Why Does My Office Smell Bad?
You’ve cleaned the breakroom and kitchen, taken out the trash, vacuumed the floors, and removed every possible culprit, but your office still smells. Worst of all, there does not seem to be a source. The whole place smells, from the first floor to the fifth floor; everywhere has the smell of… What does your office smell like?
My office smells like:
- Smelly socks
- Wet socks
- Dirty socks
- Moldy food
- Something dead
Describe The Bad Smell In Your Office
Your office may smell like wet, dirty socks or moldy food, maybe it even smells like rotten eggs. In some of the worse case scenarios, an office can smell like sewage. Many of our air quality technicians pride themselves in correctly diagnosing the cause of the foul smell in your office before our air quality tests find the root of the problem.
What Is Causing The Bad Smell In Your Business
There are many causes of bad smells in a building. Below are a few smells that are common in larger commercial buildings:
1. Mold Or Mildew In the HVAC System
If there is a musty smell in your office building, it is likely there is mold or mildew in the ductwork and/or coils of your HVAC system. This smell can start out as musty, but as bacteria grows and builds, the smells can change or worsen. Make sure you have your HVAC coils and system maintenanced and cleaned, as well as your ductwork, removing all the mold that has built up.
2. Why Does My Office Smell Like Trash Or A Dead Animal
Your office probably has a dead animal in its HVAC system. When the colder months start in Pennsylvania, a lot of wildlife tries to get inside where it is warm. The HVAC is one way a lot of animals try to enter a building. If an animal dies in your ductwork, there can be a variety of air quality issues.
3. My Office Smells Like Sulfur/Rotten Eggs
If your office smell like sulfur or gas, it means there is probably a gas leak. Try to shut off the source of the gas leak and be sure to exit the building as quickly as possible. Gas leaks are quite explosive and dangerous.
4. Smelling Sewage In Your Office?
Raw sewage can be a simple fix or an indicator of major issues within your building.
A simple fix to raw sewage smell in an office: Sometimes it is food caught in the garbage disposal, or maybe a bathroom that has not been used for a while, and the P-traps (the turn in the pipes under your sink or toilet where water sits so air cannot flow up and out from the sewer) have dried up. Simply run the water and flush the toilet to refill the p-trap.
When the sewage smell is not a simple fix: There can be a leak or problem with the sewage that causes it to build up or leak into a variety of places in your building. Having an air quality test for your office building will help find the source of the problem.
5. Office Smells Like Burnt Marshmallows Or Something Burning
If it smells like something is burning, even if there isn’t smoke, it is likely because there is something burning. The smell of burnt marshmallows or brown sugar is typically an electrical fire. This can occur within your HVAC system and will need a professional to perform maintenance for you.
6. Your Office Does Not Smell, But People Are Sick
Many airborne pollutants and gases in the air are odorless, but they can cause major health issues.
Why HVAC Systems Are Often The Cause Of A Bad Office Smell
If your office smells unpleasant and the foul odor seems to permeate the entire building, the HVAC system is frequently the root problem. Air is continuously drawn through coils, drain pans, filters, and ductwork by your heating and cooling system before being distributed over several stories.
Your HVAC system can spread the odor everywhere if there is mold growing on coils, if a drain pan is filled with standing water, or if there are debris or impurities in the ductwork. Even a little contamination problem within the air handler can cause the entire office to smell musty or unpleasant in large commercial buildings. The HVAC system should always be evaluated when the odor is widespread throughout the facility and challenging to isolate.
Signs The Smell Is Coming From Your Commercial HVAC System
There are a number of signs that your office’s unpleasant odor could be caused by the HVAC system:
- The smell gets stronger when the air conditioning or heat turns on
- The odor is present on multiple floors
- The smell is worse near vents or returns
- Employees complain of headaches or respiratory irritation
Your commercial HVAC system may be circulating impurities if the musty, sour, or stale smell of your office air only occurs when the system is operating.
What To Do If Your Workplace Smells
If your office, hospital, school, or commercial building has a terrible smell circulating through the building, it is time to test your air quality. Do not wait to fix the problem. The first step is finding out what the problem is. Next is finding where source of the smell is coming from.
If it is a mold issue, there are typically multiple locations. Of course, the following step would be to remove the mold or air pollutants. Finally, it is vital to perform proactive maintenance on your HVAC system to stop air quality issues in your office before they start.
Step 1: Test Your Air Quality
By testing your air quality, we can determine the types of pollutants in the air, which helps indicate the cause of the pollutants.
Step 2: Locate The Source Of The Office Smell
Finding the source can easily be done with our HVAC video inspection tools. This allows our team to find all problem areas within your building or HVAC ductwork system. Rather than having to take apart all of your ductwork, we can access your conduit and travel through the system. Similarly, with walls, we can be non-intrusive using meters and thermal graphics.
Step 3: Remove & Remediate The Cause Of The Smell
Removing the cause of the smell is, of course, the most important step, but using specific products to stop mold from growing or making sure the pollutants are removed from the air is just as important. Cleaning your ductwork is always a good idea.
Step 4: Ongoing HVAC Maintenance
One of the best strategies to stop unpleasant odors in an office building is to do routine HVAC maintenance. Every day, your business HVAC system works to control temperature, humidity, and air circulation. Odor issues can be rapidly caused by moisture accumulation, unclean coils, clogged filters, and polluted ductwork if routine inspection and cleaning are not performed.
Maintaining clean and healthful office air is made possible by routine filter replacement, coil cleaning, drain pan inspection, and duct cleaning. In addition to preventing odors, preventative HVAC maintenance enhances interior air quality, safeguards worker health, and lowers the risk of more serious system failures.
Contact PROAC To Test Your Air Quality
PROAC specializes in HVAC systems in commercial buildings. From maintaining, replacing or refurbishing cooling towers to making sure your office does not smell, and the air quality is the best it can be. Contact us today for a free quote.