Funny Smell in the house

[sotal]

We moved in to our new (30ish year old) house a few months ago and every so often we get a funny smell appear.

We just can't figure out where it is coming from. It's happened three times now in 3 months, the last time being yesterday. We went out in the morning and there was no smell, came back at 4pm to be greeted with the smell right from opening the front door all the way through the house. The smell seems to go a bit if you leave doors and windows open to get a draft through.

My only thoughts were:

It rained quite a bit yesterday - but it's rained quite a lot on many other days and it hasn't done it then.

It seems to reduce a bit if we put the heating on.

The washing machine sometimes makes a similar smell and we have to run a cycle with no washing in to clear it - although I think it's when we've used too much fabric conditioner.

Just to point out though that we hadn't used the washing machine yesterday and the washing machine is in the back of the garage, so it shouldn't affect the house.

It's not a completely nasty smell, but it does remind me of cat wee, but only reminds rather than actually smells like (if that makes sense)

The smell had more or less gone by the time we got up this morning, and if the previous times are anything to go by it won't come back for weeks.

It's driving us mad trying to find where it's coming from.

I've checked all traps on any waste pipes and all seem fine.

The house is a 4 bedroom detached house, the smell doesn't seem to be outside anywhere - the garage is integral in the house and the smell can sometimes be smelt a little in the garage although it's stronger in the house.

Please Help!!!

 

[NickStone]

Don't you just hate mystery smells. Is it possible that some small animal might have died under one of the floors? I used to live in a hundred-year old cottage and about once a year some mouse would get trapped and smell the place out. Other than ripping up all the floors we had no option but to wait for the smell to go away - around 10 days. However, I've heard of newer houses having a similar problem. I know someone who once had a squirrel caught in their cavity wall.

 

[markie]

Maybe something to do with the drainage system ( toilet ) ?

 

[JonB]

Lift any manhole covers & check drains are running free.

 

[sotal]

Thanks for the advice, I managed to find a possible cause based on your suggestions.

The downstairs toilet wasn't plumbed in right at all, looks like a previous owner had bodged the pipework. Basically they had seen that the upstairs toilet overflowed into the bowl and didn't need an overflow pipe so they had tried to do the same to the downstairs toilet but they had bodged the overflow pipe into the soil pipe on the other side of the trap, so it was venting sewer gases into the cistern on the toilet.

I've pulled this off for the minute and sealed over the hole with silicon as a temporary measure until I get chance to replace the piece of pipe.

Just got to wait for a couple of months to see if the smell comes back!


Not 100% convinced that it is the answer as the smell was right through the house, through a lot of closed doors, even a upvc double glazed door.

 

[jonny7913]

double check under the bed for husbands old unwashed socks

 

[knockknock]

I have had a problem like this in the past and it turned out to be from
the drain in a shower and sink. I found that in a spare room ensuite that
had not been used for a while the water had evaporated from the traps
in both shower and wash basin allowing drainage smells to enter. I just
turned on the taps for a few minutes and the smell disappeared. Now I do
this on a weekly basis. good luck. Ben

 

[DennisLS]

We had a dead mouse behind some kitchen units at work not long ago, Eco Lab could not get at it without taking out all the units so they put some stuff down.WAIT FOR IT........Rodent Deodrant........it smelled worse than the chuffin mouse

 

[joe-90]

Went to a house the other day to sort out an alarm cable that was shredded twice in as many days. Turned out that his underfloor void was full of rats.
Rat wee smells like cat wee but sometimes carries a dangerous disease called Weils Disease (Leptospirosis).

 

[hawthorns]

another bad smell to look out for is the plastic part that holds the light shade on the bulb the part that screws on as we had a bad smell for a long time in the house and could not find it it was only when i was painting the hall ceiling that i found the source when the light was on the heat from the bulb would heat it and the smell was like rotten fish needless to say i replaced them all with metal ones

 

[Chud]

another bad smell to look out for is the plastic part that holds the light shade on the bulb the part that screws on as we had a bad smell for a long time in the house and could not find it it was only when i was painting the hall ceiling that i found the source when the light was on the heat from the bulb would heat it and the smell was like rotten fish needless to say i replaced them all with metal ones

You beat me to it - my gf and I couldn't work out where this random smell of cat wee was coming from until I was decorating the spare room and found a 150w bulb in a 100w max pendant fitting - we thought the previous owner/tenant had kept a cat in the room or that it was from insecticide used on the woodwork in the house! The pendant holder was singed brown and after the light had been on for 30 minutes or so would give off a strong smell.

 

[kevindgas]

another possible cause is wahing machine hose dropped into 32 or 40 mm waste pipe with no water trap in pipe so smell can escape up the gap