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February 15, 2008
Funny Apartment Smells
We recently moved into a pre-war building in Prospect Park South. There is a strange (and bad) smell coming from the closets and from some cracks in the floor. It is reminiscent of cooking, but quite rancid. We have done some sealing with silicone and plumbers calk, but the smell is still getting in to our apartment. Does anyone know what this is? Has anyone had experience getting rid of yucky rancid smells in an old apartment in an old building?
Comments
Do they store the garbage in the basement? Is it directly under your floor. Did a you have a neighbor who hasnt been seen for a while? Maybe you should figure out the source of the smell first and try to remedy that.
Posted by: guest at February 15, 2008 9:00 AM
Could a mouse have died underneath the floorboards? If so, the smell will eventually go away as it decays.
Posted by: guest at February 15, 2008 3:16 PM
Unless it is dead mice in the floors, my guess, as long time landlord/building manager is that the tenant below you never ever cleans his apartment. I have a few male middle aged tenants who never clean and their apartments reek throughout the hallways of the building -- more on some days than on others.
Other than wall-to-wall carpeting, I'm not sure what you can do. These types of stinky tenants basically live like bums. Unless you can force them to clean and paint their apartments to wipe out the smell, there's very little you can do.
Posted by: guest at February 17, 2008 9:49 AM
9:49 might have named the problem. We know someone who bought a coop and learned via nasty odors there was a crazy cat hoarder lady who never cleaned who lived upstairs. Go downstairs with some cookies, knock on the door and introduce yourself. See how it looks. If the apartment below is so dirty it's making smells come up into your unit you absolutely have the right to take action with the landlord or coop board to insist that apartment below you is cleaned. The city sees it that way too. Call the health department if you find out there's a filthy apartment below and nobody will take care of it. The city has been cracking down on hoarders. If the owner/renter refuses to clean then the city will take action against the building. It's also not legal to have no vent or window in the kitchen. So that might be the problem too, that they are not opening a window or they don't have a proper vent when they cook their stinky food. So you can make a complaint about that too.
Posted by: guest at February 17, 2008 3:21 PM
I'm betting on the dead mouse.
Posted by: guest at February 18, 2008 3:31 PM
I will check back on this forum, I hope post any progress you make in your situation. I am dealing with the same problem and just called 311 since my landlord has been unresponsive for months.
Posted by: guest at March 4, 2008 2:31 PM
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