Ask Me Help Desk - Rotton Egg Smell

Rotton Egg Smell

We recently bought our home. We have only been living in it for about 2 - 3 months now. It had been vacant for about 7 months prior to that. When we looked at the house (which we did several times before purchasing, there was NO SMELL - except the usual empty house smell.

We had a very extensive home inspection done as well. No smell was present at that time.

Here in the past 30 days or less there has been a rancid rotton egg smell developing in ONE area, it is in our master bedroom closet - and ONLY there. This room is centrally located in the house. It is almost directly in the middle of the house. Walls on all four touching another space in the home (no outside connection). There are no pipes close enough - the kitchen pipes are the closest and we have no smell in the kitchen or in the master bath.

We had an extensive home inspection done on the place before we moved in. It took SEVERAL hours and my husband was with the inspector the entire time so saw everything he did. They found No mold, or other indications of wetness/leaks anywhere. The attic space was dry as could be.

We have taken everything out of the closet and see nothing.

We have ONLY electric in our house so no gas or propane.

Does anyone have any ideas what this smell could be. It started with just a light smell, now it has become over powering and we Have to keep the closet closed at all times.

If anyone could help that would be great. This has gotton so bad I am really beginning to worry - especially now with the weather warming up. I expect is just going to get worse.

Thanks so much,
MP

This is so weird because I had a similar thing happen when my now ex husband and I bought our first home. I had noticed the smell shortly after moving in and couldn't figure out what it was. I finally localized it to the pantry in the kitchen and took matters into my own hands. I cut holes in the wall and eventually cut the whole wall out. What I found behind there was definetely the source! It was like a mouse cemetery. It was obvious that the previous owners knew that the mice were falling down in the wall and couldn't get out and would die there, causing the smell. That may be what your smelling. You may have a similar problem in one of the walls.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanicky73

This is so weird because I had a similar thing happen when my now ex husband and I bought our first home. I had noticed the smell shortly after moving in and couldnt figure out what it was. I finally localized it to the pantry in the kitchen and took matters into my own hands. I cut holes in the wall and eventually cut the whole wall out. What I found behind there was definetely the source!! It was like a mouse cemetary. It was obvious that the previous owners knew that the mice were falling down in the wall and couldnt get out and would die there, causing the smell. That may be what your smelling. You may have a similar problem in one of the walls.

Bingo, There may be another possibility also. Is this house on a septic system and is there a crawl space below the house? Nm

Quote:

Originally Posted by nmwirez

Bingo, There may be another possibility also. Is this house on a septic system and is there a crawl space below the house? nm

No there is no crawl space that I know of - Our entire house is on concrete slab. The septic is in the middle of our back yard but was just emptied before we moved in and no smell coming from there. I will have my husband crawl into the attic and see if he can look down the walls around it and see if there might be a dead animal. I haven't seen any sign of mice at all but who knows.

A couple more things I have 'read' I have also ruled out - The water heater is No where Near this location, there is no heater or air vent in the closet, and the AC hasn't been turned on except to check to see if it works.

Thanks again

What kind of heat do you have? Electric or gas?

I had this happen almost 10 years ago, and it was a gas leak. There are additives in gas that cause a rotten egg smell so that it is detectable, since natural gas is odorless.

Worth checking out anyway.

I didn't have any problems with mice either, simply because the owners before me put decon all over and the mice would eat in and then fall into this wall where the only thing to do was die! I never saw one mouse prior to opening the wall.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J_9

What kind of heat do you have? Electric or gas?

I had this happen almost 10 years ago, and it was a gas leak. There are additives in gas that cause a rotten egg smell so that it is detectable, since natural gas is odorless.

Worth checking out anyway.

Nope as I said in my question - no gas at all we are all electric. But thanks... :)

Sorry about that, I must have missed that part:o

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanicky73

I didnt have any problems with mice either, simply because the owners before me put decon all over and the mice would eat in and then fall into this wall where the only thing to do was die! I never saw one mouse prior to opening the wall.

Thanks - I had told my husband this morning (before my post) that it might be a dead animal. And your post confirmed that, that might be the case. I can't think of anything else that could be smelling so terribly and getting worse. I hope it isn't going to be a remodel project but perhaps as I said he can crawl up in the attic and check it out from there - then we can go from there.

Thanks again, MP

Your very welcome. Good luck to you, make sure you let us know how it goes.