Two topics for the price of one! (Household tips needed)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Topic #1: the smell of death.

I teach in a classroom that is about 600 square feet, not including a small (80 ft2) office and larger store room (300 ft2). The floor is concrete, there are multiple drains in the floor, and it is always damp in the room. Just damp enough that the smell of death permeates the space every morning.

I air out the room, I spritz Febreze, I even purchased a bucket of DampRid. It was their largest size. It worked great. For three days. And then it died.

I need a cheap (free?), easy way to dehumidify this room. There will be no help from admin, because there is no budget. Any money spent is my own, and I’ve already spent plenty on this place.

What suggestions do you have?

Topic #2: Houdini cat

The cat is supposed to live upstairs. If she gets downstairs, she does things that make my father’s head explode. Things like, jumping up on counters or the kitchen table, and pretending she owns the place. The mother has nixed remedies that would interfere with counter space. She wants the cat contained to the upstairs - a landing, two bedrooms, two baths, and lots of windows to look out of.

The problem: the landing has rails that any cat would laugh at, and blocking off both the head of the stairs and the railing has been problematic. What worked without a problem - kennel panels stretched across the whole length - was nixed by my mom because she felt like SHE was imprisoned (she did not acknowledge the irony). She doesn’t want the view of the picture window on the halfway landing blocked, so anything opaque is out.

Right now, my best solution - which I have not put together yet - is several 6’ tomato plant stakes as anchors for some sort of translucent fabric. Trouble is, the cat WILL try to climb it, and will either succeed or pull the whole thing down, causing drama and turmoil.

The head of the stairs itself is about three feet across. The railing next to it is another two feet, and the railing is about waist high.

I need a way to block it off that is cat-proof, cheap, easily movable, and can be put together by a klutz like myself. Also, the fire marshal can’t arrest me afterwards.

Tips? Suggestions? Mockery and laughter?

2

Do these floor drains have any function? If they’re not being used perhaps you could plug them.

I don’t have an answer for your cat problem, short of relocating the cat.

3

Cat problem: You could use some plexiglass panels to block the way, although I don’t think it’s a really great idea to put something transparent at the head of the stairs.

4

You can get some of that “crystal” style cat litter, and place it in pans in areas around the room. “Cystal cat litter” and “silica gel dessicant” are the exact same thing. And a pansworth lasts a month with a cat peeing on it every day, so it should take some time to get used up. Worth a shot.

back in the day people with summer cabins would leave a tray of (traditional, clay) cat litter in the cabin, to prevent musty odors, but I’m given to understand that crystal dessicant is more effective.

5

You mentioned drains, and the smell of death. Could the traps in these drains be dried out? Maybe the sewer gases are escaping into the room because there’s no water in the trap to block them in the underworld (as it were). Try pouring a gallon or so of water down each drain to fill the trap back up.

I never knew this until my husband told me. I knew about drain traps (like on your sink or toilet) of course, but not that in-floor drains had the same mechanism. And our basement started to stink to high heaven. When the ladies’ here at work started smelling bad, I got to be the office hero for suggesting that we pour water down the in-floor drain just in case the trap was dry.

6

Oh you beat me to it, Snicks! I’m the office hero when the horrifying stinks start in the bathrooms here. It was the maintenance guy who told me about it, although he said if the cleaning people were doing their job and dumping the mopwater down the drain, there’d be no problem.

Cat problem: why not confine it to just one room, and close that door?

7

Love the dry-traps suggestion and that may fix it.

If not, 600 sq ft is a reasonable size for most plug-in dehumidifier units, and with drains already in the room, you wouldn’t have to worry about emptying the reservoir, you could just stick the condensation hose in the drain. I bought a couple of working room-size dehumidifiers on eBay for about $50 each delivered five or six years or so ago; I’d check eBay and Craigslist and even post a request on Freecycle if I wanted one now.

If that’s not an option, or if you try it and it doesn’t work for any reason, I’d want to hear more about the room to diagnose the likely problem for better suggestions. Some possible categories: reducing the smell with an air filter or a real scent-killing (not -hiding, like Febreeze) spray; reducing mold with a few days of high heat and/or a different spray on the concrete; treating the drains with a lot of hot water and baking soda; etc.

Good luck!

8

I’m interested in knowing what he’s teaching in a concrete room, with drains, that smells of death. :eek:

9

What’s your budget for cat containment? Anything?

10

She. Phouka is both a common noun and, in this case, female.

I’m teaching art, to be specific, 3D Design. Sculpture, that is. At least, I am while the regular teacher is on disability due to a bad back.

I have taken steps of pouring half a gallon or so of boiling water down each drain, to kill bacteria and fill the trap. The smell of death was back the very next day. sigh It’s worst in the storeroom, because there’s absolutely no ventilation. I will try the crystal cat litter next.

Plexiglass for the cat sounds very promising. Especially if I can put some hinges on it and offset the piece in front of the head of the stairs so that it can be opened like a door. (Doors at the tops of stairs should open AWAY from the stairs, right?

The mother does not want the cat locked up in one room. I do not understand the reasoning behind this. It has something to do with the dog (who can’t escape the upstairs) being allowed to roam between bedrooms. Or something. My mom is overworked and occasionally deals with the universe by laying down new laws, whether they make much sense or not.

The nice thing about being the sculpture teacher is that there is plexiglass out in the storage yard, and it was gathered for free by the regular teacher, who I’m sure would be delighted to let me have some. Everybody wins!

11

Can you tell whether the smell is coming from the drains or not?

12

Plexiglass, cool! BTW, I’ve had success drilling plexiglass with a hand drill. The one time I tried a power drill, I busted the corner of the plexiglass. I would probably use zipties to anchor some to the railing.

13

For the cat problem, could you use a few of these strategically placed to convince her that the stairs are a bad idea?

ETA - Hmmm, just read about the dog, not sure if they’d work after all w/out scaring the dog too.

14

Evidently you’re not the only one with a smell problem.