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

[Dan Brewer]

Can you close off the basement from the house?
I would install a bathroom fan in the basement . Get the largest cfm model
you can. Install it and let it run in the basement. If you continue to
smell the order it is possible that the location of the offending substance
is elsewhere. I would also move all volitles out of your li being space. It
is possible that one or more containers has started to leak.
Mice and other rodendts  can be a problem this time of your as they start
to raise their young. So put out bait trap's. They will chew on anything.
I use a product called odoban to clean up any number of spills. It leaves
behind a pleasent smell and does cut though most spills.
Making the storage area a negitive air space will help dissipate smells.
Dan in Auburn

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 7:58 PM Bruce . <freemab222 at gmail.com> 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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