PLEASE help me solve my whiffy house mystery

[CybilLiberty]

I have posted about this a looong while ago, about a strange almost camembert cheesey strong smell which would waft up from under the floor in my kitchen diner, just after we had had our building work finished.

. It stopped over the summer. I didn;t smell it once.

But now it's back. It almost 'puffs up' in a burst of smell, it's horrible. We have scented candles and burner oils but it's really strong when it happens.

We have an expensive wooden floor which I am loathed to pull up, in fact I won't, it's been down less than a year.

Does anyone anyone have any idea where this smell couls be coming from, or what it is?

not some sort of burning electrical smell is it?

lightbulb on fabric somewhere?

leaking freezy stuff out of the fridge?

he just asked if you've started usuing your heating again?

yeah i thought heating, but op said no.

Dead mouse.

No smell over summer as the little shits were out sunning themselves but they're back now the weather's turning....and dying under your floorboards.

Check the back of your fridge.

Have you got tose boards at the bottom of your cupboards that you can remove to see underneath? - you know the ones that cover the feet of the cupboards.

Have you removed them to see if there is anything under there?

Could it be fetid water standing somewhere? From fridge or washing machine or dishwasher?

I suppose we could move the plinths at the bottom of the cupboards..but the cupboards are standing on a plywood flooring base. We wouldn't be able to see under the floor. I'm going to google X ray glasses and see what comes up.

its Zombies I tell ya

'Plinths' - that's the word I was trying to think of

I'd investigate every nook and cranny that is easy to get to just to cross it off the list. Then if the smell continues you can pull the floor up and look for your polish guy dead mouse as a last resort.

We had this and thought dead mouse and were dreading the whole floor up scenario.We got the builders back and they unblocked the main drain in 5 minutes and it was gone by the end of the day.

We had this and it turned out to actually be a Camembert

DP had taken it out of the fridge to ripen and put it in a rarely used cheese dish and it was promptly forgotten.

Also, mushrooms can smell very bad when they get forgotten about.

Any chance its forgotten foodstuff and just coincidence that its happened twice?

some good suggestions on here but none of them ringing any bells. I think we are just going to have to buy a job lot of Glade Plug ins and weather the storm Thanks for all your ideas

drains would be my guess, they can smell really revolting

its your arse that smells

HTH

We found the reason behind the horrid smell in our hall last week. It was a dead rat in a completely different room (2 rooms away from the hall). Evil cats had brought it in and hidden it. God knows why the smell was so bad so far away from Roland but once he was in the bin the smell went.

I don't suppose you can get under the kitchen from another room?

We can walk all the way under our house, so we could take floorboards up in the lounge and walk through to under the kitchen.

I realise this might be unusual.

Did it happen at the same time of year before? I wonder do you have some sort of mould or fungus growing somewhere when the weather gets damp, then drying out in the warmer months?

Do you have a dishwasher that isn't in constant use? The water trap in it (or any other water appliance) can go stagnant if not used and really stink.

I'm liking the idea of fungus (well, ykwim)

failing that, perhaps it is my arse

is it the drip tray at the back of your fridge.we had this last xmas smelt cheesy smell dh pulled fridge out and there was liquid in the drip tray with a crust of something on the top [turns nose up thinking about it].emptied it and washed it out and the smell was gone

It isn't anything to do with shoes in the shoe cupboard is it?

We have a shoe cupboard in the hall, and sometimes I catch a whiff of horrible old shoe smell if
a) someone has trodden in something
b) old/ whiffy, sweaty shoes or football boots have been put away

??

Have you checked your sink trap? If it is clogged or if it does not have the trap fitted correctly periodically it will send up fumes - which is delightful

Turn off the water and flush the loos - see if the smell appears. (This is the least ick way of finding out).

I have a reasonably unpleasant possible explanation, based on the wonderful summer I've just had We have had rats living under our floor, took us a while to realise [dim emoticon]and it was actually the pervasive smell of wee/old socks that started to worry me, eventually followed by my cat depositing a couple of young rats on the lawn. Got the rat poisoner in, so had a month of dead rat smell too, twas vile, but now the rats are gone. But the wee/socks smell lingers, kind of comes and goes, worse perhaps when the weather is humid. Might your house have had a vermin problem in the past? Clearly the pong can linger! If so, not much you can do from what I have read, it will go eventually. I hope.

I have nothing intelligent or helpful to add but at TeaOneSugar - really?

Fridge trap- the smell doesn't really come from the fridge, it's more under the floor, but I like your thinking

Yes our shoe cupboard does indeed ponk (who's doesn't) but it ponks all year round and this strange aroma is definitely seasonal