 2 5 Gal. buckets worth.

 

Now that drain has zero odor and the house is fresh as can be again.

 

Good luck and sorry for the ultra long post.

[SlowZ06]

Not sure if your house is set up like this but check it out:

 

Check the drain pipe from your AC unit that may dump into the drain by the Furnace. If it's like mine, the hot water unit is right near there too and directs it's overflow/blow-off there too.

 

As another said, the drain may have dried up since the AC isn't running and your heat was on. It may be down just a little bit and allowing enough gas to back up but not be noticeable in that immediate area.

 

Here's what happens though....the white PVC drain from the AC Line connects to the evaporator inside your HVAC system. The polluted air is drawn up through the white pipe by the heat in the Furnace / Pilot even that creates a natural current upwards.

 

That small 1" pipe can pump a whole lot of smell into the system and then it spreads it throughout the house.

 

We went through this back in December for the first time ever. Took forever to figure it out. It was so bad I though my son threw his sisters diaper down the heat duct, but that wasn't it. It was indeed the pipe. I capped it off and viola the smell was gone.

 

Obviously I couldn't leave it like that, but I was able to flush a light mixture of bleach and water down the drain. About 2 5 Gal. buckets worth.

 

Now that drain has zero odor and the house is fresh as can be again.

 

Good luck and sorry for the ultra long post.

 

Awesome. I'm pretty sure you're on to something here. Said 1" PVC pipe does exist, and empties into the drain in my laundry room... except it isn't there now. I had my dryer repaired last week, and I didn't even notice it wasn't put back after they removed it to gain access to the dryer. It was laying in the furnace room against the wall. I'm going to pour some bleach and water down that drain after I hook that pipe back up... in the morning of course. I'm tired. Thanks everyone, I hope that'll take care of it.

[MrMeanGreen]

CR, for helping you take funky smells outta the house