OT Freaky smell query

Woo hoo on getting more space without moving house! you have an interesting search to do - discovering hidey holes of that kind. Don't forget floorboards!my dad's attic had 3 loose floorboards in different area's that could be lifted (made to grant easy access to the light fittings on the floor below). also dig your nails under any wall/ceiling panels and window sills to see if they come off - I have lived in a pre-war house and in pre-war houses there were all sorts of unexpected hidey holes left over from people making places to hide illegal stuff like radio's and people from the Germans.

have you tried washing the walls with diluted vinegar? it often helps

good luck with it all!

I keep a box of kitchen matches in each bathroom. When there are bad smells we just light a match before we flush the commode. The sulfur smell takes away the bad smells immediately! Also when DH was changing our tub into a shower (in a mobile home) by cutting away part of it and using bondo (like to repair a car dent) to built up and smooth out the part cut away, there was a horrible chemical smell in the mobile home. (We slept at a neighbors house.) We just struck several matches------maybe 10 or more---and that got rid of the smell. HTH Barbara in SC "NightMist" clipped We have had a series of neighbors

Do you have access to a vapor/steam cleaner? It might help, and it won't saturate the wood to a point of damaging it. And you are right to be concerned. I know from some of the articles I've seen on meth houses, that the people who move in after the meth is gone, often experience dizziness, nausea and other ill effects.

Unfortunately NightMist, I think your best bet is going to be painting over the wood with some Kilz. It can be sprayed if your husband has a paint sprayer or they can be rented, which makes the job pretty fast. I have been so lucky with Kilz, it literally Kills the bad smell of anything in an old house!

Hugs and congrats! Tina

Does your local police department or sheriff's office have a Narc dog? The handler might think the dog would enjoy the practice of finding the hidey holes for you. The dogs are just magnificent and really enjoy their job. If the freaky smell is meth, that might be an impossible problem. There was something in our local newspaper about the FEMA trailers that had been used for meth production. I think they said the residue is harmful and cannot be removed. You need to know. Polly

Au contraire. The very best bet is going to be shellac, either pigmented or unpigmented (clear). Washing with a white vinegar solution first is good, but for odors that have really penetrated the wood, go for the shellac. Clear shellac has a short shelf life, so you may need to have your paint/hardware store special order it for you. (Check the expiration date, which will be printed on the can). Doesn't matter whether you use clear, amber, or orange shellac -- that's just aesthetics in this situation.

But I also agree with Polly's suggestion about asking the police if their drug sniffing dog would like some practice. :)

The brand named BIN is even better than Kilz. Smells worse when it is wet, but once it has cured there is nothing bleeding through.

But, before I did that I would try getting an enzyme cleaner that can be sprayed onto the wood surface. In the US it is easiest to find enzyme cleaners in the pet stores, sold to remove all traces of all manner of pet "accidents". The brand I use is called Petzyme. All you would need to do to the wood is spray it really well and leave it to dry naturally. I don't know if it will remove traces of meth, but it does remove all sorts of odors (and with a little elbow grease, stains) other than those produced by pets. Debra in VA See my quilts at

FWIW, BIN is a pigmented shellac. (Kilz makes a number of products, none of which AFAIK is a pigmented shellac). The smell is alcohol -- like you, I find it to be pretty bad, but some people find it pleasant, and it disappears quickly. To each her own. *grin*

Here's the website info for pigmented:

and for clear: NAYY, other than I've sold the products for 15 years and recommend them frequently (as well as use them myself.)

I would try peroxide, on the reasoning that at least some of the chemicals involved in making methamphetamine will be nitrogen compounds in a reduced state (i.e. vaguely related to ammonia) and peroxide works very well at turning that into nitrogen gas (as in eliminating the smell of cat pee). Peroxide is cheap and leaves no after-smell or hazardous byproducts.

What you could do is a bit of googling for the chemistry of illicit meth production. Somewhere on the web there will be a complete set of chemical engineering instructions for how to do it yourself. What you want from that information is which chemicals they are likely to have soaked your house in, so you'll know exactly what you have to deal with.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

No wonder it's a great sealer/primer. To me the smell is more than just alcohol. It truly made me sick to my stomach. But it was worth the smell and the higher price as it was the only product that would have worked on our specific painting problem. I expect to use it again in the future too. I'd highly recommend very good air circulation when using it, as well as not sleeping in the same room while it cures. Debra in VA See my quilts at

I do like Polly's doggy suggestion too! Gonna check into that for sure.

I am quite familiar with shellac. I don't generally buy it pre-made though. I generally buy flakes from here:

$FIND?catsearch=GGR&header=CatHead&footer=CatFoot&html=CatShelf&sort=SKUSame place I buy gum arabic, rabbitskin glue and methocel. That is a lot of wood to shellac though. The entire attic, the whole third floor of the house, from the unfinished oak of the floor to the roofbeams and planks, every inch of it is open wood. I fear I may have to do it though. Maybe chuck in some frankincense tears or dragons blood, that would smell nice and compliment the color of the wood (at least if I used frankincense on the floor and dragon's blood on the walls). They weren't making meth up there so far as I know, but they and dozens of friends smoked a lot of crack. At least I hope that was all they were doing. The police didn't get very specific when they finally raided. Just had a nice policeman stop in to reassure us and guard the front door in case one of the druggies got away and tried to come through our house.

We do want to put insulation up in the attic. This house is is about

150 years old, and one of those ones made with almost no nails in the framing. So it has open eaves and no insulation. They blew insulation into the walls about 20 years ago (I know, it could probably do with being reblown to make up for settleing), but never insulated the roof, or the floor between the apartments. No wonder our gas runs outrageously high in winter. We've not only been warming our neighbors but the great outdoors as well.

NightMist

A good plan. I know that they use ether to make crack (if the evening news can be trusted, which it can't), but I am not about to try washing the walls with ether! A: the smell would be worse than what I've got. B: I'm not sure I would make it out of the room with all my brain cells, if at all. But surely there must be something. Though I am beginning to more and more lean towards Kathy's shellac suggestion. For lord knows what all exactly went on up there.

NightMist

Nightmist, I don't know how to help you with the chemical smell, but you're describing it that way makes me really nervous. There may have been more than illicit pot smoking going on up there. Please be careful as you could come across some potentially dangerous chemicals in those hidey holes.

Maureen

On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 02:54:41 -0500, NightMist wrote (in article ):