We have recently moved home, and all is fine appart from a mystery smell which I'm unable to track down. It's driving me crazy (actually, my wife thinks I am crazy as she can't smell it). I'm hoping someone on here could offer some tips on how to track it down, or what it might be. Here's some info:
Background: The house is a two floor (plus basement) block/concrete construction. There is a wide hallway on the groundfloor connecting the rooms (including kitchen, toilet/shower room, stairwell). The stairs are wood-board on concrete. The floor in the hall and kitchen is tiles over concrete, the rest woodblock/parquet over concrete.
Location of the smell: I usually smell it when coming down the stairs, seems to be strongest about half way down. However sometimes it doesn't smell on the stairs at all, but rather in the ground floor hallway. Seems to move around quite a lot. Occasionally I have felt it upstairs, but assume this is it drifting. The basement smells fine.
The Smell: The best description of the smell I can give is something like old rubbish.
What I've investigated so far:
1) Something died somewhere? This was my initial thought, and since I usually notice the smell on the stairs I thought I'd try there first. I've taken up some of the wood on the stairs (not all yet) but not looking promising, as there really isn't much space between the wood boards and the concrete. Not really sure where else something could have gotten, as everything seems to be tight against the concrete.
2) Smell from kitchen moving into rest of house? I never really detected a bad smell in the kitchen, but thought I'd rule it out anyway. I thought maybe it was the bin under the kitchen sink that might be causing it. So I moved the bin to a small storage room at the back of the kitchen (and kept the door closed) and thoroughly cleaned inside the cupboard under the sink. No change. I also looked behind all of the cabinets for a problem, but could not see anything.
3) Gas from drains? The sink doesn't smell in the kitchen, and it's got a P-bend trap on the pipe – so I can't see a problem there. Cant detect a smell from the plugholes in the bathroom either. The bathroom sink waste pipe has a bottle-trap on it. Don't know if there is a trap on the shower as it's a sealed unit, but I'm guessing yes (and can't smell anything).
Can any one think of something I might have missed, or give any advice?
Best Answer
Guesses so far...
Dead thing in vent.Stinky toilet.Solution 1:Flush the toilet.Solution 2:Wash the toilet.Solution 3:Replace wax ring.Solution 4:Light a match / candle.