I have a buddy that contacted me yesterday about an odor that he has had and is trying to locate and I ran out of ideas so I’m turning to y’all.

The story is he has had a odor for about a month that is steadily getting worse and he thinks something has died in one of his walls. The smell is in one hallway he has checked the attic above the area and there is no sign of anything moving the insulation and there is no odor in the attic. I told him that he needs to look above that area to see if there are any holes in the top plates or other signs but other than that have no idea how to locate what has died and remove it. He does not want to just start cutting holes in the walls but other than that how does he go about finding what has died or who does he call?

Any ideas would be helpful.

I think looking for holes in the top plate is the best bet and then taking off outlet plates and seeing if the odor is stronger where there are plugs.

Sreike a match.

I thought there was an odor in my house. Turns out I have a post-Covid symptom called parosmia. Never even knew I had Covid, but apparently did 4-8 months ago. Ask your buddy if any of his food is smelling off - especially onion and garlic.

Bill you're truely old-school

I thought this was about an ex-Ranger second baseman. He stunk too.

Look from outside in. My neighbor's house was built in the early 70's and had a crack in the outside wall that lead to under his bath tub. An opossum took up residence and died there. I had to cut 1' off the bedroom wall and fished it out with a cable and pvc pipe.

Its my understanding that they won their last game.

Install odor containers inside the return air it will smell fresh everyday and all day. If he thinks a rat has died in the walls it will only last a few days

Probably a rat snake crawled in and couldn’t get back out.

Not that he came home from work yesterday and found some huge flys in his bathroom and uility room that are both off of this hall way so that along with the odor is why he is thinking something has died. I can't beleive that this has been going on for 30 days and he just said something.

If there are flies, whatever it is is accessible. Avery type of animal rodent, reptile, feline, K9 all have their own smell when it gets to this point. Y’all can’t tell which it is?

Are the flys going in the drains? Maybe an animal got stuck in the vent stack

must have been one hell of a crack? maybe a gap?

I have messed with a lot of very rotten nasty things and never once have i noticed the difference in smell.

This

And Sharp as a Tack

Run water in all the sinks and bathtubs and showers. Maybe sewer gas coming back through .

I was surprised how small a crack a kitten sized opossum could squeeze into. Don't fall asleep in the yard.

Check the vent stack first if he has any bubbling in toilet or faucets. If so it is sewer/septic gas and vent stack is either clogged or has been broken. We had mice that penetrated somehow under the slab foundation and ended up in the wall behind a linen closet. Stunk like heck for a week then went away. Ended up putting a lot of pea gravel around based of foundation and that seemed to do the trick.

Tell them to buy an Ozone Generator and leave it going and start pulling Sheetrock or if on an interior wall with no insulation to use a wall camera snake and locate it first. Been their and done that on a rental,

That has happened to us sometimes since we don't use the bathtubs and 1 sink in the other bathrooms.First smells we run water in the tubs and sink and the smell is soon gone.

I thought this post was going to be about Rougie.

ask him if it smells like sewer, may have a broken drain under the slab, I have helped fix 2 in the past that the toilet drain pipe was never glued and elbows came loose.

slab drains are usually blocked out when a slab is poured and left open for future access if needed, possible something got under the slab and died or even up under the tub area then into a wall.


worst case scenario, burn the house down and call insurance co.

A dog might show you right where it is at.