Landlord issue - identify source of the stank?
 

This place always amazes me with the diversity of knowledge. I need some CSI type science knowledge. I jumped back into being a landlord with the purchase of a 6 unit building this summer. This unit had a long time tenant who the agent said wasn't 100% "there" mentally. Her parents would send half the rent, etc. She had a little boy in this place. She moved out 10/31 and though the place was as dirty and gross as I've seen, it cleaned up remarkably well. Two cleaning ladies and a full day later it is rent ready.

Except for the smell. There is a lingering odor. Best described by me as a cat litter box that is full. We can't find the source. It could be the kid was peeing somewhere. Possibly just years of no cleaning has seeped into a porous surface? Walls are plaster as it was built in 1912. Any suggestions on how to track this down or deal with it? There are no obvious stains, hardwood floors or tile throughout the apartment. I've been on hands and knees sniffing in closets, etc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1478533416.jpg

If was pee / poop left on carpet or wood a blacklight will show it. Not sure if is a specific type of black light. Also carpet cleaning guys use a 'wand' with probes to directly stab the floor to identify if it is poop / pee. Obviously, this only applies if the source is on the floor.

You may need to pull appliances like the stove away from the wall to inspect for fecees cat or otherwise.

Cats are "generally" pretty reliable about using the litter box.

If they are sick or the litter box is not kept clean, (which might be the case here considering how she left the place) they will find other spots.

Black lights kind of work.

Check carpeted areas first.

If it's old pee you can get on all fours and you should be able to locate the spot or spots with just your nose. You don't need to stick your face in the carpet.

They'll also find an out of the way corner possibly in a closet. That can be more problematic than carpet. If they make a puddle in a corner it can leech under molding and wick into the drywall. You can try KILZ on that but really the right way is to cut out the section and patch it. Also replace insulation if there is any behind it.

If the carpeting is soiled your cheapest / easiest / surest way to deal with it is get some nice commercial grade cheap carpet from Home Depot / LOWEs and be done with it.

EDIT: Don't forget, cats do spray, especially males so you may be dealing with a vertical surface, wall, cabinet, etc... and not the floor.

Another place to check are all the traps under the sinks, especially of there's a disposal on one side of the kitchen sink. The tub/shower, utility sink, check them all. If a trap dries out it won't function as a trap anymore.

Hope you don't have to go as far as I did.

Had a guy confined to a wheelchair that had three large dogs. Had friends come daily to let the dogs out, but there were "accidents" from time to time.

I stripped all the flooring out and got a 5-gallon bucket of Kilz shellac and rolled the entire subfloor.

First I'd pull all the appliances away from the wall and take a look.

I'd repaint the whole bathroom with KILZ and new paint, especially around the toilet.

If there's carpet get new carpet.

Bummer.

Oh and don't forget this urban legend about 'house stink'.

a recently divorced woman had to give up her home and all its furnishings as part of her divorce settlement. She packed her personal belongings into boxes, garment bags and suitcases. Then, she sat down for a farewell meal in what had once been her happy home. She put candles on the dining room table, soft music on the CD player, and laid out a feast of shrimp, caviar and champagne.




When she had finished, she walked around her home for one last time. She went into each and every room and focused on the happy memories. And then she deposited a few half-eaten shrimp shells, dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the curtain rods. Then she cleaned up the kitchen, put her things into a U-Haul and left.

The next day, her ex-husband and his new girlfriend moved into the home. All was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything: cleaning and mopping and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam-cleaned. Air fresheners were hung everywhere. They moved out for a few days while exterminators set off gas canisters. They replaced the expensive wool carpeting. Nothing worked.

People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move.

A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and eventually, the local real estate agents would not return their calls. Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to buy a new place.

The ex-wife called her ex-husband and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the smelly house. She listened politely and said that she missed her old home terribly and would be willing to buy the house, even though it obviously had some kind of a problem. Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on a price that was a 10th of what the house had been worth -- but only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and within the hour, his lawyers delivered the paperwork.

A week later, the man and his new girlfriend stood smirking as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home. Including the curtain rods.

I should think that the easiest way to find what smells is to enlist a "smeller" in the form of just about any dog you can borrow for the task. Get multiple opinions. Finally, try a cat for a.......wait for it............

cat scan

if it was a male cat and he sprayed that is pretty bad. that is hard to get rid of. had one spray inside my 914 one day.
bring in another cat or maybe a dog, they may sniff it out.
neighbors cat kept spraying at my front door. finally took him across the river.

All good advice so far, especially the appliance moving and the drain traps. Do that.

From my halcyon days as a landlord, smells tended to be temporary: something died, crapped, hurled, etc. and those things have a olfactory lifespan, an arc of pungency, even the serious, cat spray, dead rat in the wall stuff.

If you have central air and heating, inspect all that stuff...ducts carry it all.

A trick I used a few times, passed down through generations of landlords, is to seal each room as best you can (I have taped over - using cheap plastic painters cloth - entrances without doors) and try and isolate the smell that way.

Good luck. Mold was my biggest problem....look for that while you are at it:)

Check the drain tray under the fridge.

Oh yeah and furnace/AC filter.

I had a house with a mildew smell with a smell that I could not get rid of. Folks said it smelled like "old people." I finally bought some cleaner that is designed to remove mildew before painting and used a sponge mop on the walls. I followed up with primer (Killz) and paint. Solved the problem.

Went back and refinished wood floors and it was even better. Smelled like new furniture.

My dog is paralyzed and therefore has accidents sometimes and the very best product I have found is called "Natures Miracle." I buy it at Fleet Farm or the pet store. And spray it on the floor- works great.

Nilodor Home

or grab a bag of Charcoal Briquettes. Like Kingsford brand. Open the bag and spread it out on a plastic garbage bag and leave it to absorb the smells.

If it's more of an acrid/ammonia like smell, I'd probably guess cat piss/spraying as mentioned previously. The black light suggestion is good, as cat piss (among other things) will show up very prominently under UV light. Just pick up a UV flashlight with decent output. Something around the 365-395nm level if possible (most cheap ones won't list what wavelength the LED is). Good luck...

One word... Carpet. Kitty wee has penetrated down into the underlay.

rip it out!

The professional death cleanup crews leave open coffee cans out.

I bought the $100 5000mg https://www.amazon.com/Ozone-Power-OP5000-Commercial-Generator/dp/B012OW48M2/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1478559241&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=ozone+generator&psc=1 and used it in a dampish garage space with a dehumidifier. It destroys smells and works well. DO NOT BREATHE.

Also clean the carpets with a Rug Doctor or buy one.
-Good for sofas and vehicles as well. It has one thick seal and is fast and simple, but it does leave the carpet very wet for a day or so. I rented at brand about 15 times until the prices started going up so I decided to invest.
-So I bought a Bissell and regret it. Not engineered well at all. The carpet does dry faster than the RD, but there are seven(7) thin seals to go bad and the plastic parts are a flimsy in general. It doesn't turn corners at all. Hair clumps get caught in it. Worst part is it leaves black drips and lines of staining hair clumps with every pass. To get the carpet really clean I now need to pre-soak thoroughly which is back to square one.
-I use about 1/2 or 1/4 of the recommended detergent and add quite a bit of baking soda to help absorb the smells.
-You can rub in baking soda before and use a tiny bit of Spot Shot which works on everything.

Some other useful items:
https://www.amazon.com/Crenova-Megapixel-Endoscope-Waterproof-Inspection/dp/B016KUGVJC/ref=sr_1_3?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1478559302&sr= 1-3&keywords=inspection+camera
https://www.amazon.com/Sewer-Jetter-Orifice-Button-Nozzle/dp/B00MV3DCLS/ref=pd_sbs_86_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=98937N 99TW769Z7R2N6W

Pretty sure he said no carpet.

I would bring in my dog and see where they go to sniff. I had a rodent problem in my garage before and a rat got smacked in the head by the trap only to wander off and die somewhere in the garage. I could smell it but not pinpoint it. My pointer showed me where it was within a minute.

I had a coworker who had bought a house from a cat lady. Ended up tearing out all the carpet and dry wall up to 3 feet high, as apparently the cats had sprayed the dry wall in the entire house.

G

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, it is all tile or hardwood floors, no carpet. I've been through that with houses before, cats and carpets with owners not paying attention is not a good thing.

After the windows being open since yesterday, it smelled much better. I'll close things up again and buy the blacklight if it still has an odor.

I think the coffee cans are a good idea. Friends of mine had good luck with car odors and coffee grounds additionally roasted in a pan and then left inside the car. It was a tip from a mortuary. Should be easy to buy some crap folgers and roast a couple pans to the point of smoke and leave them in there, right on the stove.

G

Plugged plumbing vent.
BTW, the coffee idea works great! I use it on equipment that has been used in dairy or hog operations after washing them out. Another good one is OdoBan. It'll knock the stank of about anything.

You can also rent a commercial ozone generator/deodorizer from most equipment-rental places.

Okay.. I'm gonna think about this like an engineer. First segment the problem. Separate areas of the house with plastic sheeting. Open the windows for a few days then close it up.

Which section stinks? Repeat with smaller areas?

Like the black light idea, bit that's only gonna identify animal/human waste.

OMG. How can one raise a child in that mess?

All good advice, especially the coffee. That will knock the stench out of most anything.

One more thing...be mindful of hidden water leaks. I kept smelling a faint urine smell in our kitchen which turned out to be a leaking dish washer line. The urine smell was (according to the repair man) a urea based glue breaking down in the underfloor. He said that most people don't smell it or just identify it as "funk" but evidently I am part blood hound...

angela

I've thought about that a fair bit. If I didn't work for an agency that deals with these kids every day and know the system reasonably well, I would turn her in to child services. As it is, I see kids that have come from far worse daily and the social work system is so over burdened that nothing would really be done.

I must confess that I have not read all the posts so I may be repeating a suggestion. Previous tenants moved out and new tenants just moved in but there was a gap of about a month when nobody was in the condo. For some reason when the condo is vacant the stink increases in the kitchen area.

Isolated to the kitchen sink area. Possibly the garburator? Do you have a garburator?
Apparently there is a cross pipe under the sink that can get contaminated when not in use. We put baking soda down the drains after running hot water through and let it sit.
The open box of baking soda can be left open in the sink area.

Seems better now we have new tenants....:)

I found the source of the stank at one of my properties today. One of my tenants passed away in his apartment about a week ago. Spent six hours with cops, emts and the m.e. Now to take care of the biohazard and gut the apartment.

Is this a multi tenant building? That's quite a long time. Best of luck.

Mine ended up being urine on the walls. Found with the black light. Washed the walls with vinegar and water and it turned out great.

I had a similar smell in my basement office. I looked everywhere

1) It turned out to be a dry trap in the shower. The basement bathroom is the next room over.
I thought the cat was peeing in my office.

WE also had what looked like fruit flies.

To me when those flies show up, thats now an immediate sign that there is a dry trap somewhere (sink, flor drain shower etc?)

2) My second guess is mice behind the walls (unless the carpets reek of something deposited directly on them)

Possibly it could be the drains. In our condo kitchen l leave an open box of baking soda next to the sink while the condo was vacant. I also ran hot water down the sink and then sprinkled a liberal amount of baking soda in the sink drain and let it sit.

It's amazing how much a dead body can leak.
There are companies that specialize in that sort of clean-up. Not cheap tho.

I bought a used washer and dryer post divorce. The dryer had a rodent nest under it. Check for hidden rodents nests, since they pee/poop in them.

This time the guy died on the bed, so it isn't that bad. The other two times, the tenants passed away on the floor. The cleanup guys had to remove the floor.

Sounds like alot of great advice (black light for cat urine is a go to). If it's the sink area look for a "studor" air admittance valve if there's no easily located connection to vent. AAV's are a mechanical vent and do fail which would release sewer gas. You'll find them typically in islands or apartment kitchens.

Good luck btw, landlords are not the easiest thing to be

Remind me never to rent a place from you, sounds like a pattern :-)

I have an ozone generator from my real estate days. Works great to kill the smell. It's always best if you can find the source.