"Old Lady" smell in a house

[wylie]

Having read the thread about cooking smells, I wonder if anybody else has had a similar issue with "old lady" smell that we had in one IP. No offence to old ladies, because I may turn into one in time but I used to leave the windows open before inspections when trying to find tenants, and resorted to scented candles at times. Nothing worked.

We sold a house earlier this year that ALWAYS had a funny, musty type smell. We have always called it "old lady" because it was always present on inspecting houses lived in by old ladies .

The interesting thing with this house was that we ripped up the horrible shag pile carpet squares (brown, red, cream and blue... nice!), threw out every curtain, sugar soaped the walls and ceilings (tenants there 15 years were heavy smokers - walls were yellow and sticky) and ripped out the kitchen and bathroom.

We painted the whole house, new curtains, new kitchen and bathroom and had the floors polished and the place STILL had the "old lady" smell.

Anybody else experienced this?

 

[Sez]

Haven't had an issue where the smell wouldn't go after such huge works! Did you have things like the ceiling and plumbing in the house checked? I've had that musty smell from insulation that was made damp due to roof tiles in desparate need of attention!

 

[aijii]

i used to live in my grandparents old house.

it smelt like, for lack of a better term, "old people".

My clothes smelt like old people as they'd come out of the cupboard. My fiance would remind me of this every opportunity she could get

Did you try working on the cupboards ?

 

[wylie]

i used to live in my grandparents old house.

it smelt like, for lack of a better term, "old people".

My clothes smelt like old people as they'd come out of the cupboard. My fiance would remind me of this every opportunity she could get

Did you try working on the cupboards ?

What cupboards???

Old queenslander, no build-ins at all. I could never really get rid of the smell. It was not a "bad" smell, but just sweet/musty and after ten years, we could never get rid of it. It always rented well, and tenants never mentioned it, but I just could never figure out what was "holding" the smell because we basically removed everything?

 

[Token Funder]

Have you thought about hanging appropriately scented young people in strategic positions around the house?

 

[locko24]

Are you sure 'Old people' smell doesn't equal 'damp' smell?

 

[DEC]

Have you thought about hanging appropriately scented young people in strategic positions around the house?

By their feet or by their neck?

 

[wylie]

Are you sure 'Old people' smell doesn't equal 'damp' smell?

Definitely not "damp" smell. We're talking high set queenslander here .

No matter, because the new owners can deal with it .

 

[luce.rocks]

Have you thought about hanging appropriately scented young people in strategic positions around the house?

By their feet or by their neck?

hahaha! both too funny

 

[Token Funder]

By their feet or by their neck?

Neither.

By their belt-loops, thereby providing their first experience of the feeling of having ones pants on or above ones hips.

 

[The Y-man]

Anybody else experienced this?

Believe it or not, it has been discussed before!

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45216

The Y-man

 

[buzzlightyear]

Maybe an exorcist is in order

 

[Dazz]

I wonder if anybody else has had a similar issue with "old lady" smell that we had in one IP. I used to leave the windows open before inspections when trying to find tenants, and resorted to scented candles at times. Nothing worked.

We sold a house earlier this year that ALWAYS had a funny, musty type smell. We have always called it "old lady" because it was always present on inspecting houses lived in by old ladies .

The interesting thing with this house was that we ripped up the horrible shag pile carpet squares (brown, red, cream and blue... nice!), threw out every curtain, sugar soaped the walls and ceilings (tenants there 15 years were heavy smokers - walls were yellow and sticky) and ripped out the kitchen and bathroom.

We painted the whole house, new curtains, new kitchen and bathroom and had the floors polished and the place STILL had the "old lady" smell.

Yeah yeah yeah, no point doing all of that work if you don't remove the old lady.


Forget about carpets. Forget about sugar soaping walls. Forget about curtains. Stick it on the top of yer list...

Must remove old people before starting renos.

 

[Sez]

Thanks guys, hadn't had a good giggle in awhile before I read all of your comments!!

 

[Rixter]

Whats an old lady smell, smell like?? (and dont say bad)

 

[wylie]

Yeah yeah yeah, no point doing all of that work if you don't remove the old lady.

Must remove old people before starting renos.

I knew I missed one of the steps. Now I know which step .

Whats an old lady smell, smell like?? (and dont say bad)

It's like the place has been closed up for a couple of months, even though it hasn't. Leaving the windows open fixes it but that's kind of hard in the middle of winter .

It's a musty, almost sweet smell, like old perfume mixed with dust.

 

[lizzie]

Whats an old lady smell, smell like?? (and dont say bad)

sort of a musty leather handbag with a whiff of cheap perfume thrown in.

 

[Peterw]

Wylie, when I saw the heading of the thread ...... I thought ....... poor Wylie .... wants to get the smell out of her house ........ oops, perhaps I should not have shared that thought ..... grin

 

[wylie]

Wylie, when I saw the heading of the thread ...... I thought ....... poor Wylie .... wants to get the smell out of her house ........ oops, perhaps I should not have shared that thought ..... grin

I'm still 50... for another day or so. Does that mean I now qualify as an old lady .

 

[locko24]

Yeah yeah yeah, no point doing all of that work if you don't remove the old lady.

I would suggest sugar-soaping the old lady! That should fix all your problems Or buy her some deodorant.