Odors

The source or sources of odors can be very difficult and expensive to determine.

All of us know what "mold" smells like - earthy, fresh dirt, musty, etc.

Damp buildings can cause degradation of building materials and contents which may off gas chemicals that can be smelled or have negative health effects.

But, lots of times, we have clients that are experiencing other odors. We often suggest that, even though it doesn't smell like natural gas, that you give the local gas company a call. They will send an inspector to your home to verify that no natural gas is leaking. Approximately 1 out of 250 calls for unidentified odors turns out to be natural gas. So, be safe and give them a call, regardless of what it smells like.

If you are entering a residence for the first time and you get a whiff of "sweet almond" and "chemical" odor, those are two indicators that MAY point to a previous meth lab. I wish things like this weren't so common.  You should never enter a building that has a chemical or sweet almond smell.

To determine what organic chemicals (and that's just about everything used in the civilized world) we can perform Volatile Organic Compound testing. This is a lengthy test (usually 3+ hours). Depending on what we are looking for, this can become very expensive.

Please give us a call and let's discuss your specific project.