Home Improvement Today?

I’m at a loss, have called a ton of companies, and am not sure what to do so maybe someone here can help me.

came home from work today and my kitchen smelled strongly of paint thinner, or a similar chemical. I immediately checked drains, appliances, vents, cleaning products, etc. cannot isolate the smell at all. Nothing is natural gas. Fridge is cooling so doesn’t seem to be refrigerant. No rotting fruit. Nothing.

let me get to the weird part.

I live in a two story house but the bottom story is a full basement. I went to the basement to check for smells maybe penetrating up to the kitchen. Nothing.

there is also a one car garage in the basement, no where near the kitchen, but when I went in there it smelled overwhelmingly like gasoline. Yes I store my lawn equipment and gas cans in there. No leaks no explosions no anything at all. I cannot locate a source for that smell either.

I’m not saying they’re related but they occurred at seemingly the same time today and that’s just weird as hell.

I have an HVAC tech coming in the morning to check my units for potential issues like refrigerant leaks but that wouldn’t explain the gasoline smell or why the paint thinner smell is isolated to the kitchen.

Please tell me someone has a suggestion? Or even what kind of company to call??

I have a 1 year old and I’m a bit worried about these smells because I have no idea if anything is toxic.

 

open up and air out
for the paint thinner smell, maybe off-gassing of some furniture

 

We don’t have anything new though.

it seems to be fading a bit or I’m getting used to it. I just wish I knew what it was

 

you live in a neighborhood? I wouldn’t rule out other activity that may be causing odors.

 

I do, and I haven’t ruled that out. I’m just baffled and can’t figure out what to do.

 

I gotcha, other than also paying attention to anything the neighbors might have going, spraying or landscape/ painting, any activity by an hoa etc? There’s no real advice sorry lol


Actually one thought, having small children too, is there food or something somewhere rotting? Kids leave stuff in the weirdest places lol

 

No hoa neighborhood. I live on an acre but it is a neighborhood. Nobody has done anything out of the norm that I know of. The usual lawn care spraying I’ve seen around.

my daughter is 17 months and toddling around but doesn’t really carry food, so that shouldn’t be it.

 

roger, any dry p traps?

 

Shouldn’t be? I also sniffed every drain in the house and got no smells, aside from stagnant water smell lol

 

That is the danger with odors, you get used to them.
Please get some air circulating - the gasoline smell is especially concerning.

Gasoline & thinner are sort of the same family of products, the thinner odor might be lighter thus going upstairs.

 

I have air circulating like crazy, cooling the whole neighborhood lol.

it’s confusing that the two have occurred at identical times because the two spaces are nowhere near each other and have nothing connecting them like pipes or duct..

 

hmmm you said hvac is getting checked in the morning? And I know you said the fridge isn’t leaking but I’m wondering if instead of a water leak you could be leaking a small amount of Freon, wouldn’t necessarily cause the fridge to stop right away..

 

• R-22 (Chlorodifluoromethane): Older systems often use R-22, which has a slightly sweet odor but can sometimes be mistaken for other chemical smells.

• R-410A (Puron): This is a more environmentally friendly refrigerant used in newer systems. It typically has a faint odor but could be perceived differently when leaking.

• R-134a (Tetrafluoroethane): Often used in automotive air conditioning but also found in some home systems. It has a slight ether-like smell.

• R-32 (Difluoromethane): Another newer refrigerant with a mild, ether-like odor.
  
  ether kind of smells like acetone.

 

There is a trail near my house that I take my dogs for walks. This last winter there was this super strong polyester resin smell (fiberglass resin smell). I wasn't anywhere near any houses and the smell was so overpowering. I never did figure out what it was.

 

Could be something HVAC electrical related.

edit: do you have a carbon monoxide detector in the house?

 

If you still can't find it, maybe call the fire dept and see if they can figure it out

 

Yes I meant refrigerant in the fridge not water. I pulled it out and couldn’t smell anything more, and fridge is maintaining cooling.

Yeah I’m thinking refrigerant in either the fridge or HVAC unit but neither are obvious to me..

I do, no alarm.

Might have to. Utility company was useless. Have had 3 of the companies I’ve called ask if I’d call them back when I figure it out haha

 

Woke up this morning to all smells amazingly gone. Had an HVAC tech out an hour ago and he found nothing either, couldn’t even smell anything I described.

I’m glad the smells are gone but I’m more aggravated that I don’t know the causes.

 

More slow progress. Got the uppers constructed and dry fit:




Reveals to the pocket door are dead one which makes me happy. Need to shift one of the shelves down a bit because somehow I messed up spacing by 1/8” or something at some point? Not sure… I used a spacer so maybe just an odd error I committed. Hardly noticeable anyway.


We got our gallery lights and paint picked out. I’ll fix that shelf, break down the uppers, and then flat paint all the components. Sounds miserable spraying those upper units fully assembled.

In the meantime I’m sitting here looking at this monstrosity and trying to find a way to pivot for that giant head rail design. The space above the cabinets seemed good in theory but now that I’m looking at it that’s a solid 14’ long and 12” wide panel that’s going to span these things… isn’t that a little bit heavy? It’s like placing a countertop on top of your stiles… maybe I can find a way to lighten the header up?

 

Leave the top open and use crown moulding with LED lights up top