Foul Smell Under the Stairs

SieIso

Hi All,

I recently put putty into a hole in the wall under the stairs and later painted the wall, now the smell under there is horrendous. As of this morning I have put a bowl of dry baking soda under the stairs and closed the cupboard doors, is this the correct approach and if so how long will it take for the smell to go?

Thanks in advance.

Belenus

Could it be a dead rodent?

mi-key

It really depends on what is causing the smell when it will, if ever go. What was the hole that was there before? Did it lead to outside? 

What sort of smell is it? Can you lift floorboards in the cupboard to investigate as sometimes rodents can die under the floorboards

tacpot12

Take the putty out of the hole and see if the smell goes away. If it does, you know it was the putty. 

You don't use putty to fill holes in walls, you need a filler, like Polyfiller. Putty is for use outdoors, on glazing. 

markin

Is the a gas supply in there? By hole you don't mean an air vent do you?

Money_Grabber13579

How old was the paint you used to paint the wall?

breaking_free

Is your significant other sneaking in unbeknownst to you to release flatulence? I sometimes walk into a space after the other half has done this and the smell is indeed foul! Just a thought ;-)

badatDIY

If it is a rodent - when we had a dead rat in the wall it smelt a bit like I imagine rotting cabbage would smell - there are these amazing odour remover bags made by a company called earth care (google and you should find someone selling them) that were a godsend and basically removed the smell for us. Handy, as we didn't fancy getting someone to smash into the wall to have a look, even though we knew exactly where it had died because blow flies appeared and would buzz right into the wall in one place

SieIso

I am certain it is not a dead rodent or anything like that, the hole I mention was very small and not very deep and I filled it in to improve the look of the wall.

The baking soda thus far has had no impact and the smell is still there, the smell appeared immediately after the putty and paint were applied. 

CurlySue2017

breaking_free said:

Is your significant other sneaking in unbeknownst to you to release flatulence? I sometimes walk into a space after the other half has done this and the smell is indeed foul! Just a thought ;-)

This gave me a chuckle My OH does this too!!

mi-key

SieIso said:

I am certain it is not a dead rodent or anything like that, the hole I mention was very small and not very deep and I filled it in to improve the look of the wall.

The baking soda thus far has had no impact and the smell is still there, the smell appeared immediately after the putty and paint were applied. 

Was the paint brand new or an old tub? Emulsion paint can go off and stinks really badly. Did the paint smell funny when you were painting it? or have a layer of clear liquid on top of it? 

Putty does smell, but has quite a distinctive smell ( basically the same as it smells before you put it in the hole)