Damp, Musty Smell This usually signals mold or mildew, which could become a big problem for both your home and your health if not quickly remedied. Certain types of mold and mildew can also produce a fishy smell. Use a digital hygrometer to check the relative humidity of each room in the house.
A weird smell in a house can come from numerous sources, including appliances, furniture, carpets, fabrics or issues like mold or mildew. Occasionally, odors may be caused by sewer gas, natural gas leaks or animals that have died between walls, in attics or under decks.
“One of the best methods to tell if your home stinks is to leave it. Go away for a day or two, or even a week,” says Bryan Stoddard, handyman and interior designer. “Close all windows and doors, shut the blinds, and seal the place up air-tight.
Chemical Smells
The heat exchanger is the part of your furnace that will transfer the heat from the combustion chamber. If this part becomes cracked or damaged, it can release dangerous carbon monoxide fumes into the air that can circulate through your HVAC ductwork and out into the air in your home.
Baking soda: Open a container and place it in the area where the smell originated. Coffee grounds: Put used coffee grounds in shallow bowls and place around your house. The coffee grounds will absorb and eliminate smells. White vinegar: Bowls of white vinegar can act as an odor neutralizer.
It's often described as musty and earthy, and may even smell like rotting vegetables or plants. You might notice a musty smell, but not be able to see any mold growing. In this case, you should look for areas that might be exposed to water. Mold needs moisture to grow.
Gas companies add a harmless chemical called mercaptan to give it its distinctive “rotten egg” smell.
You notice a rotten-egg smell
To help detect the smell of gas, a harmless chemical called mercaptan is added to give leaked gas a distinctive odor. Most people describe the scent like rotten eggs or a hydrogen sulfide odor. Utility companies aren't the only ones to use the mercaptan additive.
Hydrogen sulfide gives off a whiff of rotten eggs. Deadly arsine has the scent of garlic. Not all poison gases have smells. You might not even realize you're inhaling a nerve agent until your respiratory muscles start twitching.
Burning Plastic: The acrid odor of an electrical fire is often described as that of burning plastic. This is because wiring insulation, connectors, and many other electrical components are made of plastic materials. Electrical fires often start behind walls, so you'll sometimes start to smell rather than see one.
Formaldehyde is a colorless chemical with a strong pickle-like odor that is commonly used in many manufacturing processes. It easily becomes a gas at room temperature, which makes it part of a larger group of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
If it is outdoors, or if the windows are open, then the smell is stronger near the source. Moving your nose from place to place is a way to determine the gradient of concentration of smelly molecules. Follow the direction of the gradient to locate the source.
Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no odor, color or taste. You wouldn't be able to see or smell it, but it can be very dangerous to your health and even fatal.
Stagnant air — Stagnant air traps airborne particles like dust, mold spores, and even tobacco smoke from your clothes. This is especially true on hot humid days. If you don't have proper ventilation in your room, the air holds on to these pollutants.
Mold and mildew smell stale and pungent, similar to the smell of rotting wood. It's most common smelled in either places where mold spores can colonize undisturbed like basements and closets, or in places where there is plenty of moisture like bathrooms.
Ammonia (NH3) is a colorless gas that is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. It has a strong odor that smells like urine or sweat. Ammonia occurs naturally in water, soil, and the air, and is also found naturally in plants, animals, and the human body.
Methane is an odorless, colorless, flammable gas.
Among the best known toxic gases are carbon monoxide, chlorine, nitrogen dioxide and phosgene.
Olfactory reference syndrome (ORS), also known as olfactory reference disorder, is an underrecognized and often severe condition that has similarities to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). People with ORS think they smell bad, but in reality they don't.
As methane is often produced by animal digestion and the decomposition of matter, it is often assumed that it has a strong smell. In fact, methane by itself is odorless.
The smell of rotten eggs.
In its natural state, natural gas is odorless and colorless. To make gas leaks easier to detect, gas companies add chemicals called odorants to create a natural gas smell similar to sulphur or rotting eggs. The stronger this smell, the more likely it is that you have a gas leak.
Engine oil is one of the easiest fluids to detect. It smells like cooking oil, is thick and slippery to the touch and ranges in color from brown to black. Most such leaks may be attributed to a stripped oil pan drain plug — a simple repair.
What does Sulfur Smell Like? Sulfide and sulfur containing compounds have a characteristic odor reminiscent of burnt matches, skunk, rotted eggs, or natural gas.
Butane is a colorless gas with an odor of Natural gas.
What is hydrogen sulfide? Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless, flammable gas that smells like rotten eggs at low concentration levels in the air. It is commonly known as sewer gas, stink damp, and manure gas. At high concentration levels, it has a sickening sweet odor.