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camarohq · Dec 21, 2006, 02:53 PM

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?

labman · Dec 21, 2006, 03:01 PM

I wonder if the wind is carrying odor from a plumbing vent into the room at times?

camarohq · Dec 22, 2006, 08:49 AM

I don't think so. It's appearance doesn't seem to relate to the wind. We don't live in a windy area either. My daughters bedroom backs up to a bathroom, but we sniff all around & don't get it anywhere else. Also, it doesn't smell like sewage. I know what that smells like, but this is different. It's almost a fishy smell, but very heavy musk (I don't know how else to describe it).

starsbooty · Dec 22, 2006, 01:13 PM

This Is Not Funny But I Can Imagine You Going Crazy Sniffing Everything In Sight! I Know This Sounds Crazy But Have You Ever Saw Sylvia Brown On Montell? Do You Have Any Relatives Here Or Gone That Worked Maybe On A Boat Or Around Fish? Don't Laugh I Am Serious! Because Sometimes These Im Not Sure How To Spell This But I Think It Intities Bring Noises, And Smells.

gingerwe · Dec 26, 2006, 11:33 PM

That's spooky. I'd hate to think it was a ghost. I have the same problem here with a smell that comes and goes. The smell is similar to a fish smell but not exactly. It smells bad in a certain area of the bedroom. It's almost always at night and by the morning everything smells fine.

ahkmark · Jan 13, 2007, 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by camarohq

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?

This sounds exactly like our problem. It's in our daughters room (next to bathroom).. main floor. We are pulling our hair out to try to figure it out. We hired a couple inspection companies and they could not find anything. Of course, when they arrived the odor was gone.
Have you gotten it resolved yet?

patrick19801 · Jan 24, 2007, 07:04 PM

This is really interesting - and we are having the same problem (old house). I have seen a few posts elsewhere that are claiming it is something to do with old electricity. Has anyone else seen an answer to this? I am really curious.

queball · Jan 24, 2007, 09:21 PM

My first question for all of you is the age of kids in the room with the smell. The same thing happened to me, but I found the culprit. My little girl was sneaking candy and such in her room and that was what I was smelling. By the way, my little girl was about ten at the time.

gingerwe · Jan 25, 2007, 08:36 AM

In my case, it's my own bedroom. Last night when it rained the smell was worse. I still don't know what it is!

Well, in your case gingerwe, you could have a leak in your roof.

Suicidal Addiction · Jan 25, 2007, 12:33 PM

I don't 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 · Jan 28, 2007, 01:37 PM

We discovered the smell in my daughter's room!
It is coming from the ceiling 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 · Jan 30, 2007, 12:53 PM

I have the same problem if your daughters room is connected to the bathroom or close I would check for mold because I had the same problem and I checked and sure enough it was mold

ahkmark · Jan 30, 2007, 03:05 PM

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 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 · Jan 31, 2007, 10:21 AM

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 · Mar 26, 2007, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by camarohq

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?

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!:confused:

exring · Apr 8, 2007, 07:10 AM

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 because 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 · May 10, 2007, 09:47 PM

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 · May 27, 2007, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by camarohq

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?

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 [email protected].

DAMUNDSON · May 30, 2007, 07:02 AM

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.

stu140178 · May 31, 2007, 01:36 AM

Hello all.
Just want to add to my last post. My ex partners fathers mother was deceased at the time we were told what the smell was by the spiritualist.
I think that the smells some people are experiencing may be down to air-con, electrics etc.
But I do believe that a handfull of people who posted on this site have experienced the same smell as myself, and I believe it to be a smell of supernatural properties or a dimension that we have not yet discovered.
The smell was so powerful that it would make me heave, it had a rotten fishy, warm smell, and would be concentrated to a small area.
We would just walk into it and the hairs stood up on my back every time. It would go as quick as it came and not everyone could smell it.
I would love to know the answers to this smell, but I believe that it will always be a mystery and shall be experienced by many people all over the world.
Whether supernatural, or alien, you know when you got it and there's no cure.
Good luck all.