Funny Smell In Our House

MonkeyGirl

Hope some one can help me please. Of late we have noticed a funny smell in our house. We thought it was outside and I'm sure it was the other day but tonight it appears to be in the house . It is making us both quiet ill and giving us really bad head aches and nausea. The smell is of sewage throughout the house but also stale water in some places esp near our washing machine and downstairs loo . Could this be our drains? If so how much will it cost to get them looked at? If it isn't does anyone have any ideas on what it could be and how to sort it out? We don't have any animals so I dont think its likely to be dead mice / birds etc.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

basill

Have you got a dishwasher?, the lack of washing up water runnning down the sink can allow it to fester a bit, could well be worth treating your sinks and basins etc to a good dollop of caustic soda to start with.



B

MonkeyGirl

Yes we do have a dishwasher. I do still run the sinks though at times with hot water and strong detergent washing up liquid stuff down it and down the overflow bit. Where can I buy caustic soda?

Pink.

Most chemists stock caustic soda.........at least that's where I buy it.

Pink

Nile

Hello Monkeygirl


Sorry to hear about your whiffy home. I would be tempted to flush every toilet and leave every cold tap running for 10 minutes, then pour bleach down the drains outside. This should help to flush the nasty pong away and you should have a fresh smell again.

If these measures aren't successful, you might need the help of a plumber.

Tightwadways

Hi,

Have you checked for any leaks? We've just had the same problem, coupled with our laminate flooring raising slightly at the edges - we checked and under our kitchen lino was saturated, as was under some of the laminate, in the bathroom and cupboard under the stairs We'd been blaming the wiff on the cats, as we'd moved their cat litter indoors.....we've since had chemdry out and are in the process of an insurance claim I hope yours isn't as serious....

MonkeyGirl

Thanks for your help guys. The strange think is we only smell it at night and we are in the house during the day . I shall try out all your ideas. Thank you again.

daisythecow1976

I had a horrible pong in my bedroom and it turned out to be wet underlay and damp carpet. Underlay seems to hold in water like a sponge! Once you have found the source of the smell and addressed it, I think you'll be surprised at how quickly your house will smell 'housey' again.

rich_jtg

we had a similar problem last year. The smell was caused by water from the bath/shower and bathroom sink not going down the grate outside properly.

The water was going in and back out between the grate and the house causing water to collect under the house.

As the house has wooden floors, the smell was making its way up from underneath.

It really smelt bad of drains.

Might be worth checking outside whilst running taps to check everything is going where it should.

Ted_Hutchinson

One source of smell that can occur and be very difficult to trace is from the condensation tray over the compressor and under the pipes at the back of your fridge.

As the smell only arises after there has been a build up of moisture and gunge in the tray and is only activated when the fridge compressor is working it's the kind of smell that comes and goes but keeps on gradually getting worse and more persistant over several days.

We'd been blaming the cat for bringing in a mouse and leaving it somewhere and turned the whole kitchen inside out to find it when it occured to me where the smell might be coming from. If your fridge is near a door then the smell could well percolate upstairs and you'd find it impossible to locate up there.

If you move the fridge away from the wall and rinse the tray out a few times (wet vacuum cleaner comes in handy to suck it up) and put some disinfectant in it this will sort it for a few more years.

myrnahaz

Do you have an old light fitting? or one that's got an unsuitable bulb? We once had a problem where the house smelled of fish every night (we blamed the dog for years) and it turned out to be an old fashioned plastic lampshade that was gradually burning with the heat of the bulb - the smell got worse as the evening wore on. We changed the lampshade and the problem went. (The dog stayed.)