Last year, summer maybe, I started noticing that there was an odor in parts of the house that I couldn’t seem to identify. Kind of musky (not MUSTY) and I would prefer it NOT be there. Over the winter, I didn’t really notice it, but this past week it has appeared again fairly strong. I’m determined to ferret it out this year, but I don’t even know where to start. I was thinking it might be something with the living room carpet, but that’s 4.5 years old - why would it start now? There doesn’t seem to be any one location you can pinpoint, although it’s most noticeable in the foyer and adjacent living room.
I have an odor problem in one of my entry hall coat closets in the spring and summer. The closet opposite is fine.The closet is directly over the part of my basement where the water softener is.
I had a similar problem with an odor that only I seemed to notice. It was most noticeable when the sun warmed up the front of the house. Bless him, my DH cut holes all over the house looking for a dead rodent. Turned out, there was an abandoned, giant wasp nest between the joists in the foyer ceiling. He had to cut out a big section of drywall to remove it!
Yep, for us it was a nest of baby birds that had been built in a vent and somehow slid inside the wall. Called an exterminator guy to remove them and fix the vent. It was in the master and I couldn’t sleep in there for weeks.
Our odor problem, 20 years ago, was raccoon urine in the chimney. Not making that up. We noticed it the first year in the house, during the warm months. Had the chimney guys out, and all taken care of. They said it’s not uncommon.
Sometimes mice try to get in during cold weather, but can’t get inside the house and freeze in walls,ceilings, vents,etc. Then it warms up and you smell them. If that’s the problem the smell will go away as it decomposes. Do you get flies as the smell worsens?
A few years ago, I was convinced that a mouse had died in the walls. I noticed it at the bottom of the stairs, and so I sniffed alll the way up the stairs trying without success to pinpoint the smell.
Finally, after many days, dh made a bunch of holes in the plaster walls on the way up the stairs. I sniffed all of them and nope, not in any of those.
Turned out the male cat had peed on the tile floor in the upstairs bathroom (at the top of the stairs, no one was really using it). His urine, as it was drying up, smelled quite like a rotting mouse corpse.
I think this may be your answer - a dead animal. We had a similar thing a few years ago; the odor was disgusting, and to make matters worse, it was coming from my bathroom, which is in my bedroom!
If it was a dead animal, you’d definitely notice and it wouldn’t be musky, IMO. It would smell really putrid, like rotting flesh bad as that is what it is. If it was small like a mouse, it would be intense for a few days then dissipate.
I’m wondering it live animals of some type. Their nesting and their urine and waste could lead to a musky odor.
I’d call a pest control company as a starting point.
The first house we bought years ago had terrible cat urine smells coming up from the ductwork. The former owners had 3 cats and had masked the odor during the showing of the house. It was awful and took professional ductwork cleaning and removal of some carpeting to finally get rid of the odor.
I’ll have to start a grid search. It’s really difficult because it seems to pervade a large area and I can’t imagine that H is going to poke holes in the walls! It HAS warmed up some here recently, which is highly suspicious considering that I wasn’t really noticing the smell over the winter.
Is there heat on in your house in the winter? If so…wouldn’t it be warm inside in the winter too?
I’m wondering if this is something outside of the house, or in a crawl space or some other place where it’s cold in the winter and hot in the summer…maybe even the attic.
Could be mold, especially if the air in the foyer and adjacent room is stagnant. Mold needs moist air, so odor will be more prominent in moist seasons. Also, there can be a range of mold odors. Musty, cat uriney, etc.
Central OH is notorious for wet basements, so I’ve smelled some of this.
Still have no clue what you are smelling, but just another idea.
If it was small like a mouse, it would be intense for a few days then dissipate.