We have had a moldy smell coming from our laundry room. We isolated it, and it was in the washing machine. My husband cleaned out all the lines, and it was better. A few days later, it was back. He found a piece of clothing(sock, maybe) that had been under the washer getting wet and stinky. Removed it. The smell is back!!!
Any ideas? We are 99% sure it is coming from the washer. We have run a load with bleach, he cleaned the lines, sprayed bleach on the floor, fixed a lea, checked the wall and carpet in the room on the other side of the laundry room for mold seepage. Nothing.
Help us!
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
Burn some sage. It's a ghost.
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
Horrible story/ This reminds me of when we had a mice problem. We thought all the mice were gone, but there was a terrible smell in our living room we couldn't get rid of. We vacuumed and used air freshener, but it kept coming back. It seemed to be coming from the antique upright piano, which also wasn't sounding too good those days. One day a visiting friend pulled up the keys and found a horde of squashed, dead, baby mice. /horrible story.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
That's almost like this creepy invention. Posted by Little_Doctor (Member # 6635) on :
We think a family of rats just died inside the walls of our frat house. As soon as we got our heat fixed the entire bottom floor started to reek. Which makes me think that something may have died in the vents while the heat was off. Keep in mind the house was built in the 1890's and the heating system is pretty darn old as well. It could be anything in there. We just had to replace our furnace last week.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Those are all horrible stories, but I am really looking for ideas here! It is definitely not a dead animal smell, it is an aggressive, sharp, moldy smell that comes and goes.
The dishwasher is directly above the washing machine, but I do not see any evidence of leaks. I do not think it is coming from the septic tank. Wrong smell!
Truly, it is driving us mad.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
3 T of vinegar in 1 qt of warm water as a cleansing solution. Works wonders.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
What brand of washer do you have? There have been some lawsuits over this kind of thing.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Glenn, It's a Frigidaire-and old.
Shan, the smell does not seem to be coming from the wash bowl(or whatever it is called) We ran bleach through and it dod not help. It seems to be somewhere in the outer working, if it is even from the washing machine!
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
You can use that mixture on the fixture, the floors, etc.
I just used it on a horrible chocolate milk stain on a carpet and it worked wonders. I have also heard that vinger-water solutions work well for smells, too.
Might be worth a try . . .
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
A vinegar-water solution is my mother's cure for EVERYTHING. Bad skin, thrush, stains, headaches, relationship problems...
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I used to use vinegar to clean everything until my husband complained that everything smelled like...vinegar.
I am trying, little by little, to remove all highly toxic cleaners from the home. I doubt I can give up bleach, though.
Another cleaner is alcohol(rubbing alcohol). It also disinfects.
Toothpaste is an awesome polish for appliances.
Nothing beats the Magic Eraser, though! What the heck IS the Magic Eraser made of?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Magic.
Duh!
Posted by Pam Tyler (Member # 10595) on :
How is the drain line from the washer attached to the plumbing drain? I doubt that there is a trap, but if there is a gap, the smell could be seeping out of the drain pipe. Also, you said that the dishwasher is attached above the washer. Perhaps the vent line for these drains is plugged or has split. Sometimes this allows sewer gas to escape from the system and back into the building. I've seen vent lines broken behind the wall, and no one realized it until there was a terrible smell that they just could not seem to get rid of. Once the pipe was fixed, no more smell.