Here is food for thought . I was having the same problem. We don't have Pets . However we do have small children. Despite our cleaning habits our toddler son would sometimes urinate on the carpet with out our knowing. This can be cleaned on the surface with enzymes but is a slow process . However if it has soaked to the padding you may have to call in the professionals .
Stop sniffing , by a black light and use it (usually done at night time ) watch for yellow or green glowing looking spots , any signs of animal or pee stains from kids .

I have found when there are odors in the house, such as in cooking, the best way to get rid of them is with an electric potpourri pot. Run it for a few minutes or longer if you need. But this does the trick. I don't have a long-term cure, however. Good luck.

Thanks to the people who posted about light fittings. Thank goodness! We've had this smell for 8 years and had replaced floorboards, carpets, had pest control checks... After reading the posts here, I cannot stress strongly enough to people to check their electrics. The room affected is to be our nursery. Having read the posts here, we finally checked the white plastic ceiling light socket. There was a 100 watt bulb in the fitting and the fitting, although rarely on, had melted (we couldn't see it because of the lightshade). When we took it down, it absolutely stank of fish! We cannot thank the person who posted about electrics enough; had we left this light on in the nursery once the baby arrived, we have no doubt that it would have caught fire. The fitting has been replaced and the smell has now gone. Strangely enough, we thought the smell was coming from a corner near the floor-just turns out that the air was circulating least in that corner so that's where the smell gathered. Thanks again! Please anybody else, check your electrics if it's a musky fishy smell!

I am not sure who to give the credit to but I was having the same odor that you are speaking of and could not find it for weeks. I came onto this site and one of you mentioned that the smell may be coming from the electrical box. So I stuck my nose in there and sure enough, it most certainly was a fuse (my AC breaker) that was overheating, basically melting and every time I turned on the AC, it was causing the fuse to overheat. I thought it was a dead animal, or mold or who knows. But thanks to you guys, I figured it out. It was a simple fix. Replace the fuse and your smell will go away!

It seems to be either a dead animal in your ventilation system (air ducts), walls, attic, or crawl space or a mold problem that could be growing in the air ducts or building structure. Either a mold problem or dead animal odor circulates when there is movement, doors or windows are opened, or if the heater, a/c, or house fan is turned on.

I would look into a having a professional check it out, such as a mold inspector. We used this one: IndoorRestore Environmental Services Home - Mold Inspection and Testing, Remediation, and Restoration. They are headquartered in California, but apparently work nationwide.

We have a funny smell in my room. I can smell it everywhere hallway, sitting room and kitchen but my mum and friend can not its not me because they can smell it in my room. It smells like mold we have took all electrical plugs out and tuned them all off and the smell hasn't gone. I have told my friend and mum about this and they seem to not be caring should I care because no plugs smell nothing in the room smells. Could it be a rat under the floor boards who has died ( I life in a farmhouse ) but this smell hasn't been here since I lived here ! ( 1 year I lived here) please tell me what I could do ?

Did you glue the carpet down - if so the glue might give it a stink when its humid

Is the carpet glued down to the floor - I`ve found smell like that from the glue when its humid out

I too, was looking for an answer to the "fishy odor" just a day or two ago and thankfully, found this site. This was the first time my husband and I had ever encountered this smell in our living room. It was brief but VERY STRONG. We have cats and my husband blamed it on one of them, perhaps spraying (which I might add they do not do this in the house!) I investigated everywhere trying to pin point the cause. Then I googled up the problem.
This forum put me on to investigating electrical possibilities and I sniffed all the outlets, switches, appliances, etc. I even sniffed out the hot water tank in another room and the wall switch to it. Nothing turned up.
I still felt uneasy the whole day.
Next morning I went in the back room where the hot water tank is located in its own space behind a wall panel. I heard a strange buzzing sound coming from the wall switch that turns the tank off or on! WHOA! There was no smell, but I knew something was wrong. I turned it off and pulled the breaker on it.
We called a good friend who is an electrician and he came over and pulled the wall switch out.
Thank goodness! A loose wire in the switch box had burned out part of the plastic! It had been sitting in there arcing and sizzling.
I sniffed the switch after he removed it. There was the awful fishy smell! Why the smell showed up in a room not even near the problem, I can't explain that. That smell never even showed up in the room it happened in.
I learned from this website and this experience to never take anything that seems odd for granted. Always check it out.
I appreciate this website.

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?

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 accommodation, 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?

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 wield. 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 furnace 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...

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Originally Posted by 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....

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

We have been dealing with "the stinky fish" smell for close to 3 years at our vacation home. We were going nuts. I just googled and found the light socket answer. Holy cow!! That was it. We had the crappy hangong made in china girly chandeliers in my daughter room and surte enough it was the light sockets. Happy to say the are in a landfill somewhere. Thanks a ton for your posting. We were close to a complete teardown on the ceiling and walls.

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Originally Posted by 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?

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I would go with electrical sockets or light sockets that have bulbs higher than rated wattage, sounds weird but we had this on and off for severa lyears before nailing it on the head.

We've been experiencing the same odor in our garage. I automatically thought it must be a dead animal, but the smell goes away before I can call pest control - just to return from a couple days to a couple weeks later. It comes usually when the heat is on, but not every time the heat is on. It came back today and I realized as I was reading the posts that I had left the light on by the washing machine. I'm definitely going to call the electrician and have him check it out... and I never thought I'd say this, but I hope the smell doesn't go away... before he can smell it.