[c1lueless]

Hello,

I googled intermittent smell in house and was brought to this question on this site: "Bad smell in house comes & goes," so I have read that thread, which is now closed so am posting a new thread. My issue is similar:

An exceedingly strong odor (possibly uriny, possibly musty, standing water. Does anyone remember the old cisterns in basements from houses years ago? Very damp almost like you're in a cave. Or a dead animal carcass rotting away. Although I can't imagine a cat causing this much stench! Nor even a raccoon! Or a possum.).

Initially thought the source was INSIDE in one specific bedroom that has a lot of boxes and books, papers, plastic tubs stacked on top of each other and since I have a cat, I thought that maybe she used a hidden space as a catbox, but the odor got stronger. I then narrowed the source to a floor vent. I closed the vent and it seemed to stop. I live in a manufactured home so there's a crawl space and it's not sealed completely so animals have the ability come in there all the time. Once a raccoon was under there, but only for a very short while. I did get a trap to get him out, but he left on his own.

I have gone outside and tried to sniff between the structure and the porch. There's a pretty big gap and the distance to the vent inside is only about 6 feet so if there was something dying/decaying under the house, surely I would be able to smell it since the odor is SO unbelievably overpowering that it almost makes me vomit. There's no way you can sleep in the room. There is no odor coming from the outside, although I can't speak for UNDER the house... yet.

It IS intermittent. And that's the frustrating part. How in the world can it be intermittent? How can something SO strong suddenly not be there for an hour or two? There is another floor vent on the other side of the wall about 8 inches away, and there's no odor! Or maybe just a trace, and that could maybe be due to proximity to the open door into the room with the culprit vent.

About 4 years ago, the power company came in and sealed the heating ducts. Possibly an animal could have chewed a hole in the ducting, but then whatever is causing the smell should permeate the entire house. It does not.

I have not pulled the skirting out near the odor because I'm afraid to see what it is or maybe what it is not, but if there's nothing under there, then the problem is not solved. (Sounds stupid I know.) It does NOT smell like raw sewage at all.

The other thread I referred to mentioned that the problem could be electrical. There's a lamp near this vent, but it's hardly ever on. On for maybe 30 seconds once or twice a week. I've been here 12 years and have never had anything this strong smelling in the house. The water heater is at the other end of the house.

This began about a month ago. We did have a huge amount of rain (unusual for us that time of the year). Could water have gotten inside the wall and caused this dank/damp/musty smell to escalate to this intense, overpowering smell? I was gone for a week. I just returned hoping desparately that the smell had gone away. It had not. But it is intermittent. It is only gone for a short while. No rhyme or reason when or for how long. If the issue is water-based and due to some kind of a leak, I'm wondering if spraying some kind of scented water on the roof would prove that if suddenly I smell lavender or perfume coming through the vent.

The only other thing I noticed out of the ordinary was about 2-1/2 weeks ago, we were overrun with squirrels. Like 4 or 5 at once in yards. One was sitting on my garbage container not 3 feet away from me brazen as all get-out! Not sure where they all came from! And now they're gone. I think they cut down a couple trees very close by so wasn't sure if they lost their nests. Could that have something to do with the horrible odor essentially underneath my vent? They appeared AFTER the horrible smell began.

I can't imagine that the sewer line is broken in some way as the odor would be completely different.

Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to be as specific as possible to help troubleshoot this nightmare. I would say that the odor is about as strong as a week ago when I left. I mentioned I closed the floor vent once I located the source. I also put a case of kleenex boxes over it and that seemed to help. But if you remove that box, you could fall over from the stench. And now it's quite overwhelming even with the box left over it so it must be getting worse in intensity, but not in range.

I was originally going to call a plumber, but I think I need someone with experience with mold and rot. This is a manufactured home so the walls are essentially cardboard. It's not paneled inside and it's not exterior metal walls or roof.

Thanks in advance for any pertinent help that anyone can offer. I apologize if this issue has been answered before so please provide the link, and I will gladly read the response. If it hasn't been answered before, I have it set to receive an email when a response occurs, but work during the day so responses by me will occur in the evening. Thanks again.

[c1lueless]

There was a similar thread listed that I read:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/heatin...or-549466.html

And that response seemed to point to animals/urine/feces. The OP in that thread mentioned this occurred after a rainfall, which mine did as well.