Bad smell in 1 room

[Anxioustealady]

Hi,

Please help me get to the bottom of this.

I'm in a new build, and the back bedroom smells intermittently and has done since we moved in.

We put carpet down, but we haven't painted.

The back bedroom backs onto the garden and the cat does use the garden as a toilet, but the other room at the back doesn't smell, and if I open the window outside doesn't smell.

All I have in here is a wardrobe and chest of drawers. Inside the wardrobe doesn't smell.

I shampooed the carpet but it's not gone.

Tempted to pull everything out the wardrobe and chest of drawers, put it in another room, and wipe down the carcasses and see if it goes, if not pull the carpets up.

Could anyone please give me some ideas?

Is it worth tracking when it smells and when it's rained? Or anything else?

Fishy smells usually mean an electrical fault. This can cause smells that come and go as you turn the offending light or plug socket on/off. I think its the plastic that causes the smell.

My builder told me a story about a new build in which the downstairs toilet hadn't been properly fitted to the drains so each flush ended up under the floor boards.

Is the window near the soil pipe? Sometimes you get smells from the open top end. I think there's supposed to be a non-return valve, but I sometimes get a whiff of mine or my neighbours'.

Or maybe your cat has been naughty.

Any signs of leaking from the radiator?

Final idea, maybe its just a rather nasty new build smell, or something has got slightly damp. You could ask your neighbours if they are getting smells.

Thank you for your help.

I wouldn't say fishy, it's hard to describe, maybe more like urine or BO? Like a stale smell?

I'm worried it is cat pee so I think I need to pull everything out the wardrobe so I can check under and behind it as well. I was hoping the vax would sort it. There were a couple months between fitting the carpet and getting furniture in here.

That's horrible about the new build with the badly fitted toilet.

I'm not sure about the soil pipe, I'll have to ask someone handy what it could be. There's an en suite bathroom next to the back bedroom but it's connected to the main bedroom so you'd think you'd smell it in there.

Radiator looks good. No marks around pipes.

My husband can't smell anything, which is a bit maddening. I'm pregnant but I smelt it before, it just bothers me more now. I need another pregnant woman or a Bassett hound to back me up 😆

Oh, sympathy, my husband can never smell anything either.

>maybe more like urine or BO? Like a stale smell?

If it's a stale smell I'd hazard a guess that it could have been one of those new builds where they build the whole house and only knock through to put windows in once it's sold. Imagine they're sitting there over winter, hermetically sealed, getting no air whatsoever.

That said, I've only seen those a few times in my lifetime, so they're rare.

I'd be asking around friends to borrow a dehumidifier to suck any excess moisture out of the room. Leave it on for a long, long time, like people with damp in old houses do - a good week or two.

I don't think this is the case because I bought it as it was being built, and I remember seeing it with holes in the bricks for windows to go in.

I have a dehumidifier so I'll run that in there and see how much water it collects. Thanks for your help, it's really driving me crazy.

If that doesn't work, I'd be lifting up the carpet to see if something nefarious has happened to the floorboards.

OK thank you. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if you lift carpet up, does it go down again nicely? It's normal carpet with underlay underneath

I think steps to take -
Empty wardrobe and chest of drawers. Put stuff into another room.
Wipe carcasses down
Move them away from the wall so I can check behind/underneath
Run dehumidifier
Pull up carpet if still not resolved

I want this to be my baby's bedroom and I can't have her in a smelly room.

Could be a rodent dead under floor , or
something like builders left food stuff in floor void
I had this in a new build years ago and the builders had swept all the sandwiches half feet and chris Packetts another crap under the bus then fix the panel. It took ages to identify the smell.

Omg typos
not feet…half eaten , and crisp packets etc
must stop using voice text
apparently!!!

Another one for a mouse under the floor boards. Amazing how something so tiny can smell so bad. If it is that, it will fade….slowly.

I would not take up all the carpet, it has to be stretched to lie flat, and yours is recently laid so will probably not just snap back

you can get carpet deodorisers ( modern versions of Shake n Vac) which are quite effective in the short term

Yes hopefully no feet!

Did you have to pull the carpets up?

We've been in 2.5 years now, it's less strong than it was (and I'm pregnant now so you'd think it would be stronger to me). Does that sound like it could be a mouse? And would that smell more on warm days? I'll try keep track of when I notice it the most

I need someone with a really strong sense of smell who'd recognise death to come round and tell me lol

I could try a deodorising powder, thanks. I was really hoping shampooing the carpet would fix it.

Thank you for your help with this

It was bathroom, bath panel off etc
if the smell persists, I would have a good sniff of the floor, first

Oh bathroom might be easier, as long as you had vinyl and not tiles! Glad you got yours sorted. Thanks :)

If the smell has lasted 2.5 years , not a mouse . That would have gone years ago .

Hopefully not! Hopefully if I take everything out the wardrobe and shampoo the carpet underneath it will go

Is there a blind in the room? Some blinds I’ve had smell a bit like BO. You might need to sniff every inch of the room carefully.

Yes there is, but it was put in after I noticed the smell. I will smell it though to check, thanks

It's like its in the air, I can't pinpoint it, so annoying

I was about to say a dead rodent under the floorboards or pussy has caught something and hidden it....😮

Never mind the rodent, who is Chris Packetts and why didn’t anyone miss them behind your bath panel? 😲

Oh no, maybe in the wardrobe 😬

Speaking from experience, I would also think something dead under the floor boards, especially in a new build.

Have you heard anything or seen any droppings?

Vermin control is expensive but could be worth calling one and getting their opinion. I had to call one a few weeks ago as I had a smell AND scrabbling, and the first thing he did when I answered the door to him was sniff and immediately say " I smell rat wee!"

Now my house smells of dead rat....

Never seen droppings anywhere, or heard any scrabbling. The room it's in is very bare, so you'd think I'd see something. I definitely need to pull the wardrobe and chest of drawers out to check behind (I don't think I can move them while they're full)

It being mice/rats has really worried me, especially being pregnant because I think their wee can make people ill. Do you mind sharing what it cost to get someone out please?

Are you able to get down on your hands and knees and literally smell the carpet all over, if it's something in that area, it'll smell stronger and might help you focus on where the problem could be.

Well, I'm in London and it was£320 for 2 visits, but I was definitely sure we had a rat as I'd heard the bugger and it had got into the food waste under the sink.

He didn't just come out on my say so, we went through why I thought we had a problem and as I said, he knew as soon as I opened the door with the bloody smell.

I also didn't have any droppings and that included underneath all the kitchen cabinets as he had all the base boards off and plugged round the hole where the kitchen waste goes into the floor.

Old terrace house so all the houses are interconnected underneath. Same with the attic space and he did say they can get into the walls as well.

I have never been so disgusted and engrossed with what someone had to say!