View Full Version : House smells like something rotting
lyannesupple
Sep 16, 2008, 09:34 AM
We are having a bad smell coming from somewhere in our house. We can not pinpoint where but it goes away for a couple of days and then returns. It smells like rotting food and not an animal in the wall or anything. I have tried flushing the pipes with hot water but it has not changed anything. Can you give me any other place to look for some relief. Thanks
ballengerb1
Sep 16, 2008, 11:19 AM
Smells are hard to pin down especially if your furnace blower is moving the air. To help pinpoint the smell close all windows and interior doors, shut off the blower if you have one. After an hours or two check every room to see which smells the worst. Likely sources can be tub/shower and bathroom sink drains. Rotting hair, soap, skin cells can make a preety bad smell. Back to you
ladymistress
Oct 24, 2008, 08:03 AM
I also have a terrible rotting smell in my bathroom wall, it took a while to pin point the location, but yesterday I noticed little maggot looking things on my window sill. I was told it was likely wasp larvae. The smell is strongest around the window, seems to be leaking around it from inside the wall. I can't understand where these creatures are coming from there doesn't seem to be holes anywhere. We did have a wasp problem outside this window around the eaves. Have been told rotting wasp nest, dying larvae smells like rotting meat.. that is the smell..
jenart8
Jan 30, 2010, 12:20 AM
Lyannesupple, did you find the answer to your question? Your problem sounds exactly like ours, so I am very curious if you found the cause of the smell. Our house has smelled really bad for about a week now, like rotting brocolli. But sometimes it smells like gas. We can't pinpoint the source of the smell either: we smell it when we first walk into our home, as well as our dining room, our laundry room, and one bathroom off the laundry room... all in different parts of the house. We thought at first it was a gas leak, so we turned the pilot light off in our gas fireplace which is in the dining roo. The second gas fireplace is in the front living room where the front door is, but it doesn't work. The laundry room & bathroom are next to the furnace room. But when I put my head near the fireplace it doesn't smell. I check the heater vents, and only one of them smell like gas, the others are fine. I am baffled. Should we call the gas company? Only some times it smells like gas, most of the time it smells like rotting brocoli.
speedball1
Jan 30, 2010, 07:09 AM
smell. I check the heater vents, and only one of them smell like gas, the others are fine. I am baffled. Should we call the gas company? Only some times
If you smell ANY gas call the gas company and have it checked out.
As for the other smell try to localize it and get back to us. Good luck, Tom
jenart8
Feb 9, 2010, 10:42 AM
We called the gas company and they came out to check for any leaks, and did not find any. Maybe since we had the pilot light turned off for a few days before they came. But they did admit that there was a bad smell coming from the furnace room and bathroom next to it. The smell has been starting to get better.