Building Chemical Odors & Carpeting or carpet padding: some building chemical odor complaints are traced to (usually new) carpeting, particularly wall-to-wall carpet products, and to carpet padding, particularly foam or rubber carpet padding and underlayment products.Īlso CARPET PADDING ASBESTOS, MOLD, ODORS.Building Chemical Odors & Building Structure: does the odor relate to presence of a nearby air movement pathway such as a building stairwell, elevator shaft, or heating and cooling duct system?įor example, we have traced odors in an upper floor of an office building to smells transported through a nearby elevator shaft, by a stairwell, and across an extraordinarily long suspended ceiling cavity from a distant beauty parlor.Some appliances may be overheating, heating plastic components, or may be experiencing an electrical problem that is actually burning electrical components or plastic wire coverings. Building Chemical Odors & Appliances: does the odor appear only when certain appliances are running: cook stove, air conditioner, heater, aquarium pump, fans, clothes dryers, clothes washers, dishwashers, or electrical devices such as TV's?.See ANIMAL or URINE ODOR SOURCE DETECTION. Building Chemical Odors & Animals: on occasion we have received reports of a "chemical odor" complaint in a building that is ultimately traced to an animal, usually a dead one trapped in a wall, ceiling, or crawl space.Building Chemical Odors & Common Indoor Air Pollutants - some indoor air pollutants may include an odor described as "chemical".See ACETONE in WELL WATER below in this article Acetone or similar chemical smells in well water.This building chemical odor source list is in simple alphabetic order, not in order of probable cause, importance, or health risk, all of which can vary widely. īut because an odor reservoir, like a mold or dust reservoir in a building, can produce effectively a continuous source of smell, the most effective way to remove a building odor is to find and correct its source. Using dust removal as an analogy, imagine waving a vacuum cleaner wand in the air in your kitchen in hopes that the dust bunnies under the living room couch will somehow be removed.Ī principal ingredient in many such odor-absorbing products is sodium bicarbonate - (baking soda) - a hygroscopic material that readily absorbs moisture from the air and that may absorb some odor molecules as well. In our opinion no odor absorbing product can handle a troublesome building odor problem in a building if the odor source is not found and removed. Photo at left: Air Sponge™ is an odor absorber product for sale at a building supply store and described by the manufacturer as effective in areas up to 300 sq. Often people's perception of odors varies with time and exposure or with a number of other site factors that make it hard to track down just where a smell is coming from.īut if we think carefully about when, and under what conditions we notice odors, often that information is instrumental in tracking down an odor to its source and thus in helping us decide if an odor refers to a potentially dangerous or unhealthy condition. Checklist for Diagnosing the Cause of Chemical Smells in buildings We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website.Ĭhemical odors in or near residential buildings: this article describes clues, focused on common sources of building chemical smells or chemical-like odors, that any home owner, home inspector, or other investigator can follow in seeking to pinpoint the source of an annoying or obnoxious odor in buildings. InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest.
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