ODOR OF THE HOUSE

The house smelled so bad the new owner could taste it.

From the first days in the 1912 row home, something was off. The previous owner had renovated it, and at a glance it looked like a nice place. But the air hit with a smell that the poster described as "fuckin' weird in here." At first, it was a mashup of "kitty litter and moth balls," bad enough that the realtor blamed the old owner's cats and dog.

That part improved. After chlorine dioxide treatments with a Room Shocker product and a lot of airing out, the cat-litter note faded. What stayed behind was worse in a way that was harder to name: "smokey, stale, hamster-cagey, and tangy all in one." The poster called it a "sensory mind fuck" and said, "I can honestly taste it sometimes."

Then came the expensive round of fixes. The HVAC system was replaced. The walls were painted with Killz and fresh paint. Dehumidifiers went in, along with an air purifier and an Aerus air scrubber. Ozone treatments followed. The place was deep cleaned. The ducts were cleaned. None of it solved the smell.

One by one, the obvious suspects got checked off. The drains had functioning P traps. There were no signs of water damage. A thermal camera found no leaks. A mold company said "there probably wasn't mold anywhere." Air-quality testing came back with "no VOCs or any AQ issues." One tester said he "didn't smell anything," even though other people clearly did.

The poster started wondering if something outside the house was sneaking in through the brick walls, like a neighbor's pets.

An exterminator came through and found no sign of pests. The only thing he noticed was "the downstairs bathroom smelling faintly of sewer gas." The smell also seemed worse at night, which only deepened the mystery.

Finally, a plumber did a smoke test for sewer gases. Right away, he smelled "cat piss." He also noticed a "mildew smell in the kitchen." His best theory was that "venting issues caused by the odd plumbing layout" were contributing to the problem. He re-plumbed the kitchen sink and capped an unexplained pipe.

That may have solved one piece of it. But the poster says they are still dealing with the cat piss smell, and now suspect the flooring is to blame. After all the treatments, tests, inspections, and repairs, the old row home still has an odor problem nobody has fully pinned down.