# House smells

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 15, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124 "2009-09-15T01:41:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rascal_s_Mom)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124/1 "2009-09-15T01:41:47Z")

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I moved into a duplex a couple of months ago. It’s an older place I imagine, beautiful hardwood floors, small. Apparently it sat empty for a year or so, but I am told the floors were refinished during its vacancy. Not recently, as there is no smell of finish. Anyway, there is a corner of the living room where I have a chair where I sit and watch TV. There is a distinct sweet/sour/pungent smell there that I don’t notice anywhere else in the room. I have NO idea what this could be. I have a dog, but he has good toilet habits. Could this be a possible pet smell? I’ve never had an indoor cat, so I don’t know what smells they could leave. I plan on talking to my next door neighbor to find out what pets the former tenants may have had.

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124/2 "2009-09-15T02:14:48Z")

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That doesn’t sound like animal-smell to me, more like decay smell. Perhaps organic material was used as insulation?

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**Author:** ![Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rascal_s_Mom)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124/3 "2009-09-15T02:20:47Z")

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Urg, now that concerns me. I live in an area with a very high water table, though I am not actually on water. Does this mean anything more? The ground floor is newly painted, though the basement is iffy. Dry, no active mold, but intermittently damp.

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**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124/4 "2009-09-15T20:33:59Z")

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not to gross you out too much, but i had a similar problem in my previous residence: smell that i could not identify, unpleasant but not overwhelmingly retch-worthy, no visible signs as to the source… turned out to be a rotting mouse carcass in the wall

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**Author:** ![Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rascal\_s\_Mom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rascal_s_Mom)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-smells/510124/5 "2009-09-15T20:43:07Z")

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The house I grew up in is 150 years old, so I am familiar with dead mice in the walls. It worries that it could be something organic. My landlord is NOT the most pro-active one in the world.