Dead animal under floor

[mrssoap]

I rent my house from a private landlord, there's quite obviously a dead animal of some sort in my kitchen. Have looked as best I can, can't see it but I have wooden floor with gaps in and the smell is coming up through. House is open plan so I can't just shut the door on it. Last night the smell made me vomit. What can be done about this? Will the landlord do anything? It's just horrendous, the smell is unbelievable.

It's 100% a dead animal there is no mistaking the smell. Help please I can't stick it anymore!

[Fridakahlofan]

Hello - we had this - probably a mouse. I wasn't sure it was a dead animal so had a plumber in as I thought it smelled 'sewagey' and couldn't work out the cause! He advised putting the heating on to speed up decomposition and the smell was gone within a week and got better each day. Gross but our house is very old and pulling up floorboards would have been a nightmare.

I'd alert your landlord but I don't think you can force his hand as this is just irritating for you (rather than dangerous).

[Hoppinggreen]

It’s awful but after a few days it does go away.
We had a dead mouse in a wall once and the smell was very distinctive but didn’t last long. You could get some spray from the pet shop for dog/cat we’d and spray some of that down (deals with organic odours)
Don’t try and cover it with other smells but an odour neutraliser might help

[mrssoap]

Thanks for replies. I rang my landlord just to let him know, he's sending someone round just to have a look see if he can locate it. But I have a feeling the floor boards will need to come up and landlord won't be prepared to do that I don't think. It's vile. It's stronger today than ever 😩 I've got air fresheners but it's not really doing much, the smell is so so strong which makes me think it's a rat not a mouse. I've got heating on so hopefully that speeds up the process 🤢.

[Velveteenfruitbowl]

Unfortunately you have to wait for it to either decompose of mummify.

[mencken]

yuk. As other mention it will go - perhaps put a rug down to block the gaps in the floorboards until it does? Ghastly air 'fresheners' will just add more reek and probably more vomiting.

pulling up floorboards is unlikely (you wouldn't do that in your own house) but perhaps someone can fish it out by putting something through the gaps. You may also want to look for the entry points.

[somebrightmorning]

I know the answer!

Plumbers carry a freezing tool, used to temporarily freeze a water pipe to stop the flow when the stopcock/valves aren’t working.

I asked my plumber to use it on a decomposing Rat . It solidified the corpse so it can easily be lifted out in one piece.

[mrssoap]

Can't find it unfortunately m, had someone in to have a good look and although the smell got stronger he couldn't pin point it.

It's made all my bottom cupboards in the kitchen absolutely stunk so can't use them. It's awful

[cinnabunbun]

Yuck. We have experienced this a couple of times sadly. It took weeks for the smell to go and then an apocalyptic invasion of flies arrived. It was like something from a horror movie.

Your landlord should really investigate this and lift floors to find the entry point or this might not just happen once.

[SantasLittleHelper2019]

Biocarbonate of soda can help elimiate bad smells quicker.

If you fill some small cereal bowls with it and put it round the room it should help.
If there are gaps in the floorboards maybe try sprinkling some down the gaps too.

Sorry I can’t suggest anything else but you have my sympathy :(

[mrssoap]

Thank you all... so finally today the plumber found a massive rat under the floor. It has been removed and the smell has gone! Yay!!!!