8 Strange Home Smells That You Shouldn’t Ignore
August 21, 2020Though not as good as our pets’, our noses are more sensitive than a lot of scientific equipment. It can pick up all sorts of scents and aromas that linger in our homes. There’s the stench from our bathrooms, there’s the lingering scent of last weekend’s fried fish, there’s the smell of our stinky laundry and a dozen other things. While household odors like these are simply objectionable, there are some scents that serve as clues to dangers in your home. Oftentimes, these dangers are hard to spot with your eyes so use your nose to sniff out these problems and prevent any harm to your health and budget.
1. Fishy Smell
If you didn’t have fish for dinner last night and you smell something fishy, you better call the electrician fast. A fishy smell is the first sign that you have electrical components overheating or burning. The most common places you can find this smell emanating from are overloaded circuits, faulty outlets, overheated electrical insulation, or loose or frayed wires or cords. Make sure to call for an electrician immediately to prevent a house fire.
2. Rotten Egg
Natural gas is odorless so the chemical mercaptan is added to it. This is what creates that rotten egg smell that alerts you to a gas leak. Once you smell this and you’ve checked that you don’t have any real rotten eggs lying around, get out of there fast. Avoid using your landline to call the gas company and call from your landlord’s or neighbors phone instead. Also, avoid turning on lights, appliances, or anything that could create sparks.
3. Sewage Smellr
Our bathrooms develop a variety of smells with all the moisture in there. But don’t confuse that musty smell for sewage smell. If you start smelling excessive sewage smells, from your bathroom, it would be wise to call your plumber. That smell right there could mean that your plumbing is clogged or there’s a broken sewer pipe. If the smell is coming from the drain, it may mean that your P-trap is all dried up. To prevent these problems, run water through all your drains at least once a month.
4. Wet Dog Smell
Nothing smells quite like the wet dog smell of our favorite furry buddies except other furry creatures. So if you start smelling this and you don’t own a pup, a bunch of rodents may just have found their new home in yours. They often get in through the rafters of your bathroom and leave their feces all around. Many of these carry rabies and their feces can also carry worms that can pose a threat to most people.
5. Musty Smell or Cat Urine Smell
A musty or pungent odor can often indicate a broken pipe or sink leak that has mold growing all over it. There are also certain types of mold that smell like cat urine like dangerous toxic black mold. Once you spot the mold, disinfect tile surfaces with a 10% bleach/ water solution. Then, let it sit for a while. For dry surfaces like dry wall, it’s best to call experts to have them replaced. Molds can cause various health problems especially for those with asthma and allergies..
6. New House Smell
There are plenty of common kitchen appliances out there like tea kettles and waffle makers that people deem as a staple but aren’t really a necessity. So before making your purAlthough some of us might like this smell because of its association to all things new, it can be quite dangerous. Some new pieces of furniture or a fresh coat of paint can emanate this smell which comes from volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These are not only unpleasant on the nose but also unpleasant on our health. So whenever you get new furniture, air them out for a night or two before bringing them in. The same goes for when you’re repainting your home.
7. Locker Room Smell
Sometimes, that dirty sock smell may not be coming from your gym bag or dirty laundry. Instead, it can be coming from the buildup of bacteria in your heating system. Condensation creates the perfect habitat for these bacteria and it encourages bacterial growth especially in the spring and fall. To avoid this, clean out your heating system regularly or call in a professional to help you.
8. Ammonia
Oftentimes, if you start smelling something like ammonia, it’s more likely that your rodent housemate has died. Unfortunately, although you have one less rodent to worry about, it could be a pain to find and remove. They’re often found in hard to reach spots like inside your walls, ceilings, or floors. Simply use your nose to find where the scent is strongest and if needed, ask for help to get the corpse out. Afterward, seal up any entry point these little buggers can enter.
