House odour

Thank you for all your knowledge on this subject. My husband put rat poison down before our holidays near an open hole near to the bathroom outlet. I bet the smell in the bedroom is the result of a rat crawling into a pipe. I’ll let you all know once I find the cause of the stinky gas like smell.

We had a nasty smell in our living room when we got back from holiday last year. Having just had a new gas fire fitted before we went away we called out the installer to check for leak. Later I discovered a damp patch by the patio doors and discovered the wooden frame was spongy. When we had the patio doors replaced we found the wood frame was rotten and had ants nests in. The smell was caused by the rotten wood.

When plastic overheats it gives off a foul, slightly fishy smell. Check all your plugs, lamps and anything else which plugs into an electric socket including overhead lights. It doesn't have to be switched on but gets much worse when heated.
Once discovered you can recognise the smell anywhere but the first time I experienced it I was driven to distraction for weeks.

Do you have a bathroom nearby? If a trap on the drain of a shower is allowed to dry out because of prolonged disuse the smell from the sewers can come straight up from it. We get this every now and then from our downstairs shower which is never used any more. Water run down solves it instantly!

We once found a mouse had climbed up a curtain in between the lining and actual curtain. We found him quite by chance - explained why kitty was fascinated by the curtains!

We had no smells but a dreadful fright when our cat brought a live rat inside during the night! He was on his way to drop it on our bed I am sure but I heard the clattering. DH was very much braver than me and he managed to catch it. I was terrified! The cat is not allowed out at night any more!

As others say, dead mice /rats give a gassy smell.
Since giving up having a cat around we don’t have a rodent problem! Ironic hey?

I had a strange smell in the bedroom many years ago, turned out our Springer dog had laid on the bed with a massive bone. He knew the bed was banned so when he heard me come home he must have panicked and it got dropped down behind the bed head and jammed

My brother worked for Northern Gas, and was on the emergency team. He once went out to a home where the lady living there could smell gas. He ended up in the loft and found the body of her husband who had hung himself .

We used to have an unpleasant smell coming from the receiver end of our phone every time we used it. It really was horrible and I couldn't work out what it was. In the end we took the thing apart and discovered it was dried milk, which had presumably been spilt over it at some point.

I once found that the source of a horrible mysterious smell was a decaying plastic electric light fitting, the lamp holder bit.I cannot explain except that changing the thing finally banished the smell.

Once again after a 3 week holiday away from home that putrid smell in our spare bedroom has returned. As the door is kept closed for this period of time the smell has intensified. Please please it’s driving me crazy. What’s the next step?

Does it coming from the floor, Elizabeth 1? Is it possible to lift a floorboard or two, to see if there's a dead mouse or something down there?

'Does it seem to be' (didn't preview before posting).

I had a bad smell in the corner of my living room for ages I tried everything I found a hole in the skirting behind inbuilt book shelves and blocked that up but could still smell it for about four months then it disappeared pretty sure it was a dead rat as I had found one had come in through the washing machine out pipe previously Blocked that up and haven’t had any smells since then apart from one bedroom which stinks of cigarette smoke from next door ( old house with Victorian fireplaces in the bedrooms ) tried everything to get rid of it without any luck

Elizabeth1 leave the door open next time

I think most of you are right about a dead rodent. A friend of my sister who lived in a Tudor house had a similar problem of a truly foul smell. Shortly before they arranged to tear off all the wonderful old oak wainscotting, they discovered that their three-year-old daughter had a dead rat tucked cosily in her doll's pram.

Think I’ve got it! A little report from the newspapers. And yes we’ve had this room painted.

B&Q says it will compensate hundreds of people who experienced bad smells after painting their homes with Valspar paint that it sold them.
Customers have likened the smell to cat urine and rotten animals. They say the smell gets stronger in hot weather and if the windows are open.

I’m on the case again. I think the smell went away previously because I’ve always kept the door open but my kind neighbour who looks after my house always closes the door. I’ll let her into my thoughts then I’ll get her to leave this door open in future.

I have not had rodents in the house, but a few years ago, for about a week I was plagued by a dreadful smell in my kitchen.

This turned out to be water left in the pan after I had boiled pasta and it was festering on the top of the high level grill we had then . Very stinky.
I am not a domestic goddess.

When we first moved onto our old house we could hear mice scratching around in the walls and some of the ceilings. We got the pest operatives in (Council did rats but not mice) who put down bait. One of the mice died in between the living room ceiling and flat roof. We lived in the kitchen for a fortnight.

My DD used the Valspar paint in her hallway, poor cat got the blame for the awful smell. It was horrendous and smelt for months, not sure what she did about it because despite the smell she sold the house and moved!

Hope that solves the problem Elizabeth1, have they given any clue to help get rid of the smell?

I remember hunting down a dreadful smell in the kitchen, thought something had popped it's clogs in there. It took me a couple of days to discover it was a rotting potato in a bag.

jusnoneed I phoned the designated B&Q number and I’m now waiting on a return call or email. I was told there is a covering emulsion which will take the smell away. When I told them folks were saying the original emulsion caused fungi etc I was told this was a media scaremongering and B&Q have looked into this. Fingers crossed.

Bluebelle DD had the smoke from next door problem in her bedroom. She decided the smoke was seeping through the holes in the wall where the floor joists were. New tenants had taken up the carpets and had bare boards and rugs.

Given the direction of the rafters the floor boards ran parallel with the party wall so DD took up first two boards and sprayed builders foam all along the party wall under the floor where the rafters ran and replaced the floor boards. It worked she can now sleep without passive smoking.

Valspar has come up trumps they’ve offered us a reasonable cost to redo the bedroom. It seems they’ve removed a substance from the emulsion causing the odour. So pleased I’ve got to the root of the problem.