You donâÂÂt say what your âÂÂbad/strange odorâ smells like or if both baths are back to back soâ¦. a couple âÂÂguessesâÂÂ.

You may be noticing odor in the bathrooms but that may not be the origin. Unlike other rooms the bathroom have numerous penetrations through the floor for water and waste lines, even a larger hole for p traps for tubs and shower. If they are not sealed well itâÂÂs a good path for odors.

Did something crawl into the under belly and die? Even a mouse can leave a bad odor for a couple of months.

Check along the waste line in the floor for leaks. Years ago I saw that the phone Co. drilled a hole in the living room and ran the wire straight through the drain line for the kitchen sink. Very small leak and took a while to be detected.

You can also get a smell coming from the underside of the toilet if itâÂÂs not caulked.

Did you check (smell) anything around the bath ceiling fan area. Perhaps a vent pipe running in the ceiling separated. Could it be a burnt motor in a fan?

Let us know if you find the source

First, thank you for your response. I appreciate it!

The bathrooms are at opposite ends of the house. I think it's the shower area in one bathroom and possibly the shower and tub area in the other bathroom, but not 100% sure. It's difficult to describe the smell. We didn't notice it until it started getting hot outside and we put the skirting on. We moved it here in December of 2012 and moved into it in January. So haven't lived in it very long.

It's an odd smell, sort of smells like a chemical, but musky. I thought it was the walls, so in the small bathroom I sealed the walls with a sealer paint, then painted on top of that the color. Smell still there. Now I'm going to tape and plastic off the shower area in the small bathroom to see if it's the shower. Could possibly be wet shower insulation??? If I still smell it, I will caulk around the toilet and see if that's it, but I think it's coming from the shower area.

I will get back with you with the results. Again, thanks for helping us figure this out. Gayle

First, thank you for your response. I appreciate it!

The bathrooms are at opposite ends of the house. I think it's the shower area in one bathroom and possibly the shower and tub area in the other bathroom, but not 100% sure. It's difficult to describe the smell. We didn't notice it until it started getting hot outside and we put the skirting on. We moved it here in December of 2012 and moved into it in January. So haven't lived in it very long.

It's an odd smell, sort of smells like a chemical, but musky. I thought it was the walls, so in the small bathroom I sealed the walls with a sealer paint, then painted on top of that the color. Smell still there. Now I'm going to tape and plastic off the shower area in the small bathroom to see if it's the shower. Could possibly be wet shower insulation??? If I still smell it, I will caulk around the toilet and see if that's it, but I think it's coming from the shower area.

I will get back with you with the results. Again, thanks for helping us figure this out. Gayle

I applied chalking around the toilets and put plastic around the showers. I put the stoppers in the tubs, but there is some thing stinking in the shower areas. It actually puffs out the plastic and breaks away some of the tape on the sides. I don't know if it's gases coming off the sewer or what. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Is there anyway of knowing it's sewer gases? Can the insulation in the tub areas get wet and put off gas smells or chemical smells? Please let me know..THANK YOU

Puffs out what plastic and breaks away what tape?

You need to get a good underbelly inspection done, looking for dead animals, moisture, and mold. Could the line to the septic tank have been knocked enough to cause a leak when the skirting was installed? Or even a simple water line? My daughter had a funny smell in her bathroom, and found out her 5' deep crawlspace ( not a manufactured home) was full of stagnant water from a slow dishwasher leak.

This post was edited by cathyyg on Fri, Sep 6, 13 at 17:38

I took plastic and tape and taped off both showers. I thought the smell was coming from that area. Well it's strongest from that area, but the smell is still in the bathrooms, but not as strong since I plastic/taped off the shower areas. These areas I taped off the plastic puffs up with air. One guy told me it could be the under belly has tears in it and need repairs, but don't know what the smell could be. We are going to have a plumber come and check everything out.... as soon as we have the fund.

I was having the same smell in this rental I moved into last March. Just so happens, in one of the Spring issues of a magazine-a professional plumber had an answer to this problem. He said often the sewer gas will not escape & I did what he suggested-and I still do it 2x a month. NO more odor! In every drain in your home..kitchen, bath, laundry...run hot water in the sinks & tubs for 1 minute. Flush all toilets. (Are you ready for this?) Measure 2 TBS of vegetable oil & dump it down all of the drains & let it set for 5 minutes or so before running water anywhere. I swear-the smell goes away within the hour. It creates (-for lack of a better word) a..skim covering over the drain holes & prevents the gases from coming up from the drain. Cheap way to solve the issue without a plumber. try it-can't hurt.

Sharon: It's worth a try. I'm tired of smelling it. Did yours smell weird, not what you would consider a sewage smell? That's how this smells and it's only in the bathrooms. Was yours only in the bathrooms?

Gayle, Yes-it was coming from my 1 bathroom but the smell permeated throughout the whole place. I even put some cinnamon & cloves in a pot on the stove to mask the smell when it got so bad during the hot days of early summer-but once I read the article in my monthly (don't know if I'm allowed to say the name on here. .H_T_ home magazine & saw about the veg. oil-I haven't had a problem since! As I said-I just put it down all the drains & toilet every 2 weeks. Give it a try! Good luck-keep me posted. If I get time I'll go thru the 11 months of the magazines & will write to you with his exact reasons for the cause.

Sharon: Thank you so much! Yeah, if you can find the article, I would appreciate it. That way I can tell the plumber what's wrong. We had the mobile home moved to the land last December. We didn't skirt it until June this year and that's when we started smelling it. I guess the heat of the summer and the skirt may have contributed to it. I will do it tomorrow and hopefully no more stinky house :)

Sharon: I did the oil test and it didn't help :( Called a plumber and talked on the phone about it. He's coming out next week to check it out. I'll let you know what's wrong. Thank you so much for your advise.

Gayle

Had a plumber here and found out the tub, and both showers have no p-traps and the main sewage line was not set at the right level to drain properly. This is why methane gas is in my house. It pays to NOT HIRE plumbers that you don't know or that's been recommended by the good old boy network. The plumber doing the work now is a (real) plumber. The plumber who hooked up the mobile home should have his license taken away. Wait maybe he didn't even have a license and just said he did. My fault for not checking better--lesson learned!!

YEA! Glad you got the problem solved...what a relief, right?