We've been living in the same home for over 6 years. It's a normal, modern home & we keep it clean. Maybe 6 months ago, this strange smell appeared in my daughter's bedroom. It's a combination of musk, fish & just plain stink. Sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Then, it goes away without a trace. It may stay away for days or even a week. But, then it comes back. It's strong.

We've sniffed everything in the room, including my daughter & can't identify a particular item or even an area of the room where it seems to originate.

Any ideas?

Suicidal Addiction

i dont know i think maybe it could be mold i had mold in my house behind the wall and it smelt just like that lol

ahkmark

We discoverd the smell in my daughter's room!
It is coming from the cieling light. We were burning a 100W bulb in a max 75W socket and we think it was making the socket smell (must have been plastic getting too hot). Anyway, we left her bedroom light off for 10 days just to be sure....and no more smell.

We are going to replace the sockets and make sure we use only the max light bulb. We found they do sell ceiling light fixtures that allow for 100W so we may replace the whole light.

I hope this helps. We are relieved because the "fishy" smell was driving us crazy!

Anne

Suicidal Addiction

i have the same problem if ur daughters room is conected to the bathroom or close i would check for mold becuase i had the same problem and i checked and sure enough it was mold

ahkmark

We have finally located the source and origin of this problem. We had the same dynamics going as camarohq, whose note appears above: intermittent musty/fish smell that could be overpowering at times, had no obvious source and could come and go with no established pattern. I finally checked the ceiling light fixture, which rests flush against the ceiling, and discovered we had been burning a 100-watt light bulb in a 75-watt socket. The socket, which is resin-based, rather than porcelain, was overheating. The plastic must contain a chemical or component that gives off that awful smell when hot. I could smell the nasty odor pretty strongly in the little insulation pad that deflects heat in the fixture, but just to further test our theory, we only used the the lamp in that room for two weeks and didn't turn on the overhead light once. The smell has disappeared. Just to be certain, we're having the sockets replaced with porcelain sockets with 60-watt-maximum capacity. It's a pretty cheap repair: new sockets only cost about $3 at Lowe's. We discovered this just in time: we were going insane, sniffing around floorboards, calling inspectors to look in the attic, having Critter Control guys looking for rodent carcasses. Thankfully, it was this simple. Good luck!

ballengerb1

Sounds like all of the problems are in rooms backing to a bathroom. I would go into the attic and check to see how the drains were vented. The vent should go out through the roof. I have found some vents and exhaust fans that just dump into the attic, not good.

kazc10

We are having exactly the same problem at the moment and it can smell like rotten flesh. We haven't identified where it comes from yet but its awful and does stink like fish.

Could be that you have a stench pipe vent into your loft check it out we are having ours done!

exring

It seems like you may be dealing with rodent (mouse) nest odors coming from the a nest built in an exterior wall. They can be very smelly caused by excrement accumulating in and around the nest and dead and rotting mice.

The reason the odor comes and goes is probably due to the fact that your houses are sealed up pretty well and I'll bet you all have gas or oil heat or even a gas or oil fired water heater. Most houses do not have an air source for the furnace and water heater so when they turn on the air needed to feed the flame is drawn in from where ever there is a leak into the house. This air will bring in odors like rodent nests in on an intermittent basis (when the furnace or water heater is on).

The hard part will be finding the nest and removing it.

Alligator

Thanks a million to those of you who helped us figure out what was causing the fishy smell in our bedroom (we had 100 watt bulbs in 40 watt sockets -- whoops). Anyhow, we are "over the moon" as we thought we were going to have to gut the room and pay big $'s to have the problem fixed - a million thankyou's to all of you for helping us to figure this out !!

stu140178

hello all. i have experienced this awfull fishy smell in 2 homes. it was very strong in odour, very localised, and only certain people could smell it. my ex partners mother went to see a clairvoyant about the smell, he told her that the smell was of cancer/rotten flesh and that it was the smell of her fathers mother. if anyone would like to discuss this more then feel free to mail me on .

DAMUNDSON

I have the same problem at work in my office. It comes and goes and our air is on continuously. I have told facilities about it and he insists it is coming from the microwaves in the lunchroom. The lunchroom has never smelled like this. I have checked numerous times. I am thinking it might be a rodent or mold. It smells fishy almost like something died.