Started getting a strange odor in the house yesterday. Noticed is as soon as I walked in the door from work. After being in the house for a few minutes last night, you didn’t really notice it unless you stepped outside for a bit and came back in. Tonight it’s stronger - smelling like something dead and I can detect it all the time.
I’ve checked throughout the house trying the hot/cold search method without success. Checked all the likely places including plumbing fixtures - nothing. I’m down to where I’m suspecting something may have assumed room temperature inside one of our A/C ducts. Unfortunately with high ceilings and concealed ducts, I’m unable to place my nose at the scene to confirm.
I don’t know but if you find out can you let me know? I’ve been wandering from room to room, sniffing and sniffing trying to figure out what the bad smell is in my house too.
This happened to us (in the bathroom) - the smell buildup was gradual, over the course of a week or so. It got BAD. Lasted a month, then went away as the corpse dried up.
When we remodeled a year later, I found the mummified thing.
Sucks, but not much you can do about it short of cutting holes in the wall.
Rotting potatoes or onions would be my guess, which when I smell it I ususally suspect plumbing woes or worse. But no it’s the rotting potatoes under the sink.
The offending odor seems to be dispersed evenly throughout the downstairs portion of the house, no hot spots. Which leads me to believe something has gotten into the HVAC unit and either met an untimely death or just died there. In order to be evenly dispersed, the offending creature would have to be either inside the HVAC unit itself, or in the adjacent ductwork. If it was out in one of the duct runs after branching from the main, the odor would be more dominant in that room, which is not the case.
This, or a dead creature, are the two top choices.
You might get help from an exterminator - they’re used to crawling around the little “extra” spaces of homes to find critters, live and otherwise. Also, nowadays with the economy the way it is yadda yadda yadda, it’s very easy and cheap to find a general handyman. You might find one who can deal with the high ceilings and concealed ducts. Good luck!
Have you got any flowers in water that are just past their prime? I’ve found that funky-ass rot-water to be the culprit sometimes even if the flowers still look good.
How long has it been since you have had your air ducts cleaned? If it has been a while (or never) you might has well have a professional do it. I think the last time we had it done, it cost $100. When they did ours, they had a hose connected to a vacuum on their truck, and they cleaned all the dust out of the ducts.
If something is dead in your vents, this should solve the problem. If there is nothing dead in the ducts, then at least you have clean ducts and the satisfaction of knowing that you can look elsewhere.
I seem to recall a “straw in the nose” technique being touted as useful for pinpointing the directions of smells. If it’s coming out of your HVAC, though…
FWIW, because of the proximity of another thread, I origially read the title as “Ball Odor in the House.”
Had our HVAC tech come out today to check the units (located in the attic) just to make sure one didn’t have a dead critter inside somewhere decomposing and causing untold damage (just spent $1500 getting a coil replaced in one of them earlier this year).