Smell help - need to pick your brains

[HaoZi]

Okay, I know I kind of touched on having stinky neighbors downstairs. Their stink filters up to my apartment sometimes. Now their stink (I don't know what else to call it) is in my cabinets and my oven. I'm trying bowls of baking soda in/near the cabinets, but OMW how do I get their smell out of my oven? Barring hideous chemicals, you handy ladies have any suggestions? This is a stomach-churning BO-type smell that comes upstairs (there are days Kiddo and I hold our breath going down), and unless they happen to get inspected and booted during this week's HUD inspection there's not much that can be done about it It's not like there haven't been complaints, but which apts get inspected is random. Right now I'm trying to bake a mix of water, cinnamon, and anise extract in an effort to make it smell any kind of better. I think the smell is embedded in the floorboards at this point. The less I smoke, the worse it seems to get.

 

[Ktllc]

Have you tried burning enscent? It is really hard to camouflage a smell... Specially if you have an overactive nose . I feelyour pain!

 

[HaoZi]

Been burning incense like nobody's business, but I need a way to kill this smell, inspection will occur while I'm at work, and knowing my luck, I'll be the one inspected and catch it for having some clutter and THEIR smell!

 

[HaoZi]

I know smell may not be a big thing to many people, but even my next door neighbor has complained about it. To put it simply, on a bad smell day, if you put this smell in a Martha Stewart clean kitchen, you wouldn't eat anything that came out of there, I promise. And being as my medication requires me to eat a meal of 350 or more calories in the evening (when the smell is strongest), this is a problem for me even without the added anxiety of the upcoming inspection. Bring on the baking soda and incense, eh?

I think the anise and cinnamon is working, though. Not sure how long it lasts, but it works while it's IN the oven and warm!

 

[keista]

Since this is a constant battle, it can get pricey, but Febreeze really does work to eliminate as opposed to cover up odors. Maybe spray down low by the floors every evening when it's strongest.

If the anise/cinnamon works, keep that up. You could probably also boil it stovetop.

 

[Hound dog]

Hmmm. I wonder just what they're up to in their apartment.

I say that because to actually stink up a place bad enough for it to permeate into other apartments..............that's potent stuff. Any chance they're smoking meth?

I say that because I dropped in on katie once when kayla and alex were just babies......she opened the door and I swear to you I have never in my entire life (bare in mind I've worked in the medical field) smelled such a horrendous totally indescribable odor that nearly knocked both Nichole and I off our feet. I couldn't breathe, my eyes started watering......

Pretty sure it was meth. Not really anything else it could've been. But I do know now that her neighbors had complained about a retched smell permeating from her apartment into theirs.

Peppermint is pretty strong. Maybe that would work??

 

[tiredmommy]

Have you tried a small bowl of white vinegar?

 

[HaoZi]

I make my own Febreeze, MUCH cheaper! Go through plenty of it, too. Candles, plug-ins, incense, if I can get a decent smell out of it I use it, but it's all stop-gap measures because they just.keep.stinking.

 

[tiredmommy]

Is the smell coming through a vent?

 

[HaoZi]

It comes through the floor, the vent over the stove (or seems to), the area where the furnace is, the kitchen cabinets. Mostly is comes up floor-level in the kitchen (my vents are in the ceiling so I hesitate to think what their kitchen looks like, though I have heard). Even the kitchen pipes carry the smell sometimes. And yes, it's a very distinctive smell, those with teen boys that hate showers should know it, now add un-taken out trash and what-not, and some weird chemical odor to the mix, and you have it.

 

[tiredmommy]

Eww!

 

[HaoZi]

Yeah, who needs a diet plan, right?

 

[witzend]

If there is a furnace, make sure that there is a new filter in the ducts. Do they have kids? Call CPS. Do they have pets? Call Animal Control. And call HUD before they come and tell them to inspect. HUD lends money for repairs at VERY low rates, they don't need the apartment to be trashed. Where is the landlord in this?

Here's a little story about how we got the down payment on our first house. We were living in low-income housing and the owner got HUD loans at .5% to make repairs, which he actually used to build new luxury homes and sell when the market was hot. He never made any repairs or did any upkeep for us. You can use the Freedom of Information Act to access all HUD condition reports and loans, which we did. We had a black mold problem which he refused to fix. All we had asked was for him to paint with a mildewcide. He wouldn't do it.

We withheld rent with notice to him that we would not pay rent until the black mold was taken care of. We set the rent aside in case we didn't win this little battle. This was about October. He went to court and tried to evict us. I was aware that the HUD inspection was due in January, and I brought up all property issues. Problems with the laundry room, feral cats, other neighbors' rotting floors - everything. The judge found in our favor that we did not have to pay rent until a HUD inspection showed that he had repaired our problems along with problems in all common areas.

January and the inspection came, and he had painted our apartment. Period. The HUD report came, and it listed all sorts of problems that he was to fix within 60 days. The re-inspection showed that all he did was paint our apartment. We did not pay rent ever again. When the next year's inspection report came and he still had not fixed anything, we told him that we would move if he gave us a year's rent, which he could then collect from the next tenant. He did not agree to that, and we continued to pay no rent. We then started looking for a house, and had our down-payment.

Everyone in the apartment complex hated us. There was a non-disclosure agreement, so they could only suspect what the truth of our agreement was. Who cares? I looked him up once Google became easy to use, and he was also fined $12,000 by HUD for taking loans and not using them for their intended purpose, and he lost property for not paying property taxes. Boo-hoo.

I'd strongly recommend that you coordinate with HUD on their inspection. They're more than happy to help a tenant suffering due to a landlord's negligence.

 

[HaoZi]

The only smell seems to be from their fridge (maybe) and the guy downstair's body. That's why nothing can really be done. They can't make him shower. It's just so ewwwwww. They have to give notice before they go into an apartment and they haven't been able to catch them with anything to boot them out, so the guy not showering enough isn't reason. *shudder*

ETA: AND OMW this guy asked to see next door neighbor's boobs when she asked to use their internet one day! Can you imagine?!

 

[crazymama30]

Clove oil. I work in a wound and ostomy clinic, and trust me, if we put clove oil on gauze squares and wave them around and let them sit to dry in the open? It kills all smells. You could use a paper towel or a wash cloth, but don't use too much at first.

 

[donna723]

That's what I was thinking too, that they are either making or using meth in the apartment below you. I wouldn't think that even the worst body odor from not showering enough would be so strong that it would actually penetrate through the floor boards and even get in to your oven! And if they are making meth, that can be very dangerous for all of you! Even breathing in those fumes could be harming you! If they're doing that downstairs, those people would carry the smell on them, on their skin, hair and clothing. Is there an apartment manager that you could report this to? Or the health department maybe? Or even the police? You don't want to wait till there's an explosion or a fire.

I don't think I've ever smelled meth but from what I've heard, it's a horrible, unforgetable stench. When my brothers car broke down, the only vehicle he was able to borrow was an old one belonging to his wifes niece, the niece that they've always suspected to be making and using meth. He had to drive that car to work every day for a week and he said the smell in it was so bad that it made his eyes water and made him nauseated. The only way he could stand to ride in it was with all the windows all the way down - in the middle of the winter!

 

[HaoZi]

It's not meth, the second time I really smelled it in the hallway and gagged I ran into K-9 out here and asked him to check it out and he said it's biological and not meth. Yes, this guy really does smell that bad.

 

[InsaneCdn]

OK, I'll be the politically incorrect one here... any chance it is a cultural issue? Various cultures have various "scents" that are offensive to "our" (mish-mash-culture) noses.... they don't even notice.

 

[InsaneCdn]

If you're going to be away all day, maybe you need to leave a note on the table, clearly labelled as for the inspectors... explaining what you have told us. Being up-front about stuff usually takes some of the pressure off of you...

 

[HaoZi]

As for culture (which question was also raised by my step-mom), they look like most folks around here, he just doesn't smell or act like most folks. Sounds like he's a computer addict (maybe boob addict by the sound), overweight, and trying to get on disability for I don't know what. She has a grown kid from a previous relationship that's out of the house, and frankly, she could do a whole lot better, so I don't get what she sees in him or why she stays. She seems pretty nice to me, and he's pretty creepy, even without the smell factor.

ETA: Maintenance will be with the HUD inspectors and are WELL aware of my issues with the smell of downstairs.