Hi All, hoping I can get some ideas from folks who have been in the real estate industry for a while as I am officially at a loss here... I own a small studio in a 12 floor condo building. Building was built around 1967, then remodeled in 2007 and converted to condo's. I've owned the unit since Dec 2014. I ended up moving out and the unit was vacant in March 2016. At about September I decided to rent the unit out so I returned to clear it out and prep it to rent it out.
When I returned there was a horrible smell in the unit - I attributed it to being closed up for months and thought it would dissipate over time. That was not the case. We tried to pinpoint where the smell was coming from and it seemed as if the smell was coming from the floor, which was engineered wood. I had a dog and cat while I lived there but they did not soil the floor - however we did think that perhaps it may have had something to do with the smell. We tried baking soda, vinegar, odor treatments, etc on the floor - nothing worked. I rented it out, even though the smell was still there. The tenant said that it got a little better but she had a lot of air fresheners to mask the smell. About four months in she complained about the smell again so we decided that we would replace the floor (she ended up moving out). The floor was replaced - the smell did not dissipate. We opened up the drywall to see if there was a leak in any of the plumbing where the smell was the strongest - nothing was found. We had the HOA get plumbers and they performed a smoke test - also inconclusive. They checked to make sure the toilet was properly attached, which it was. Water was run from all the faucets to make sure there was no sewage gasses leaking out. Then we had industrial hygienist come out. He found out that the trash chute which is right beside my unit did not have a properly working fan and that it had been turned off. He also tested the air quality in the trash room, hallway, and then my unit. It was higher than the baseline and recommended that the chute be cleaned, the fan fixed, and the door to the trash room sealed more.
Unfortunately, none of this has removed the smell from my unit. There has been an improvement, but immediately upon opening the door to the unit you are hit by the smell. It isn't strong in the kitchen part of the studio, you can smell it bit on the opposite side of the studio which I refer to mostly the bedroom area, but it seems to be strongest in the unit hallway.
We literally do not know where the smell is coming from. We decided to try to seal anything and everything we could - meaning - we put silicone on the floor along the shoe molding. The other thing was that we noticed that the electrical outlets which share the wall with the trash shoot and the elevator shaft had air coming out of the holes. We put electrical tape all over the opening (under the outlet covers and taped the back of the outlets to block the air. I'm not sure how long the electrical tape will hold, but that did stop the airflow when you place your hand over the outlet. STILL the smell persists.
I entered the unit right beside mine - they do not have the smell. I don't know about the units directly above or below me.
Has anyone ever had to deal with something similar to this before??? I have spent thousands on the unit trying to find the source of the smell. The HOA is not willing to pursue this anymore and is threatening to make me pay for the expense incurred. I had requested that the hygienist come back and test for improvement and see what the results showed since after 2 weeks it still smelled bad but they said no.
What else should I do to try to identify the source of the smell to remove it? I've had so many folks in the building and most of them agree that there is a smell in the unit (some people seem to be immune to it), but no one knows what it is. It doesn't match the smell in the trash room - some have said it smells like something rotting, but that doesn't explain why it would persist for MONTHS. Any ideas, or input on this would be GREATLY appreciated!!! I'm at my wits end.
