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damn mice
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negacao
negacao
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There is one room in my house that smells strongly of (what I think of as) fiberglass. Others have told me that fiberglass does not smell, unless it is dirty / wet / etc. They may be right, I do not know for sure.

At first I was sure it was coming from the HVAC. After totally sealing off (with HVAC metal tape) both supply ducts and the lone return duct, I can rule that out.

I am not 100% positive, but I think there is a correlation between the level of humidity / raining outside, and the smell in this room. I am wondering if there is water getting behind the aluminum siding, and into the wall.

Of course, I (so far) can't see anything on the walls.

Is there any option for me to verify this theory that doesn't involve ripping all the drywall out?

Alternatively, do you have any theories about the potential source of this smell? I've recently (last December) had the carpet replaced; I also had the attic "air sealed," and had them remove all of the fiberglass (a fair amount of it was dirty / gross due to the former owner not dealing with attic humidity) and replace it with blown in cellulose. (It worked great and I'm really happy with the results, but sadly, that was seemingly not the source of the fiberglass smell.)

(I care about this "smell" so much because it's my daughters nursery. We have had to stop using the room, because any time we sleep in there we wake up with nasty respiratory issues.)

--

Edit: this smell REALLY reminds me of the times I have had to deal with mouse infested fiberglass. I had also been hearing scratching noises from the south facing wall, which leads up to that bedroom. The garage is underneath the wall in question, so I went to look. There is a steel beam running parallel to the wall above, but there is a gap between the wood and the beam large enough for mice to fit through. There is a lot of mouse debris in this area.

I pulled out the thermal camera and found some interesting hot/cold spots. I imagine the cold spots being where mice ripped up insulation, and the hot spots being where they are nesting.

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

So, I'm going to set up some mouse traps and see what happens.

There is one room in my house that smells strongly of (what I think of as) fiberglass. Others have told me that fiberglass does not smell, unless it is dirty / wet / etc. They may be right, I do not know for sure.

At first I was sure it was coming from the HVAC. After totally sealing off (with HVAC metal tape) both supply ducts and the lone return duct, I can rule that out.

I am not 100% positive, but I think there is a correlation between the level of humidity / raining outside, and the smell in this room. I am wondering if there is water getting behind the aluminum siding, and into the wall.

Of course, I (so far) can't see anything on the walls.

Is there any option for me to verify this theory that doesn't involve ripping all the drywall out?

Alternatively, do you have any theories about the potential source of this smell? I've recently (last December) had the carpet replaced; I also had the attic "air sealed," and had them remove all of the fiberglass (a fair amount of it was dirty / gross due to the former owner not dealing with attic humidity) and replace it with blown in cellulose. (It worked great and I'm really happy with the results, but sadly, that was seemingly not the source of the fiberglass smell.)

(I care about this "smell" so much because it's my daughters nursery. We have had to stop using the room, because any time we sleep in there we wake up with nasty respiratory issues.)

There is one room in my house that smells strongly of (what I think of as) fiberglass. Others have told me that fiberglass does not smell, unless it is dirty / wet / etc. They may be right, I do not know for sure.

At first I was sure it was coming from the HVAC. After totally sealing off (with HVAC metal tape) both supply ducts and the lone return duct, I can rule that out.

I am not 100% positive, but I think there is a correlation between the level of humidity / raining outside, and the smell in this room. I am wondering if there is water getting behind the aluminum siding, and into the wall.

Of course, I (so far) can't see anything on the walls.

Is there any option for me to verify this theory that doesn't involve ripping all the drywall out?

Alternatively, do you have any theories about the potential source of this smell? I've recently (last December) had the carpet replaced; I also had the attic "air sealed," and had them remove all of the fiberglass (a fair amount of it was dirty / gross due to the former owner not dealing with attic humidity) and replace it with blown in cellulose. (It worked great and I'm really happy with the results, but sadly, that was seemingly not the source of the fiberglass smell.)

(I care about this "smell" so much because it's my daughters nursery. We have had to stop using the room, because any time we sleep in there we wake up with nasty respiratory issues.)

--

Edit: this smell REALLY reminds me of the times I have had to deal with mouse infested fiberglass. I had also been hearing scratching noises from the south facing wall, which leads up to that bedroom. The garage is underneath the wall in question, so I went to look. There is a steel beam running parallel to the wall above, but there is a gap between the wood and the beam large enough for mice to fit through. There is a lot of mouse debris in this area.

I pulled out the thermal camera and found some interesting hot/cold spots. I imagine the cold spots being where mice ripped up insulation, and the hot spots being where they are nesting.

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

So, I'm going to set up some mouse traps and see what happens.

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negacao
negacao
  • 991
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  • 11
  • 30

Locating the source of a fiber glass smell, or finding wet, dirty fiberglass insulation?

There is one room in my house that smells strongly of (what I think of as) fiberglass. Others have told me that fiberglass does not smell, unless it is dirty / wet / etc. They may be right, I do not know for sure.

At first I was sure it was coming from the HVAC. After totally sealing off (with HVAC metal tape) both supply ducts and the lone return duct, I can rule that out.

I am not 100% positive, but I think there is a correlation between the level of humidity / raining outside, and the smell in this room. I am wondering if there is water getting behind the aluminum siding, and into the wall.

Of course, I (so far) can't see anything on the walls.

Is there any option for me to verify this theory that doesn't involve ripping all the drywall out?

Alternatively, do you have any theories about the potential source of this smell? I've recently (last December) had the carpet replaced; I also had the attic "air sealed," and had them remove all of the fiberglass (a fair amount of it was dirty / gross due to the former owner not dealing with attic humidity) and replace it with blown in cellulose. (It worked great and I'm really happy with the results, but sadly, that was seemingly not the source of the fiberglass smell.)

(I care about this "smell" so much because it's my daughters nursery. We have had to stop using the room, because any time we sleep in there we wake up with nasty respiratory issues.)