[TheForge] Need help with a mystery odor in my house

[Walter]

You say an oily smell.  Could this be an overheated bearing on a motor 
like on your furnace, well, sump pump - etc?

On 3/27/2020 10:57 PM, Bruce . wrote:
> Sorry, this is not blacksmithing related at all, but I'm about at my wit's
> end and I know that this group includes lots of folks with varied
> experience and good deductive skills.
>
> Some background:  I live in a ranch-style home with full basement and
> storage attic.  My garage (shop) is detached.  I have (detached) sheds out
> back where I keep most fuels and much paint, including spray paint, so the
> bulk of this is not in the house at all.
>
> My back hall leads off the kitchen via a pocket door, which I usually keep
> closed, and my back hall is down two steps.  The back door is then to the
> right and the stairs to the basement are to the left, opposite the back
> door.  The pocket door, then separates the back hall and basement from the
> ground floor of the house.
>
> At the bottom of the stairs is a small "foyer".  There's an (open) door to
> the east half, where the gas appliances are located in a separate "laundry
> room", and an (open) door to the west, that has a separate bathroom.  There
> is a sewer ejector that serves the bathroom and the laundry, but its
> contents are clean at present because I've been doing laundry but not using
> the basement john.
>
> As to possible odors:  There are some oil paints, spray paints, glues,
> Brakleen, and other auto fluids in the back hall and basement.  My house
> and water are heated with gas.  I have paint stored in the laundry room,
> and glues and such stored in the east basement.  I have one bin of misc.
> automotive fluids in the west basement.
>
> As recently as yesterday I was all through the house and smelled no
> particular odors anywhere.  This morning I opened the pocket door to the
> back hall and  immediately noticed an odor that I'd describe as "oily."
>
> I immediately checked all my gas appliances in the basement -- boiler,
> water heater and clothes dryer -- spraying all valve cocks, pipe joints and
> the flex hose to the dryer with detergent-water to look for leaks, and
> found none.
>
> As a reference, I also accumulated a bit of gas from my kitchen stove in an
> inverted bowl and sniffed that.  The odor of the gas was not at all the
> same "oily" odor I smelled in the back hall.
>
> Next I sought out a closed plastic bin in the west basement that contains
> various fluids for automotive use.  One of these had leaked a bit some time
> ago, but the odor wasn't bad if I kept the bin sealed.  I opened the bin
> and noted the odor was *not *the "oily" odor I'd been smelling in the
> house.  Nonetheless, I hauled the entire bin out back and have left it
> there since.
>
> At this point, I was out of ideas.  In an excess of caution, I opened one
> window near my basement gas appliances, opened all doors between there and
> the ground floor, opened a window on the ground floor and put a wind-box
> fan, set on "high", in the window, blowing outward.  Fortunately, the
> weather was nice today, so I left it like this for a while, with air being
> pulled through the house.  (The idea was both to vent the odor and to
> prevent accumulation of an explosive mixture if the odor was from a
> flammable compound.)
>
> I went out from noon to 3PM, and when I returned the odor was present in
> the house, but I don't recall it being strong.  At some later point I
> turned the wind-box fan to "low", but I don't now recall whether this was
> before going out or after returning.  I left again at about 7 PM, and
> during this time I was dimly aware of the odor, but it did not strike me as
> strong.  (Granted, the nose fatigues.)
>
> When I returned around 10 PM I immediately smelled the odor when I entered
> the front door.  Once again I checked all gas lines for leaks, and found
> none.
>
> This time I went through the various thing stored in the back hall,
> carefully sniffing each, and none have the "oily" smell I'm experiencing.
> (This included Brakleen, a permethrin spray, 30-weight oil, and maybe one
> or two other things.  I know quite well what WD-40 and spray paint smell
> like, so didn't try those.)  I also have sniffed some used crankcase oil
> from a garden tractor (which I'm waiting to dispose of properly), some
> kerosene, and some diesel fuel.  The kerosene is the closest to the "oily"
> smell, but not exactly the same.  I associate the "oily" smell with auto
> shops.  Maybe it smells like dilute used crankcase oil, but not quite like
> that from that garden tractor.
>
> At this point I'm fairly sure there is no gas leak, but I'm leaving the fan
> in the window to pull air through the house anyway.  The odor was first in
> the back hall, but may also have been in the basement.  At no time did it
> seem to be concentrated around the basement gas appliances.  More likely it
> was coming from the west basement, but that's not certain.  The odor is not
> likely to be sewer gas, both for the type of odor and for it's origin, but
> I've run some water in each basement drain to ensure the traps are filled.
>
> The real puzzle is that I have absolutely no idea what this smell is or
> where it's coming from.  I have no reason to believe that it's being pulled
> in from outside.  I have no reason to believe I've been the victim of
> mischief.    FWIW, my sense of smell seems normal.  Acetone, isopropyl
> alcohol witch hazel, lavender, and  food (at dinner) all smell or taste
> normal.
>
> Any insights would be very welcome.
>
> Bruce
> NJ
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