Can't figure out smell in house...

[fireweed farm]

Sometimes, and not all the time, there is a strange and strong smell in the house. This house is only about 3 years old and was built to code so I think it is probably something other than moisture.

Sometimes it smells like cooking (burning) onions, sometimes like there's a pot of tasty soup on the range (nope!). Sometimes just weird unexplainable skankiness.
I know I'm not crazy because others have pointed it out.

I'm pretty sure it isn't the septic or mold or any forms of rot. P traps all full.
It isn't mice, for sure. I know that smell when they arrive in fall.

I've removed onions, garlic, winter squashes and other fresh but dry stored items to outside. Cat box is spotless.
It's not the house plants. Furnace is off (which doesn't get used anyway, all wood).

I almost feel like I need to hire an inspector. But thought of asking you all first!

Thanks for any ideas.

[Forcast]

a gas leak smells like onions to me

[fireweed farm]

Should have mentioned, no gas here.

[Fennick]

Maybe an ant colony under the house and/or an ant midden nearby. Ants all have distinctive odors that are very strong smelling, the dead ones smell stronger than the living ones. Depending on the species of ant the smell varies but the colonies can smell like fruit or coconut oil or food cooking or scorching and any number of other smells, usually it smells like some kind of food.

I think you should get the house and the grounds outside inspected anyway because there's all sorts of things could be causing a smell.

[Wolf mom]

Dogs?

I have one that not only gets into plants that smell, but sometimes it's just plain him! Thought it may be his ears - nope. "Doggy BO".
There are times I just want to follow him around with a bottle of Febreeze.

[fireweed farm]

No dogs, but the cat is clean and has no odor.

I think we are north enough that ants are not an issue, I spend so much time in the gardens surrounding house and haven't come across any (the varieties here only like dry soil and I use soaker hoses. But will inspect that more thorough.

Btw it's only on main floor (kitchen, living room and bathroom). Sadly it isn't in the pantry, if I close the door awhile then go in- NO smell. Too easy.

[RichNC]

Defiantly Ghosts!!

[fireweed farm]

Making me soup! If only.

[Forcast]

we get a smell of cigar smoke a few times a year ...... the same cigars my departed Dad smoked.

[frogmammy]

Recheck the house plants.

If I have tropical plants outside, (usually hibiscus or palms) I bring them in for the winter.

One spring I kept smelling SOMETHING. Couldn't find what was causing it. Sometimes it would smell worse than others...kinda came and went. Seemed to be in just the one room, which was my bedroom.

One morning I woke up, was just laying there when I looked at one of my palm trees...there was something moving.....on top of the pot....and down the sides...

Millepedes! Hundreds, maybe thousands! Little black worms...and THAT is what was causing the smell! I suspect they had been in the soild, overwintered successfully, and bred like...well, I don't know what, but I had NEVER seen that many millipedes in one place before! And OMG! The smell!
I hauled that plant out (tossed in the trash) and the smell went with it and never came back.

Now, they could have been centipedes. I called them millipedes. But for sure they stank. Never knew they COULD.

Mon

[Alaska]

House inspection! Could have been something buried (maybe in a wall cavity) during building process.
Just a few years back some rank drywall was used in new homes.
Find someone with a hound and watch him follow his nose.

[HuskyBoris]

hmmm,maybe the pan under the fridge or your garbage can,,rotting critters can sometimes smell like that as well.
maybe something funky behind the stove?

[eggman]

We have a certain spot in our dining room that occasionally smells like perfume. Tuesday I was vacuuming in there and I swear I smelled pinto beans cooking. Told my wife we must have a portal in there.

[Use Less]

Ar you close enough to other dwellings, buildings or the compost pile that odors could filter in in particular wind patterns?

[snowlady]

Our sunporch sometimes smells like garlic or onions. I was wondering if it was cat spray outside. It does not smell like a dead animal or rotting anything. It also doesn't always smell when your think it would. I would expect warmer humid days would be worse but not always.

[JoePa]

Try to isolate the smell if possible - if you have a good nose you should be able to pin point the room where the smell is coming from - once you have done that then a search will be required - if the kitchen them there are places where the smell can come from - sink, refrigerator, cabinets, etc. - if another room then the carpet, inside the walls, etc. - if you don't have a good nose take zinc tablets for a week or so and you will find that your smell capabilities have improved -

[billinwv]

I would check the plumbing vents. Clogged? Vented to the attic not the outside? You can get a cap to prevent downdrafts also if that is the problem.

[Homesteader]

fireweed - hee hee, this will be of no help but can I share a funny? I read several years ago about a couple who divorced. Somehow the hubby got the house if I recall, not that that matters but anyway, just before she had to leave the house for good, the wife took raw shrimp and stuffed them into the hollow of all the curtain rods in the house.


No one on the hubby's side could figure out where the smell was coming from and he had to spend a ton of money trying to figure it out.

[poppy]

Burnt onions odor sounds like pharts.
Cooking soup odor sounds like someone is dropping food on his clothes while eating and not changing clothes very often.
General skankiness odor sounds like bathing and personnel hygiene issues.

I'd point the finger at your hubby.

[||Downhome||]

Have a dishwasher?
If so check that its plumbed in front of the P-trap.