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?

bigmack477

Interesting stituations...I have a similar problem of a weird smell that comes and goes in a bedroom but it's the smell of puke. It doesn't smell musty at all. It comes and goes all the time every day, sometimes for hours. The carpets have been removed and there's nothing underneath. The carpets have been professionally cleaned, but the puke smell still comes and goes. I haven't checked the lights yet but it would surprise me cause the lights are pretty much never on in that bedroom. Anyone got ideas?

moniack

we haD a smell - like a tom cat's been, mixed with snell of rotting mouse corpse - that appeared yesterday in a bedroom and later, in the office in an adjacent building. SUCH a disgusting smell, we had the rat man out, and had begun to close off that part of the house till it cleared - but this morning - MIRACLE! no trace of the smell in bedroom or office. and no, there are no cats at all, and both buildings are locked up and empty, normally - they are old buildings, used for holiday accomodation, etc.
if it had been a dead mouse, the smell wld last for a few days at least...and the tom cat spray smell certainly lasts at least a week if not forever.
SO WHAT THE HELL IS IT?

FrustratedGrace

Today, we just followed an house inspector to inspect a house we plan to buy. When they tried test the ceiling fan in master bedroom, the switch did not work well and felt weild. They climbed the ladder to check the top of the fan and did not find anything. After stucking on that ceiling fan/light for around 5 minutes, they feel difficult to find the problem--the switch for the fan. Then they moved into the big closet neighbored to the master bedroom. At this time, my daughter came into the house from outside and ran up to master bedroom, the first word she yelled out is "what kind of bad smell". We did not realized that at the beginning. After a few minutes, we came out of the big closet/attic, we all felt the bad smell like fishy or dead corpse... The inspector and us kneel down to the air vent because the whole furnance and hot air system was being tested. But no bad smell found from vent. So, the inspector thought it could because of the ceiling fan. it could be the burning plastics parts related on the ceiling fan and light.... very frustrated.... we are almost done with everything, most are ok except some minor problems to be solved.....Could the burned electric circuit loop give out this kind of smell.....it's rarely smelled before....

FrustratedGrace

After a few minutes, we went back to the room again, the smell was gone, no tracking....????

Athena555

I had a terrible fishy smell in my home-office that only arose when I plugged in a space heater. It was like some food had gone bad, or some fish had been left out to spoil. And it only smelled when I turned on the space heater. It was awful - very strong. We washed down all the surfaces in the room and even replaced the heater, but the mysterious smell persisted. We had no clue where the smell was coming from until I happened upon some posts on this sight. After hearing about a light socket that was causing someone else's problem, I thought I'd check out the electrical outlet our heater was plugged into -- it reeked! Turns out the heater was drawing too much electricity. I'm not sure why that produces a rotten fish smell, but the smell's gone now that we switched outlets.

Freedom27

I moved into this brand new house a year ago. During that time on about four occasions, including this evening, a strong smell of what appears to be furniture polish 'develops'. It only seems to stay in the downstairs area of my open-plan house, and appears to start in the kitchen. This evening when I went out at 6pm there was no unusual smell. I returned at 10pm and when I opened the lounge door the smell was very strong. My friend who was with me verified that it smelt like furniture polish, but the house has been completely empty for four hours. The last time this happened was about three or four months ago during the daytime. I naturally checked for any logical explanation without success. I have a dishwasher and washing machine that have both been used within the last 24 hours. It is not an organic smell, or a rotting smell, or a chemical smell, or a gas smell. It is now 12 midnight and the smell has gone. Any ideas as to what is causing this please?

Athena555

Hi Freedom27,

Read my post just above yours; it may be of help.

Although the odour we had was a fishy smell of rotting food, the source of the problem was the overheating of an elecrical outlet. We had a space heater plugged into an old electrical outlet, and the outlet itself just reeked. I guess the heater was drawing too much power from it and causing it to heat up and smell. Once we plugged the heater in elsewhere, the smell disappeared. (A close whiff of the previous outlet confirmed that that was definitely where the smell was originating.)

So, try smelling any electrical outlets that you have things plugged into, and also check your light fixtures. Maybe something's drawing too much power from them and causing the fixtures too heat up and smell like furniture polish. Stranger things have happened . . . ours smelled like rotting fish!

Good luck.

bsbrum

We had something similar happen with a home that had been built in the early 70's in California. We had a room with condensation issues, and the smell manifested itself when a wall outlet corroded. The house had aluminum wiring, and the moisture caused the aluminum+copper connections in the outlet to react - and it smelled funky, musty, fishy. Ultimately the outlet started smoking spontaneously. We had to have the aluminum wiring replaced with copper. The problem never came back. For what it's worth.