What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

My basement smells like skunk (1 Viewer)

Galileo

Galileo

Footballguy
My "new" WFH office is in the basement of our house.  I keep getting a faint scent of skunk wafting through the air.  Trying to investigate further, I walked into the back room where I have my furnace, hot water tank and a dehumidifier operating.  My electrical box is in the same area.  Back in that room the smell is much stronger, but it smells more like something is burning.  My wife thinks it is the furnace. But why then isn't this smell being cycled through the rest of the house?  The smell seems stronger by the hot water tank and dehumidifier to me, but they are all basically next to each other so it is difficult to tell.  When I went into the room, the dehumidifier was actually not running at that moment and the indicator light to clean the filter was on.  I removed the filter which looked pretty darn clean and replaced it.   Since it wasn't actually running, I am guessing that is not the source, but who knows when it cut out. 

Anybody got any ideas as to the source of the skunky burning smell?  I guess I need to start shutting things off to isolate the issue...

 
1. If you have a floor drain in the area, try pouring a couple glasses of water down it. If the water level in the p-trap drops too far from evaporation it could be letting sewer gases in.

2. If you have a gas furnace and water heater, it could be that you have a small gas leak somewhere in the system.

 
DaVinci said:
1. If you have a floor drain in the area, try pouring a couple glasses of water down it. If the water level in the p-trap drops too far from evaporation it could be letting sewer gases in.

2. If you have a gas furnace and water heater, it could be that you have a small gas leak somewhere in the system.
Click to expand...
I do have a drain in the area...I'll look into that.  If #2, that is probably not good, but doesn't smell like gas to me.

 
DaVinci said:
1. If you have a floor drain in the area, try pouring a couple glasses of water down it. If the water level in the p-trap drops too far from evaporation it could be letting sewer gases in.

2. If you have a gas furnace and water heater, it could be that you have a small gas leak somewhere in the system.
Click to expand...
This or a small dead rodent.

 
it is legitimately probably the scent of skunk that is just wafting in and out with the breeze.

esp if it sprayed something nearby.

skunk smell only comes from 2 things - weed or skunk.

so either someone is hiding their stash in the basement (kids?) or it's skunk

 
Walking around outside a little, and I can smell the odor right in the area of the hot water tank furnace exhaust.... hmmm

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Galileo said:
Walking around outside a little, and I can smell the odor right in the area of the hot water tank furnace exhaust.... hmmm
Click to expand...
Well, the wife got nervous and called the gas company.  He came to the door and immediately said "skunk".  He came in to look around anyway and did not find any evidence of leakage or poor exhaust.  We walked around outside and it is definitely more noticeable right in the area around the intake and exhaust for the furnace.  I mentioned somewhere up thread that it seemed to be confined to the basement, but after coming in from being outside for a while, it was clearly noticeable when I entered the home on the first floor.  I guess we are fortunate that the odor isn't full on skunk...I have smelled a lot more potent skunk odors than this, but it sucks that it is in here at all.    

 
Someone joked about weed already, but could be it if you have HS/College kids quarantined with you. Six months ago I made the mistake of opening a bag of some very skunky weed in my basement, wife had the kids in a frenzy - she was ready to call an exterminator until I told her to chill. All of my weed bag-opening now occurs out the cellar door and under the porch.

 
Could be an electrical problem, burning insulation can smell skunky or dead animaly. But it's probably a skunk.  

 
Definitely skunk.  I shut the furnace off thinking it would stop drawing in air from the outside.  The problem is that the house already stinks.  I think the "burning" essence was the furnace just cooking the skunk air.  I do not notice the burning so much anymore...just the skunk.  Not sure which is worse. 

 
Had a similar issue a year ago. In my bedroom in the AM, I would notice the smell Then another day, it was in the bathroom on the other side of the house and another morning it was in the kitchen. It just seemed to be there was a skunk living around my backyard. After a couple days, I had a company come and put down a cage to try to catch him. We caught what I believe was the same woodchuck 3 times but the smell also went away so maybe it scared him off or he was only temporarily hanging out in my yard. 

 
The crappy part is my house still smells.  In fact, I think it is a little worse then yesterday.  My wife says she doesn't smell it.  Maybe I am just tuned into it now, but I am getting sick of it.  I put a bowl of vinegar in the back room of the basement.  I have read in several places that the vinegar can reduce the odor within a day or so.  I hope so.

 
maybe its nothing or it could be that you actually have superpowers which is pretty cool what is not cool is that your superpower is smelling skunks no matter how far away they are which to be honest is probably not the top superpower out there but hey at least you can hang out with acquaman and sup now and if you see batman kick him in the jimmies for me becaue he a fraud take that to the bank bromigo 

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Steeler
Water spill in my closet
Replies
20
Views
801
GroveDiesel
GroveDiesel
Nick Vermeil
Boilers - A cry for help
Replies
16
Views
442
urbanhack
urbanhack
P
Hot tub help. FLO error in bitter cold Michigan
Replies
6
Views
163
SWC
SWC

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top