My wall smells of wee

[tentative3]

Old terraced house. Front room has had a strange smell for the last few months, most easily described as cat wee. We do have cats... But, it's the wall that smells the most! If you sniff the plaster it smells. We have just had some electrical work done including a light switch removed from the wall, the 'box' from the switch is still there, waiting to be plastered over. There's no smell in there. There's a cupboard in the wall with the electricity meter in, and there's no smell in there. It's just the plaster.

The room is open plan to the stairs and next reception room in the sense that the doorway is open (no door or frame) - those areas don't smell really, although you can get a whiff every now and then from the next reception room. The smell is definitely coming from the front room though, and the plaster doesn't smell in the other areas.

The smell fades as the heating kicks in (which is why I'm pretty much convinced it's not cat wee, along with having had the cats for years and years and the fact the smell is at head height too).

We painted the walls about 3 months ago after moving in. I do wonder if painting over something has caused the smell but if so, what? And how do we get rid of the smell?

Forgot to add. There are voids under the floors (we don't know how deep) so we did wonder if it was damp down there but seems odd that this would seep into one wall only.

Did you use Valspar paint? It apparently smells like cat pee

What paint did you use? There was something last year about valspar causing this exact problem.

Dulux. Valspar is the most common result I get from google but sadly not valspar. The walls in the non smelly room were painted with the same paint too.

Electrics can sometimes smell if there is a short circuit in a socket/switch

Yes I had this with valspar paint, had a whole new house painted but it was only the blue I used in my sons room that smelt. It was really strong and took a good while for it to go, no smell at all now.

The electrics were done this week and a new consumer unit (is that the right term?) installed so I think the electrics are OK although I'm not sure whether that is logical. I assumed a new consumer unit would highlight any dodgy electrics as it was tested but I confess to having no knowledge whatsoever on the subject.

Our shower switch smelled before but the shower still worked. The switch needed replaced as the plastic had started to melt inside the unit

OK that's interesting. Did it smell vaguely like cat wee? That kind of box hedge smell?

Have you had any new plaster?

Mine was more of a fishy smell

Black mould can can smell of cat wee.

No, no new plaster. Although we did fill in a crack between the wee wall and the front wall, in the corner by the front door.

Black mould is a worry. I guess it could be inside the wall?

Could it be actual wee? We bought a new build and had a snagging issue that required them to remove some plaster and go in the wall. They found a load of rubble inside and an old Coke bottle full of wee that some charming workman had dumped there. You said you’ve had work done recently, could it be that?

We've just had an extension done and there was one bit of plaster that stank. The smell did go after a while. I ended up sniffing the wall as the smell was so gross!