weird smell

[shirleymw]

Hello,
Im not sure how this works, but i need help with the following;
I have recently built an annex to my home, its brand new from the foundations up. I have been renting it as a holiday let and everything has been great...until the 19th of december 2009, when my gusts left there was this awful smell!!!
4 months later it is still thre and im going nuts trying to sort it out!!!
I have checked everything from the pipe work to the septic tank, to the light fittings, the carpets/furnishings etc (all new)
I have taken out the fridge, microwave,heaters, pulled back carpets, had 3 plumbers in and still its there...
Its a really weird smell, not sewery or lpg, Sort of chemically/heavy...
Even when the guests bring out there sheets i can smell it on them!!!
I have asked the last guests who were there for 2 months and they said they couldnt smell it, but once you have been in there for a few seconds you cant smell it...
Its impossible to trace to any surface etc..
It isnt ex boyfriends, ghosts or anything like rotting rodents...
Thanks in anticipation... please help if you have ANY ideas as i dont know what else to try... xxxxxxx

 

[ColJack]

you could try environmental health.. they may have equipment to detect what the smell is and be able to trace it ...

do you perchance use febreeze?
I got some fabric softner with febreeze in it and it smells like jeys fluid..

 

[Chrissy007]

Hi,

We had a similar situation in my mothers old house, a really unusual smell,
We had a letter from the Gasboard about changing our gas meter, and when they came to install a new metre the man said we had the a very very small gas leak. We was very supprised as we could not smell gas at all.

The problem was found to be a joint at an old gas fire, once this was removed the smell was gone.

 

[shirleymw]

hi guys, thanks so much for replying, first time on a forum or on any talking to people thing!!
Not gas as in the middle of the moors, There is LPG to gas cooker but i have isolated the supply...
I will definately try enviromental health if you think they will help.
I keep coming back to sewer gas but it smells nothing like the tank/manholes etc... And the man from the sewers says "no"
xx

 

[Therms]

Four months is a long time for a smell to hang around, which suggests it’s something leaking because a dead animal would have long since decomposed. It’s unlikely to be the fridge because this would have emptied itself by now - although a leak from this is a very chemical small.

Sewage doesn't always smell of poo. Sometimes it smells chemically because you can smell the gases and not the effluent. Are your traps in the sinks all full of water?

LPG smells like over-boiled cabbage, so I don’t think the smell is that.

Grasping at straws it might be an electrical arc, which would create ozone in small quantities. Or it might be the dreaded carbon monoxide from a heater, boiler or cooker.

Is the smell always there or is it worse when the weather is sunny, or the wind blows in a certain direction. Is it external to the house like a nearby farm?

Any other clues?

 

[shirleymw]

Hi Therms,
No only inside, If you sit outside with the door open you get whiffs from inside. so not farm and being a country girl i reckon i would know!!
I have checked all 3 traps,shower,sink x2 and there is no washing machine, dishwasher etc...
I have disconnected the gas (lpg) and isolated the waste pipes from the septic tank.
The mains pipe is 4inches and only has one join under the concrete base... could there be a leak in this do you think? and would it smell chemically?
I was doing some siliconing today and it had a similiar smell.
I have tried doing a smoke test but im not sure i was doing it right and there was no ingress.
I have turned off the electric at the consumer unit, could it still arc???
Honestly therms, i have tried everything... I am now thinking of pulling up the vinyl and carpets and starting again (they are less than a year old)
Everyone who visits i drag in there and they all say they can smell it
but they have no idea what it is!!! It is really strong just as you enter the front door...( the annex is only 2 rooms and a shower room....

 

[gregers]

not a musty smell,like wet vegetation?

 

[ColJack]

smells like silicone? that's acetic acid..same as is in vinegar..
you get that smell from some leather products such as setees and so on.. any of those?

it also occurs with some latex adhesives (or at least it did on one jobsite I was on.. they mixed latex with the self leveling compound and it stank for days as it dried.. ).. as you say you ave vinyl flooring it's likely glued down with adhesive?... maybe?

I presume you've tried emptying the place of furniture and curtains etc to see if it's any of that causing the smell?

try sprinkling baking soda on the carpets / rugs and floors and giving it a good brushing in then vacuum off..

 

[shirleymw]

Hi Guys,
Lino is stuck down with double sided tape, but yes there IS a new leather sofa and a new fabric chair... I couldnt carry the sofa but i did take out the chair and thought it got better, so i have put it back tonite as a test...
oooh, how exciting is my life...no replies neccesary!!!
I REALLY appreciate the feedback as im getting paranoid about smell and next guest is due on the 24th...
Thanks all xxx
PS... IS THERE SOME WAY I CAN CHECK FOR ACETIC ACID???
PPS... tHE LINO WAS CHEAP AS CHIPS AND IS WHERE THE SMELL IS(AS YOU WALK IN)... COULD IT BE THIS, DOES THST CONTAIN ACETIC ACID XXX

 

[mikric]

Have a feel around all the electrical switches and sockets etc, are any of them warm to the touch ? if you find a warm one have a sniff of it, sometimes a fault inside they can give off a fishy/cabbage smell. Worth a try.

 

[ColJack]

if it IS lino and not vinyl flooring, then it will give off a smell when it's new as the linoleum dries out a bit.... ( according to some googling.. )

might be an idea to ask over in the flooring forum as not everyone ventres out of their expertese areas..

 

[Space cat]

when my gusts left there was this awful smell!!!

That suggests to me that they caused it. ColJack is correct. When silicone sealant sets it gives off acetic acid. Maybe they spilt a bottle of vinegar and it seeped away somewhere inaccessible.

PS: before you mentioned the silicone, I thought of methylamine. Anybody who got to sniff some in the school chemistry lab will recognize it immediately because the slightest whiff is quite nauseous. It has a 'heavy' smell reminiscent of rotting fish - does that sound familiar - and a little goes a very long way!