Strange smell in my Bedroom! Any ideas on what it is and how to get rid of it?

Question

house was built new 11 years ago. But as the years went on I started to notice a strange smell. I have difficulty describing it exactly, it is vague, yet strong enough to definately notice it. it is kinda like a mixture of rotten food, musty, stale dank air, and a small fart. I know it sounds weird. This is the only way I could describe it. its not just one particular odor and its so vague that it is hard to say what the smell is. I am a very clean person. There is NO food or garbage left out ever. There is no pet allowed in this room. I am the only person who sleeps here. I clean, dust, vacume, wash the sheets, everything top to bottom once a week. I have tried burning candles. Yet this smell keeps coming back. Usually it is most noticeable after I have been gone all day, then come home to a smelly room. I tried leaving windows open for entire day to air out. But now it is winter, and I can not do that. Seems to be stronger when the weather is damp. See additional details.

There are no smelly shoes, or dirty clothes left around. No plants whatsoever. I am a very organized and clean person. Everything in its place is my motto. As I said before... I clean thoroughly top to bottom, on regular basis. I tried candles. Tried leaving windows open. This smell has been going on for about 5 years or so. Smells like Stale Dank Air, with a bad fart and some rotten food. Its not strong enough to make you sick. But it is noticeable enough to be an embarrassment and it ANNOYS me. My master bathroom is connected to the bedroom... but it doesnt seem to be coming from the bathroom. It seems to be in the bedroom only. Years ago they converted the neighborhood from Septic tanks, to connections to the city sewer line... Could it be from that??? The smell seemed to come when they did that. But I am not sure. Does anyone out there have any ideas on what it is... and How to get rid of it???

to the first poster: Mold could be a good possibility since this side of the house is always more damp. The windows on this side of the house always have stuff growing in them. Also the dampness is high from my ajoining bathroom with shower. But would Mold cause this Rotten food/Poopy/Stale odor??

Once about 8 years ago... I heard some mice in the walls scratching around... But if they died... I don't think the smell would have lingered for 5 years... Good thought though! Alot of people here are saying it is mold... How do I get rid of Mold? Would mold smell like poop and rotten food? I thought mold smelled like a wet basement?

Maryn Bittner: I clean this room all this time. I am always looking around. Never have seen mold... except for a little growing on the window casings one time... but that was cleaned... Furniture is moved on a regular basis ( every 9 mos or so ) to vacumme under it... Never saw any mold. The smell does not come from one particular place... Its just in the air... in the center of the room... Its not coming from the walls or anything specific... Its just in the AIR... its so hard to explain, it really annoys me.

If the problem really is Mold.... Why my room? Why not the rest of the house too? Other rooms are very close by... they have no odors at all. My room is the cleanest by far... since I clean so often... the rest of the house is not as clean... but yet it does not smell. WhY? this really annoys me!

Answer 1

It sounds very much like mold.

Depending on where it's growing, you may be able to see it, wash it away, and that's the end of it, or it may be inside walls.

Step one is to move furniture several inches away from walls and run a dehumidifier and a fan in that room during the day, when you're not sleeping there. (They can be noisy.) Make sure you're faithful about emptying and cleaning the place the dehumidifier puts the water once removed from the air.

Step two is visual inspection of the walls, floor to ceiling, on all four sides of the room, looking for mold.

Step three is olfactory inspection. Get your nose right near the walls. Where's the smell strongest? You may need to tear out plaster or wallboard there, treat the moisture problem, and replace the wall.

I've got my fingers crossed for visible mold you can wash off.

Answer 2

I know that you can be a very clean person and still have a problem like this coming from within the structure or from outside of your house.

When I do a web search for Bad House Odor I see that there are quite a few people who have similar odor problems in their homes. I am looking for clues from the answers on various sites. The fact that you have an adjoining bathroom is of interest. I am wondering if a leak in a pipe somewhere could be contributing? Are there any pipes that run under the bedroom?

One idea I saw was to check any foundation vents-are they blocked or closed? ( we cover ours in the winter only).
I would look into different types of mold and see if any are known for odors. We lived in an old farmhouse that grew terrible mold in the walls and ceiling of the bathroom due to a small structural leak outside the house. We didnt even see the mold for the longest time - and there was no odor!

I am wondering if there is something puddling under your bedroom..a leak or dampness. If there is carpet, can you pull it up and look under? Can you have someone inspect the crawl space above and under the room?Do you know anything about the land under the room? This might require professional help. Check things from the easiest aspect first down to the hardest aspect to save money.

A phone call to an allergist might tell if there is any way to detect mold spores in the air. There might be a test. I wish you the best.

Answer 3

You may need to set out some bait traps for termites ( home improvement store for about $45-$50). CHeck them weekly to see if they have begun losing content. Continue changing them out until the problem stops. You will also need to treat around you whole house. One box will usually do the trick unless you have a really huge home. Sometimes, when their colonies get really big, they smell musty and funky. They also produce a toxic gas that can cause all sorts of problems, even death if not diagnosed in time.
In the event that you do have rats, they could have congregated and made more permanent nests inside the walls wherer you are. You may or may not notice their prescense. The rotten smell would be coming from the birthing process and food brought to the babies. I knew a woman who moved into her house and did not know she had a rat infestation until she started remodeling and then they found about 1000 rats after it was all said and done. They are crafty critters. I think the craziest part of that story is that the house was infested with more than 20 cats when the previous owner lived there and they didn't know about the rats either.

Answer 4

Well Angie, it sounds like you have a continuous source of water into a moldy spot back inside the walls somewhere.
You're an RN amiright? If you work in a hospital go talk to your facility director and see if one of the engineering guys can give you a good price on removing and checking behind said wall or walls of the particular room in question.

You could have huge colonies of all manner of aspergili fungi growing back there and even though this is normal via vents, it is not healthy in larger concentrations.

The way to get rid of mold is simple bleaching/disinfecting with a dilution ratio of 5:1 water/bleach and let it air dry--but make sure to locate the water source if any to prevent further growth.

You've got to locate the source and if its the city then the city will have to send out repair crews and fix that--heck it could even be and underground sewage leak for all we know.

I wish I could give you an easier solution but you've got to get to the source and deal with it there.

If you decide to live with it then I would suggest you obtaining a home ionizer that purifies the air but if you do use an ionizer be sure to adequately ventilate between applications for they have been known to irritate human membranes and so forth.

Good luck with this.

Answer 5

Do you have wallpaper at all in that room?

A couple of years ago when stripping the wallpaper from a northeast corner room in our house I discovered mold under the wall paper.

Our house has the color in the stucco and has never had to be painted. But with age the stucco has become more porious and is allowing moisture through the walls. The vinyl wall paper kept it from showing in the room.

That is my guess. But it could be the moisture thing, or the mouse thing. We had field mice once and I threw the bait traps into the attic. Well I got rid of the mice but also killed a squirel. PU. My Hubby had to get into the attic and get the dead body. Yikes. It really stunk.

Your roof vents to the toilets could be clogged if you have trees over your house. Our roof vents had never been cleaned ( I don't think I knew they had to be) but we have lots of trees and they had leaves in them.

So we had all of the cleanouts for the plumbing cleaned ,that is the roof clean outs at one per bathroom and kitchen and the wet cleanouts to each bathroom. If they are clogged at all it can cause a musty smell or maybe a worse smell.

Have you checked your attic for any sort of leaks that could be making moist spots? Does your refrigerator back up to this room? Once my icemaker line developed a drip and leaked enough to saturate the carpet under the wall in the dining room . Just another Idea to think about.

That's all I 've got. I hope you get it figured out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

Answer 6

Strange Odor In House

Answer 7

Damp Smell In House

Answer 8

are you able to check in the attic above your bedroom and peek around?
In my apartment, there was a bad moldy smell that drove me crazy and i kept complaining and they didn't do anything about it until my ceiling collapsed and all this insulation and crap fell on my floor!
It was soaking wet, nasty , and moldy!!!
It was caused by either a leak in the roof ( a very minor leak) or perhaps condensation. Either way, it was old, dank damp fibers covered with mold and spores. YUCK !

Answer 9

Remove the mattress from the room to see if that's causing the odor. I know the odor you've described. My theory is although most people use sheets and mattress pads, the mattress still absorbs our perspiration and body odor, which can change depending on the food we eat. If it's possible, take the mattress outside and let it sit in the sun for the day. That should kill any bacteria the mattress might have.

Answer 10

It could be mold inside of the wall or floor if you can't find it outside of these. It would cost a lot and lots of time. It could be really dangerous for human bodies, it could poison us slowly but enough to kill eventually.

You could also try to leave lots of baking soda or powder to eliminate the smell. It works really well in refregirator and it might work for the room too if you use a lot of them.

Good luck and take care!