My outbuilding smells like piss?

[moemc]

I am seeking some advice or possibly confirmation that my beliefs are reasonable.

4 years ago I purchased and moved into my home. It was built in 2003, and there is a 40x90 Morton building in the back that was built the following year (as far as I can tell from rummaging paperwork the PO left me).

Starting last year I notice the place tends to smell like piss depending on the temp, humidity, and which way the wind blows. This year, it’s pretty bad, and needs to be addressed.

The building interior is 20-22’ tall with a sheet metal ceiling, and then above that, an attic running the length of the building. The attic is maybe 10 feet tall in the center and slopes to near 0’ tall near the edges of course. There are 2 attic access doors, one on either end. Since they are 20+ feet high, I am only equipped to just reach them with my hands, I don’t currently have a platform that would be safe to try and lift the doors and climb up into it. So I have not been in the attic yet.

My suspicion is that my ~24 year old attic insulation is saturated with rodent piss. Is this insane or is this a thing that happens?

The building has an office and a bathroom and its own septic tank and small septic field. The plumbing ventilation seems half *** to me, as it literally vents into the awning over the shop patio rather than way up to the roof. So this has also got my attention as something to address. However, I am quite familiar with the odor of sewer gas, and this smell is not sewer gas. This is straight up dried urine odor. Nobody has been #2 in the shop though, so maybe it’s a unique case where that particular septic tank would only smell like urine. But due to the potency and volume of area, I’m just not leaning that way.

The smell is stronger in some areas but trends more towards one longer wall and trends more towards upward. So I’m just imagining my attic and that wall are completely full of rodent pee.

I basically live on a farm, at least, that is the easiest and quickest way to describe the environment. But I am not a farmer, most my neighbors are.

Anyone encountered this?

 

[Kaizen]

My first guess would be cats spraying/*******. They really stink for their size. It is possible there was an infestation of rodents or possilby skunks upstairs. If you pop that access hole and its up there you would get hit with the stench bad. Are there openings as most farm buildings have where strays could be comeing and going?

 

[jack stand]

Generally a Morton building with a ceiling would be all metal and not climbable for anything but insects. Are your soffits closed to the inside/attic (or posts that could be climbed)?

 

[WildBill]

More than once in old houses and sheds around here. Its all mostly farmland and we get a lot of rodents. My mom bought a small house (was a Sears kit house from the 40s) and it smelled bad whenever it rained. We ended up cutting the bottom two feet of the sheetrock and wood wall coverings off, pulling the nasty pee flavored insulation out, redoing the wiring, patching the walls, and blowing insulation into the walls through 4" holes drilled all around the outside under the eves. It also had raccoons stinking up the attic along with the mice, so we had too pull all the nasty insulation out of there and put new stuff in, and patch the holes where they got in. It has a metal roof and had two spots that looked OK from the ground but the raccoons were lifting up the edges of the metal and getting in.

Another time we couldn't find anything on a shed that smelled and found out a neighbors dog was randomly coming by and peeing on a outside corner of it.

 

[moemc]

My first guess would be cats spraying/*******. They really stink for their size. It is possible there was an infestation of rodents or possilby skunks upstairs. If you pop that access hole and its up there you would get hit with the stench bad. Are there openings as most farm buildings have where strays could be comeing and going?

It does smell a lot like cat pee. But I do have cameras all over the place and I have only seen this 1 older fatter cat come around a couple times. I don’t think there is a lot of cat activity here. I have lots of coyotes and foxes though. But this is a relatively decently sealed up building. I’m not how anything larger than a squirrel could find a way in to get to the attic. And there is definitely nothing larger in the interior space other than mice I get sometimes and catch. Me or cameras would have seen that.

 

[moemc]

Generally a Morton building with a ceiling would be all metal and not climbable for anything but insects. Are your soffits closed to the inside/attic (or posts that could be climbed)?

The soffits are closed and just have typical vents. I’m not sure exactly how rodents would get to the attic but it’s a sizable enough place that it’s hard to imagine there are no spots where they can get behind the exterior sheet metal near the ground. Once in the wall; I assume they can get anywhere in any of the walls or the attic.

This winter I did discover there was like 7-8 mice living above the office, which is a single story space. There was no convenient means to get up there, so I had only previously been up there a couple times. This winter I installed a steel hanging ladder to provide easy access to clean up the space and use it for storage. I found that the PO had left some insulation up there that mice were using as a home. It was saturated with piss and stank. I cleaned the whole area above the office and set out traps. Caught several over 2 weeks and after that never again.

At that point I actually thought I solved the mystery. The smell was way reduced when I tossed out insulation they lived in. I hoped what remained would clear up. However. Now that summer is here, the heat and humidity shows that the smell is worse than ever.

 

[moemc]

More than once in old houses and sheds around here. Its all mostly farmland and we get a lot of rodents. My mom bought a small house (was a Sears kit house from the 40s) and it smelled bad whenever it rained. We ended up cutting the bottom two feet of the sheetrock and wood wall coverings off, pulling the nasty pee flavored insulation out, redoing the wiring, patching the walls, and blowing insulation into the walls through 4" holes drilled all around the outside under the eves. It also had raccoons stinking up the attic along with the mice, so we had too pull all the nasty insulation out of there and put new stuff in, and patch the holes where they got in. It has a metal roof and had two spots that looked OK from the ground but the raccoons were lifting up the edges of the metal and getting in.

Another time we couldn't find anything on a shed that smelled and found out a neighbors dog was randomly coming by and peeing on an outside corner of it.

I think I am going to put a camera or 2 in the attic and see if there is any activity. Once I’m even up in there, I’ll probably know right away if that is the source of the smell. But I think you’ve convinced me to also remove a few of the wall panels and check out in there

 

[Fav Onefour]

Mouse urine is close to impossible to eliminate if it's in the materials. Heat will make it smell more. Add some humidity and you'll really get a whiff.

You can have mice without a whole bunch of visible activity. They can build a city inside insulation with a couple small entrance holes.

I know it seems hard to fathom mice climbing the building. They can do stuff you might not believe. We find them way up inside steel bins that have been empty for months. The buggers will even build nests in the spreaders hanging from the roof.

 

[Notgrownup]

Get you some consumer from Spartan chemical and dilute it 4:1 with water in a pump up sprayer and start spraying it around the building daily in a big mist … it’s an enzyme and works pretty good. The other thing is dumpster granules like from Hill manufacturing.

 

[nadogail]

I was going to suggest some Odor Eating Live Enzymes that you can get from a company that supplies commercial carpet cleaning products.

 

[djbmw]

Once the animals get in,... you're screwed. I have a family of racoons in the attic of my shop as we speak (i just tossed some ammonia soaked sponges up there which will get them to move the F out!).

As for the smell... shy of replacing all of the insulation... a large volume ozone generator is your best bet. Treat it once a month with ozone and the stench will stay at bay

 

[Beemer]

We used sodium percarbonate (powder hydrogen peroxide) mixed with water sprayed from a pump up yard sprayer to treat an area where a skunk sprayed near our foundation. The odor permeated the house before treating but I got it tamped down pretty well with the spray after couple applications.
The stuff isn't very expense so maybe worth a try. The only hurdle is to make sure it is totally dissolved because the grains will clog spray nozzles.

​

 

[nadogail]

A former tenant had kept several sick animals that urinated so much that the plywood sub floor was soaked. it took three applications of Odor Out to make the house ready to rent again. I bought it from a store specializing in Carpet Cleaning Supplies.

 

[RoninB4]

- I don't know where you live so it wasn't me urinating on your building......this time. In addition to the other posts I'll include this as a possible culprit.

Plants That Smell Like Cat Urine - Garden Guides

Plants That Smell Like Cat Urine

www.gardenguides.com

 

[Kaizen]

It does smell a lot like cat pee. But I do have cameras all over the place and I have only seen this 1 older fatter cat come around a couple times. I don’t think there is a lot of cat activity here. I have lots of coyotes and foxes though. But this is a relatively decently sealed up building. I’m not how anything larger than a squirrel could find a way in to get to the attic. And there is definitely nothing larger in the interior space other than mice I get sometimes and catch. Me or cameras would have seen that.

There could have been an opening that was fixed before you bought it. Now that you own it and its your problem I'd try and contact the previous owners and just ask. Might give you some direction if they heard noises or whatever. Good luck.

 

[b-boy]

I have similar issues. I think it's mice getting into the walls and digging into random stuff in the garage. It does get worse when the weather gets warmer. I tossed a bag of insulation I had in my loft because they turned it into a mouse condo.

 

[Stuart in MN]

What kind of floor is in the building? Is there a possibility that previous owners kept animals in there?
When I bought my house I found out that the previous owner locked their dog in the house all day while they were at work and it wasn't potty trained. When I pulled up the carpet I could see where every piece of their furniture had been, from the outline of pee-soaked flooring. When the humidity was low it wasn't noticeable but on humid days it got pretty stinky. I ended up having to pull up the flooring and replace it.

Assuming your building's floor is concrete it still may have been soaked with urine over the years. Steam cleaning may help.

 

[moemc]

There could have been an opening that was fixed before you bought it. Now that you own it and its your problem I'd try and contact the previous owners and just ask. Might give you some direction if they heard noises or whatever. Good luck.

I would need to find an ouija board for that. After I posted this thread I started to plan some action and I think tomorrow I will be opening a few places that won’t be too difficult to open and it will hopefully answer some questions.

 

[moemc]

What kind of floor is in the building? Is there a possibility that previous owners kept animals in there?
When I bought my house I found out that the previous owner locked their dog in the house all day while they were at work and it wasn't potty trained. When I pulled up the carpet I could see where every piece of their furniture had been, from the outline of pee-soaked flooring. When the humidity was low it wasn't noticeable but on humid days it got pretty stinky. I ended up having to pull up the flooring and replace it.

Assuming your building's floor is concrete it still may have been soaked with urine over the years. Steam cleaning may help.

It’s concrete. I don’t know if I think the odor is really preexisting. Or at least, it’s gotten much worse while I’ve been here. So I’m thinking an infestation had probably begun before i moved in and has become more obvious by the season. I no longer catch any mice in the interior space. But who’s to say there aren’t 1000 in the attic or walls.

I bought the property from the widow of the previous occupant of the shop. I don’t know how long he was sick so I don’t know how long the building went vacant.. because I am confident that old lady wasn’t coming out here for much, if anything, if ever.

I realized that I can easily remove the lower most exterior sheet metal panels to access what is inside the walls for the bottom 36” of the building before it gets messy and complicated. (Lower panels held with torque screws, above that they are nails with a sort of bonded gasket washer).

So in doing that in the areas that smell most, I think I’m going to find some activity.

Also I just rolled my cargo container under one of the attic hatch and now I can put a sturdy ladder on that to poke my head in the attic and take a big whiff

 

[carlaisle]

Assuming it is mice, have you considered getting a cat? They are valuable and economical employees that somehow manage to earn their keep in this type of role even while sleeping something like 18 hours/day. There is nothing to eat in your attic, so the mice must leave the building to go to the supermarket. Within a couple of months your mousekeeper will have executed/evicted the producers of the offending odor. Then you can set to work eliminating the stench they left behind.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Tape a 12" x 12" piece of plastic to the floor, this way you can see if it's moisture coming through the slab. Damp concrete can smell similar to urine sometimes. You may just need to clean and seal the slab.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Bathroom with a separate septic tank. Are any of your drains dry ? Floor drains ? Do they go to the septic ?

Pour some water down the drains and fix your vent.

 

[moemc]

Bathroom with a separate septic tank. Are any of your drains dry ? Floor drains ? Do they go to the septic ?

Pour some water down the drains and fix your vent.

I keep up with that. I am slightly familiar with plumbing issues due to my last house being a flippers special on top of a previous home owners special. These guys were running “vents” open into the walls and also did a DIY septic tank replacement, and let’s just say I’ve become intimately familiar with plumbing: especially drainage and ventilation and septic tanks :/