help me eradicate the bad unhealthy smell that I can't locate.

October 24, 2007 7:19 PM

There's this odor. I don't know what it is or how to describe it except as dry, organic, and searing. Noisome and musty. But not organic like shit nor like mildew. Not searing like acid. Astringent but not like alcohol. A staleness, certainly, that tickles the throat and makes the eyes water. A malodorous fustiness, raw but not putrid.

It seems worse when the weather is damp and it only occurs in the room in my old and badly maintained apartment where I spend all my time. It isn't me, though. It could be rotting wood or mold -- the bathroom ceiling had a lot of black mold for some time before I bleached it; it gives me headaches and a dry throat and post nasal drip when it gets bad; but I can't bleach my bed and chairs and sofa and books, nor can I replace them. What could be causing this odor? What can I do to destroy it? The water from my tap smells slightly marshy; the building is over 100 years old and badly maintained; there are many things in a dump like this that could cause this smell. I'd just like to make it stop. Any suggestions?

posted by Grod to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

Sounds like cat piss to me. I lived in a house that would unleash its cat piss funk only when it got damp or rainy for a few days on end.
posted by 45moore45 at 7:26 PM on October 24, 2007

Do you have a roach problem? A bad infestation has an odor.
posted by konolia at 7:46 PM on October 24, 2007

Sounds similar to when I let my dishes sit in the sink for too long.
posted by rhizome at 8:01 PM on October 24, 2007

Response by poster: no cats. no roaches that I've seen and I'm up at all sorts of hours. I had a mouse problem for a while but that was more in the kitchen. This is in the room that has 3 large windows in old wooden frames, lead painted walls possibly rotting at the baseboard, and connects directly to the bathroom built before that law requiring exhaust fans. So the possibilities for sources are large. If it's mold I don't know what I can do. The window casings, although they look decayed, don't have a smell up close. I'm baffled and my nose hurts and that feeling seems to incapacitate my mind.
posted by Grod at 8:01 PM on October 24, 2007

Is it possible that something (mouse? bird?) has died in an inaccessible place? I vividly remember a horrendous smell infiltrating our house when I was a teenager. We tried so hard to isolate it and to figure out where it was coming from, and we cleaned and sprayed, and cleaned some more, to no avail. We finally discovered a dead bird underneath a cabinet (how it got there we'll never know).
posted by amyms at 8:13 PM on October 24, 2007

I'm baffled and my nose hurts and that feeling seems to incapacitate my mind.

those sound like the symptoms of a mold allergy, plus you mention several things which suggest that the apartment has moisture problems.

mold is ubiquitous, a mold problem is really a moisture problem which is causing an explosion of mold.

I would suggest moving. In apartment there is probably little you can do to solve the underlying moisture problem.

You might improve things by fixing whatever water leaks you can find and aggressively venting the bathroom and kitchen i.e. where you use water. But the water vapor might even be coming from another apartment or from an outside leak...
posted by geos at 8:19 PM on October 24, 2007

I should mention that even you may not even be able to find visible evidence of the mold population...

you could get it checked one way or another, but it will either be expensive or unreliable or both and then the solution will still be: move!
posted by geos at 8:21 PM on October 24, 2007

It could be rotting wood

That's possible. Wood with certain kinds of rot smells disgustingly, stomach-assaultingly pungent. Fresh wood-chip mulch often has this smell.

Is it possible that something (mouse? bird?) has died in an inaccessible place?

That's also possible, but I think the OP would be describing the smell differently. We had something largeish - a rat or maybe squirrel - die inside the walls of a house I lived in in Philly. The smell was repulsive - but not acidic, acrid, or pungent. It was more a sick, off sweetness, like that of a steak that is just past its prime, only much more intense. The main note was sweetness, though - just not a nice sweetness.
posted by Miko at 8:22 PM on October 24, 2007

Sounds like one of the following: (1) creosote, (2) termites or (3) carpenter ants. Each of these has a signature smell that's a lot like that acrid yet...something... smell that you're having trouble pinning down.
posted by limeonaire at 8:27 PM on October 24, 2007

Could be many things, but dead mice seem like a strong possibility to me.
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:32 PM on October 24, 2007

Hm, it sounds like mold to me. I had a similar smell seeping into my apartment this summer. Vinegary and barnyardy, right? I was convinced it was cat piss. I blamed it on a stray cat I saw hanging around the building. Then the smell got worse and I was convinced that the cat had pissed and then died in our vents.

I was wrong. It was mold. Yes, it totally sucks.

Since it seems worse when the weather is damp, is it possible that rain is leaking in through the ceiling or walls? If you identified the source of the leak, you could bleach the shit out of it and seal it up to prevent any regrowth. For your health and sanity's sake, I'd like to think that it's just a leak, not a matter of the entire house rotting around you.

If you are renting and your landlord is not willing or able to take care of this, I'd get the hell out there, ASAP.
posted by thewrongparty at 8:33 PM on October 24, 2007

Sure it's not mice? They will saturate all laong baseboards with their leavings. Organic? Check. Mustiness? Ammonia (it is urine). Aggravated by humidity? Check. Nearly invisible? Yep. Not site specific? Ayup.
posted by sourwookie at 9:23 PM on October 24, 2007

Response by poster: Were it mold would any of those 'encapsulation' products on the market actually help? Is there something less toxic and smelly that I can release into the room, an aerosol solution?
posted by Grod at 9:48 PM on October 24, 2007

Were it mold would any of those 'encapsulation' products on the market actually help? Is there something less toxic and smelly that I can release into the room, an aerosol solution?

I doubt it. The only way to stop the mold is to fix what is encouraging it to reproduce rapidly i.e. the humidity.
posted by geos at 4:51 AM on October 25, 2007

I second the cat piss thing, having lived in an apartment that had stray cats pissing in one particular room for years.

It soaks into the floor, and only comes out when hot/humid, assaults the eyes, nose, and throat.

Move.
posted by Max Power at 6:17 AM on October 25, 2007

if you can't move...a dehumidifier, maybe an industrial strength one, would at least knock it down a few notches
posted by genmonster at 7:08 PM on October 25, 2007