Help me figure out this weird smell.

[KungFuPandaWorks]

I woke this morning and started walking down the stairs, at the very bottom steps I could smell a weird smell very faintly. I turned into the living room and the same smell was in there but much stronger. I walked back out into the hallway, and could smell it but only faint like when I came down the stairs. I went into the kitchen, no smell. Went into the dining room, no smell. It's only in the living room and it's quite strong.

It almost has a bleachy smell to it, and every time I sniff up it sort of stings my nose and I can taste it (I hope that makes sense). Nobody else is awake so can't ask their opinion.

I'm a little bit paranoid because British gas was around tinkering with the gas and electric cupboards. But surely If it was a gas leak it would smell in more than one room?

Help!

No pets that might have weed in there is there? Male cat specifically can smell very strongly of ammonia.

Do you have any flowers, candles etc in that room that you could move and see if the smell follows?

Any children who might have dropped something under the sofa or between cushions?

Gas doesn't really have a bleachy smell, so hopefully it's not that. You don't have any flowers in the room, do you? I was getting a weird ammonia smell in our living room and after searching high and low for the source discovered it was coming from a bunch of supermarket daffodils! Close up, they literally smelled like urine!
I hope you manage to locate the source of your odd smell.

No pets at all. We haven't used bleach in ages, with me being pregnant the smell causes me to have a horrendous headache so we avoid bleachy products.

Bleach is the main thing I can smell, but it's mixed with another smell that I can't quite work out. I keep walking round from room to room sniffing, if anyone walks down now they're gonna think I'm losing the bloody plot Haha.

My money's on an orange or orangy thing that's past it's best.

Dead mouse somewhere ? It's a really distinctive smell quite overpowering...

My immediate thoughts were rodent
I went into my outhouse a few days ago and there was a distinct smell of ammonia. Upon hunting around I found evidence that rodents had been in

Check at your gas meter see if it's stronger. If so turn it off, open your windows and phone Cadent.
(If you have a gas hob, you could turn the knob for a couple of seconds to see if it smells the same, obviously ensure you take care to turn it off properly afterwards)

But as a PP said, gas doesn't really smell bleachy, but I guess people can interept things different.
I find lilies smell like a mix of bleach and wee when they've opened, flowers are definitely a thing to check you wouldn't usually think of.
Other than that, search around each corner to see where its strongest and try to narrow it down.

Does anyone else live in your home?

I'd say dead mouse or gone off paint? Have you redecorated recently? Sometimes paint that has been stored incorrectly gives off this terrible smell when it's used. It can take months for the smell to appear.

No candles or smelly things, I have a small toddler so avoid them things at the moment.

Nope, not recently decorated.

I'd be really shocked if it was a rodent, but I will have a look around.

Yeah there's me, DH, our daughter and my neice living in the house. I'm the only one up at the moment.

If anything the smell in the living feels like it is getting stronger it's actually hurting my head. I've just gone to my hob and gone too turn it on and it's showing the flame but when I release it, it's not staying lit 🤔

Get your dh up now to see if it's an actual issue or some pregnancy linked thing.

My sense of smell was ridiculous while pregnant. I remember feeling queasy as I could smell that a bloke standing across a train platform from me had eaten garlic.

Has your toddler hidden a used nappy somewhere 😱

Wake DH up for a second nose

I'm guessing you know how to use your hob, but there's a couple of ways most work.
Sounds like you have to lot yours and hold it down for a few seconds for the FSD to attach to stay lit when you let go.

However in this instance you didn't want it to light, just to release a small amount of gas so you could smell it to see if it smelt similar to the smell you're complaining of.
Because it seems quite a coincidence that you've never had this smell until you've had your meters worked on, but obviously, it genuinely could be just a coincidence.

Again, obviously ensure you take care to turn it off again afterwards.

I think you may after to wait for a second opinion, obviously if you do suspect it's gas, get someone up ASAP, and if its still likely turn the meter off and one windows, don't risk it turning in to one very large open plan room

Could it be damp? Our small seccond bedroom gets very damp over the winter and even I tried to dry it out by heating it recently it smelled very much like urine. I bleached down the walls and the smell was gone. It's been warmer than past week so could be the room heating up?

Is it an almost sweet bleechy smell?

It could be a decaying rodent under the floorboards?

When i*

I'm about too go and wake him now, although his sense of smell is shocking. I could honestly blind fold him and lead him into a room full of shitty nappies and he wouldn't smell it.

Was thinking of asking one of my neighbours but might look a bit crazy knocking on at this time asking them to come and smell my house.

Decaying rodents do not smell like bleach, they smell utterly putrid! One died in the loft above our bedroom and we couldn’t sleep in there for several days...
Bleach/ammonia smell is more likely to be pee I would think (or daffodils!)

I definitely had a heightened sense of smell when pregnant and things smelled different too so get a second opinion. Get on hands and knees if you can and sniff along the skirting boards to locate the smell. Ask someone to move the sofa as when my son was little he spilt milk from his bottle and it dripped under the sofa, left undetected it turned into a patch of green fur. I was searching for that smell for weeks til I found it.

I second an orangey thing. Mouldy satsumas smell like shoe polish. I always forget this then find one with a blue patch on the underside stinking out the fruit bowl. Could there be one under the sofa or something if not in fruit bowl?

Check all appliances for any sockets extensions that could of melted. I smelt something funny last week, no one else could smell it, it was the washing machine plug melted into the socket

I'd call the gas people and let them check the house just in case. They're happy to do that and it's not a big deal but if you have a leak you need to know about it!

Almost, you’ve now given me a wonderful mental image of a cat puffing away on a spliff!

Being pregnant makes a lot of women very sensitive to smells. Drain problem? Especially that someone is trying to bleach away?