There is a foul odour coming from under the floorboards or skirting board in one of our rooms?

Question

In one of our downstairs rooms only, smells like bad eggs and boiled cabbage/nappies! It seems to be worst by the skirting board. We live in a 10 year old detached barn conversion and the floor is wooden flooring. Should I call a plumber, heating engineer or what? I dont want to get a £100 call out for being told nothing to do with plumbing so if someone could suggest anything that might narrow it down? I would be most grateful, thanks in anticipation! There is nothing in the room that could cause the smell (dead body or moudly food hiding anywhere as we have had the place apart!).

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for all your answers so far, you are all so kind to bother! However, I probably didn't make it clear that the floor is sealed wooden flooring and I cannot get the flooring up easily. I will try the skirting board to see if I can prise this away. We have heard mice/rodents between the floorboards upstairs so this might be the reason. I am hoping that if so, they will just decompose and then, like one answer, just get eaten by the bugs down there? To ge the flooring up would be a right pain if we don't need to. Will it really cause health problems if it is a dead rat and just left to rot? Sorry if this is obvious to others!

Answer 1

It sounds like a dead rat. When mice die, they are so small that their bodies dry out and mummify. Rats, on the other hand, contain more water and decompose slowly. If you can put up with it for three weeks or so, spray the room and the specific area with deodorising spray until the carcass has been consumed by beetle larvae and bacteria.

Answer 2

Dead rodents, most likely.

Mice have been dying under the floorboards of my friend's flat lately and they give off a disgusting gaseous putrid cabbage-y smell (see my recent resolved question on Ask).

The pest control people say that the mice decompose in 4-5 days, at which point the smell dies away, and we have found this to be the case - not much consolation whilst it's happening and not a particularly healthy situation.

If you're going to call anyone, it should be your Local Authority pest people (£80 or thereabouts if you're working. Free if you're not). They will probably ask you to lift the floorboards. If you are renting, they will want the landlord's people there simultaneously to lift the floorboards. Otherwise, they won't lift them themselves.

You can pretty much work out where the corpses are by sniffing the floorboards. If you're not able to lift the boards, then start filling any holes with steel wool and / or wood between the boards. (If you can get a biro through a hole, a mouse can get through it.)

Answer 3

Think you have a dead mouse there. To remove it, find where the smell is the strongest, you said its near the skirting board, you'll need to prise it off genitally with a prise/crow bar. If the dead offender isn't there, you may need to start pulling up floor boards. Just take your time, you will do less damage that way. when you come to put everything back together use wood screws to fasten everything down, that way it will be easier to gain access if you need to in the future.
Good luck!

Answer 4

It might unfortunately be a simple case of a dead rodent. I would lift a few flloorboards first and have a look, if that reveals nothing i would contact your local authority's pest control department. If a small animal or rodent has somehow got under your floor it could be a potential health risk with rats for example carrying multiple diseases.

hope i have'nt scared u too much !!

Answer 5

I would take off the skirting board if I could not get under the floor any other way. It may be a dead mouse or something then I would take up a floorboard, hope it is not a dead human body

Answer 6

Dead Rat Under Floorboards

Answer 7

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Answer 8

If you have rat poison down, they die, swell up and stink like hell, take the skirting board off, and look under the floor or you will have this for weeks. Good luck,

Answer 9

was the floor dug out,and concreted? if not what was the barn used for in the past? could it be from the sub floor, or is there a body of a rodent between the walls, if so you will have to wait until it decomposes, (I had one at my old house)

Answer 10

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