Smelling Urine when None Is Around

There’s at least one explanation why you smell urine when none is around or in sight.

I know this because one day I began smelling urine.

But I knew none was around because anyone in my home would (like most humans do) use the toilet to relieve themselves.

I don’t own cats or other pets.

Where was this urine odor coming from?

It wasn’t originating in the bathroom. The smell of urine was strongest in three places of my home:

• Right upper shelf area of my bedroom closet

• Heating vent in kitchen

• Heating vent in office

The foul smelling stench, which definitely had other components to it aside from urine, had come on suddenly; one day I just began noticing it.

Above the shelf in the closet was a trap door, that when opened, revealed some piping.

I surmised that this mysterious odor of urine was somehow connected to the pipes (a broken pipe releasing sewage?) that ran through the townhome four-plex, perhaps originating underground.

It certainly wasn’t from anything inside my home, but rather, something that was making its way through the pipes and into the ventilation system.

Thus, the smell of urine was in different rooms, and strongest the closer my nose got to the heating vents that ran along the baseboards, and of course, that trap door in my closet.

I’m going to make a long story short and tell you outright what the cause of this urine stink was:

The two men next door to me were hoarders. For years the hoarding had been escalating (but nobody knew), until finally, whatever stench there was inside their unit began permeating common building fixtures, making its way into MY unit.

I ultimately discovered this when I stepped outside and hovered near their window and sniffed out the same odor.

The people on the other side of them reported to me that, though they didn’t smell the combination of urine, feces and garbage inside their unit, they certainly smelled it badly enough on their deck that it interfered with enjoying their deck.

The woman next to them told me that one of the men would put pants that had feces on them into the common-room washer and dryer, and clumps of feces would remain behind, inside the machines.

(I had my own washer and dryer, thank goodness.)

If you begin detecting the odor of urine inside your house, but you’re positive that there’s no puddles of urine left by a cat, dog, toddler or someone else just playing a prank…

…consider the possibility that it’s the awful odor coming from the people who live right next door to you — especially if the stink is strongest near trap doors that open to pipes, or at heating vents and air ducts, which are conduits for the concentration of vapors (for lack of a better term) of the wastes.

How I Got Rid of the Smell of Urine

I aggressively pursued eviction of these two men, who were renters to the son of the previous owner of their unit.

The son had inherited the unit from his father who had passed away, and he didn’t want to be bothered with the situation; as long as he got his rent check every month.

My persistence paid off, and the son, plus a friend, one day showed up wearing gas masks and began clearing out the place.

(It ultimately had to be “gutted out” and rebuilt from the inside.)

They said there were piles of garbage everywhere, plus numerous paper cups filled with urine — all over the place.

A cop whom I had initially called to come over and speak to these men had told me that when he pulled into the lot, he had smelled the odor right then and there — and thought there was a corpse inside the unit.

He spoke to one of the men at the doorway, remaining outside, then told me, “That odor is FOUL!”

The men were evicted, but the landlord offered to put one of them up in a motel for a month, while the other went to a nursing home, where the environment was certainly a lot cleaner and safer.

If you suddenly begin smelling urine … and there’s none in sight … consider the possibility that nothing is wrong with your nose, but rather, there’s a hoarder nearby.