My 17 yr old sons bedroom has, for the past 2 months, had an awful smell - like strong fish - which really catches the back of your throat! I know most people will say all boys rooms smell - but this is different! It started two months ago - for no apparent reason. His sisters say it is him - he has a disease or something!!! (as sisters do). Seriously - i have washed and hoovered as per usual. Always have to have the window open. It is really weird because sometimes you think oh its going and then the next day you open the door and it hits you full in the face. My son sleeps in another room now as it is so strong. It seems to get stronger some days more than others. So today I have taken every item of clothing, shoes, books, papers etc etc. There is nothing left in the room. The inside and outside of the two wardrobes have been disinfected - the wooden floor has been hoovered and scrubbed - and still there is this awful fish smell. I was even thinking it may be a poltergeist!!!! Please help!!

RickJ

I'm lol a bit. With 6 kids I've been through oddities like that!

Have you given the room a good crawling around and sniffing?

I have to think you're looking for something dead (small animal) or something rotting (food or beverage spill that's soaked in and not easily findable).

Check, especially, the heating vent. How's the smell from there?

Too bad there's not a stink meter that would just beep faster the closer it got to the funk, huh?

Back to reality, though. That smell is almost certainly coming from something very localized...so your noses will be the best way to find where it's strongest...then hone in on exactly where it is originating.

You've got my curiosity up, so please post back with how it goes.

Sarah3rdb

Hi Jocella,
I have the same problem in my children's bedroom. They have floorboards, not carpet and the smell comes from the corner of the room, where there are some drawers. I have pulled these out, washed down the floor with bleach etc. but still the smell comes back. Like you said, it's not all the time. Sometimes I can't smell it at all and then other times (usually evening) it is absolutely wreaking. It's really puzzling us and I think i'm going to have to pull up the floorboards to see if anything's died under there! We have a damp problem, so I was wondering if it was anything to do with that.
Jocella, if you've found the cause - please let me know!

danalou

Well Jocella, I'm afraid I don't have an answer either....I am in the same boat...my problem is in the garage, we think...the smell has come and gone for about a year and we even get large flies...we have cut a hole in the sheet rock where the odor is coming from and nothing, just flies....we cannot find a leak and don't think it's a dead animal (not after a year). I really need help with this - who do you call for this problem?

Neelie

We had a similar problem which kept going away, eventually discovered that the flex on the ceiling lighting was too sort, and when the light was switched on for any lenght of time the plastic used to heat up and really smell. As the room in question was only used now and again tool us a while to realise what it was. Your's may not be that but you never know!

Sarah3rdb

Yes, Neelie! That was what we found was the problem also. The hard plastic bit, just above the bulb was brown, only we hadn't realised as it was covered by the shade. I would have posted this sooner but couldn't remember the website/forum I had left the message in . Just got an email to tell me there had been answers. Anyway, horrible, embarrassing fishy smell all gone now!

kp2171

fond childhood memory:

im probably 4-5 yrs old. i have a plate of cut-up hot dogs. im in my room.

and out of the corner of my eye i see movement in the hall way. its my mother.

out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. it was me.

i was crouched in front of the register vent... one they put in old houses that are on the wall, about the size of a notebook binder, with big holes that are sometimes shaped kinda like a seashell.

she happed by right at the moment to threw a hot dog down the vent.

well... after a trip to the bathroom (this was where i always had to wait before a spanking) she brought me back into the room to see all she had pulled out of the vent. paper, the hot dogs, marbles, more paper, hot wheels.

she made me hold the warm (not hot) marble to get me to understand it was hot down there and that could be a problem.

the irony is the whole thing started one day by accident. i was playing with my cars and a green gremlin car accidently fell into the vent. i way dismayed at losing the car, but thought the sound of it tumblin in was neat. i cannot tell you whether this went on for a day or a week or a year. i had no sense of time.

but i do know that her catching me throwing the hot dog down the vent lead to my getting the green gremlin back.

dunno if your vents would allow such naughtiness.

kp2171

man!

once again i've posted to an old question that was brought up into the new posts by another member.
=P

im just never going to get used to looking for the original posting date...

DIY DAVE

I gotta fishy smell in the bathroom.

And I gotta green gremlin.

Well I did have a green gremlin toy car, but I sold it on ebay last year.

Still got the fishy smell though!

Dave.