The lamp uses an incandescant bulb that has an 8" translucent globe around it. The bulb points down so the globe has an opening for the bulb and is prevented from falling by 3 small thumbscrews - like a lot of light fixtures.
So we’re sitting there consuming fine ales. I look up and notice that the globe has some liquid in the bottom of it. The liquid is yellow. About 5-6 fl oz.
We take the globe down and sniff. It is urine.
The 6 of us sat there and tried to figure this out but we couldn’t.
Immediately above the kitchen is a bedroom. The family is a very normal clean middle class family with two kids. We are satisfied that the boy did not take the globe down and pee in it for a laugh.
So what’s with that? How did urine get into the globe of a light fixture that is 7’ from the floor and above a large round table.
My guess is that though it may have smelled like urine, it was something else. Probably some water leaked in from somewhere else, between the ceiling and the upstairs floor, and became discolored through contact along the way.
Or: do they have a pet that may have peed on the floor above?
It would be unusual, but not impossible, for a drainage pipe to run through the center of a ceiling. If someone didn’t do this intentionally, then it had to come into the globe from above, which would seem to indicate a leaking pipe, although, even a leaky pipe is unlikely to drip pure, or even nearly pure, urine. Conduit isn’t normally used in home construction, although that would be a possiblity, in that conduit could provide a path for liquid to be channeled from some other place. It could be that it’s not urine, perhaps rainwater, or condensation, that has been tainted by filtering through some material used in construction.
Then again, maybe it’s just an incontinent poltergeist?
Could mice or other rodents have gotten into the fixture?
Could some other liquid have gotten into the fixture when someone was cleaning house? Old urine usually has an ammonia smell. Maybe someone sprayed the fixture with an ammonia-based cleaner, meaning to clean the outside, and some got inside?
I agree with what everyone else said, I have another (unlikely) possibility.
You said you where in the kitchen, and it looks like you noticed not them. Perhaps it’s been there for ages (or building up for ages). It’s just possible that it’s condensation that collects from steam in the kitchen.
I’d imagine that stale water that’s coming with kitchen smells and is repeatedly heated and cooled would smell pretty much like urine.
The test would be to steam up the kitchen with the light off and see in the inside of the bowl is damp afterwards.
I knew that if I clicked on this thread I would not be disappointed.
The only trouble though is that if the upstairs drain does run between or through floor joists, it was probably laid at a pitch that doesn’t meet code. If there is a slow leak from the bathroom, it may follow the pipe, and drop off at the electrical fixture.
A simple check would be to unscrew the lamp fixture from the electrical box (kill the electricity, obviously), and see if there is any trace of moisture or urine smell in the box. Possible culprit would be the wax seal on the toilet needing replacement.
I’m going to have to go with this one. The fixture is in the kitchen area. Having said that, there are three identical fixtures in the kitchen. None have the smelly stuff in them.
As for the wiring methods, my house is identical and I just ripped my kitchen apart. All wiring is NM cable strung through the joists. No pipes are anywhere near this fixture. No conduit.
Don’t know why you’d say that. Under IRC 3005.3 and UPC 708.0, 1/8"/1’ slope is adequate for 4" pipe (3" pipe if under 36 Fixture Units). Therefore, a water closet floor flange turning immediately 90° could run laterally ~8’ in 4" pipe before meeting the DWV stack, assuming 2 x 8 solid sawn framing of the floor assembly.
