Thank you for all the replies, I think it is the floor drain so have put hot water and bleach down to see how we go. It's not a burning smell like electrical, it's more like stale cigarettes. I do run water in the bath even though we don't use it, every time I clean the Bathroom I use a cleaning product that smells of pine and hot water down all drains.

The chances of this being a drain or P trap odor seem slim. Almost always more the scent of rotten eggs.........

Better than bleach, a half cup of baking soda down the drain, and a half cup of vinegar. Cover the drain. It will froth, and then leave it in there for a bit.See what happens. Then take a paint roller and the same solution and scrub all the drain it will reach.

Still doubt that is it : )

My drain is in the Bathroom floor, it is round with a square tile cover that I can remove, the tile cover is around 4" square, no way would I be able to use a paint roller. Anyway if the smell persists I will do the Baking Soda & Vinegar, thank you.

THE PIPE IS TWO INCH DIAMETER......... You have to take the brush roller off he handle

We use the odor eliminator in our closets that have no air circulation...works great for that ...in this case that may be a solution for the smell but not for the problem...if one exists....if you have tried everything with no luck ..and no one else smells it ...i would give more attention to a possible health issue..

If you go in the health direction i would try a nasal spray first...the doctor can prescribe that over the phone

Poster may have a very acute sense of smell I do.

Place 3 tee shirts up to my nose, I can tell which one is son 1, son 2 and husband.

My sister's house has a distinct smell - to me anyway. When she passes clothing

on to me, it has her smell.

Getting back to the smell. Perhaps buy a bottle brush from Dollar Store - very long and thin.

Clean drains with it. I find sometimes guck gets stuck on sides that bleach does not remove.

I absolutely do not have a problem with my sense of smell, I didn't write my problem with the smell in the bathroom to have my health discussed, thank you I am very healthy. I really don't require any more answers now, I will try the bicarb and vinegar and see how that works. And Jan Moyer IF I took the brush roller off the handle it would not be anywhere near long enough to reach down the drain, please don't treat me like I am an idiot. Thank you all the people who have given me sensible helpful answers.

I use baking soda for everything, (I buy huge containers of it) and it is just great for odors and for cleaning too, it is abrasive but not excessively so.

And vinegar is great for cleaning, it cuts through some oily or greasy stuff.

The Awesome Lemon from the 99cents store is great too.

Between the three things, you don't need all those fancy cleaning products and they don't make my asthma act up.

My other go to is CLR spray foam, works great on rust and scale and soap scum.

I do love the smell of Clorox, reminds me of swimming at the Y when I was a child.

About the burning smell, this time of year a lot of people barbecue and I can smell that at quite a distance.

Some people use so much lighter fluid, I don't know how their food doesn't taste of it. Ick!

Sorry it's NOT a burning smell its a smell of stale tobacco. Never heard of the awesome lemon, guessing you may be in America, I am in Australia.

Oh, yes, it's an American product.

Keep the vent fans clean yearly cause they can catch on fire

Not sure what relevance your message has, our vents are cleaned very often, we have Air-con through the whole house so have to keep all vents maintained.

When you ask for free advice here in the US..it is not polite to attack the people who freely offer their input..maybe it is different in Australia....

I am the original poster. Let's get this post back on track.

Your comment that your neighbor smokes is interesting. Is there anyway that smoke from his home or yard could enter a vent of yours?

dotsandstripes, to get this back on track, why don't you let us know what happened after you cleaned the drain on August 30th?

Well, life has gotten in the way and cleaning the drain has not been a priority. Plus, usually, I clean it when the water is draining slowly and it has been draining fine. However, this morning, when i walked into the bathroom first thing in the morning I could definitely smell "the smell" and I do believe it is coming from the drain. It's a smoky, musty smell.

Coincidentally I live in the Bay Area CA and have the EXACT same thing happening in what seems to be one of my two master bathroom sinks. I poured some bleach in there and it seemed to clear it up for a day, but then came back. I also seem to have some small fruit flies in my bathroom that I can't figure out where they are coming form. It doesn't smell like smoke, just like if there was an old cigarette lying on the floor.

Walmart has special drain tablets that fresh and dish washers sanks up

That smell is mildew. Very persistent in the south. If a window air conditioner doesn't drain properly, it gets that smell. Seems you have a problem with mildew in your shower. Maybe there is a leak around the drain? Also, just curious....are the wildfires anywhere near you? Maybe some of the smoke from them has gotten into something?

I also live in the Bay Area CA and have the same thing happening in one of my two master bathroom sinks. It has only been this way for about one week. It smells just like if there was an old cigarette lying on the floor also. Strange to find someone else with the same issue. After reading the comments, I like the explanation that the drain may be dried out because of lack of use. Since I have not been working since the shut down that sink has not been used as much as before. So I will start using it again and I will put some vinegar and baking soda in it and see how it does. thanks everyone!

I have an inexplicable burning smell in my house too. I had a diffusion tester placed outside my home and it showed above legal levels of nitrogen dioxide, so something is definitely happening, but I still can't find the cause.

I'm wondering if smoke can actually get into the drains, but that still doesn't explain the source.

Also the house sometimes inexplicably generates heat in cold weather, without the central heating on. I'm guessing there's a link there somewhere.

I wonder if your home was built on a former "dump site" Christine.

Not a dump site but it was the Kaiser shipyard in the 1940’s.

Thank you Angel, I really don't know, but so far, further to my enquiries, I've been told that it wasn't. x

After reading up on NOx online, let me ask the obvious question and forgive me if you did this first thing already. Was your tester placed near the gas dryer vent, a vent for a gas stove, or the vent from a gas furnace? Do you or near neighbors run a vehicle or other gas motor in the area and the tester was in a place where fumes accumulate?

Thank you Nancy, but no, the tester was placed according to instructions.

Funny thing. I’m also near the Bay Area (in a new build) and have the same thing in our bathroom. We can only smell it in the room with the toilet (it’s separate) after the door has been closed. That window has never been opened by us and the house is only a few months old. At first I thought the builders may have left cugarette nuts in the vents. But now I’m not so sure. the bathroom wall is an exterior wall with condensation vents (?) on the other side. Every now and then I do smell gas when I’m in the yard right below that bathroom, coming from some kind of exhaust vent from the house. But it’s a different smell. although equally worrisome. Anyone on this thread figure out what it was?

We have three bathrooms but this only appears to be just one of the sinks.

Just a suggestion. Could fracking be within a distance that could impact your home environment?

See:- "Stray natural gas migration associated with oil and gas wells".

Not near enough to a fracking site to ignite methane or other gases in the tap water, but perhaps close enough to have a vestige of gas/es from the site, that's enough to still impact homes.

Like I say, it's just a suggestion of a possible cause, particularly as t sounds to be of a general, rather than an individual nature.

We don't live near any fracking sites either. Our smell seems to be coming from the drain (linear) in our shower. To me, it smells like burning cigarettes and wet soil.

O.k. another suggestion.

Some waste and/or, water treatment companies, apparently burn waste to convert it into energy.

Just wondering if that has any way, of finding its way into some homeowners drains/pipework.

Ann Schmidt, have you looked under the one sink that has the smell? Does it have one of the exterior (to the sink body) overflow tubes that goes from the hole in the sink basin, then down to tie into the drain? Some of us get a smell from these as it appears debris gets into the tube, but does not get washed through the tube because the overflow hole is rarely used/needed. Sinks made by Corian seem to have this problem fairly often. I believe this is the thread in which this issue is discussed. If it was not, then you can go to the top of this page and do a search for Corian Sink if this is your issue.

I'm so glad to find this thread. We have a strong smoky smell that appears after the house has been closed up for a few days. I always notice it on our return. We just had the vents cleaned and disinfected, but the smell is still there. We have five bathrooms, four tubs and one shower. Now that the kids have homes of their own, we only regularly use two of them, so we will try the baking soda and vinegar on them.. We also have overflow holes on six sinks. What do you recommend we use to clean those?

I use a thin bottle brush to clean drain and overflow holes. Amazing what gunk it churns up.

You have a ghost in the house seriously

"You have a ghost in the house seriously"

Really? That's your advice?

Do they make nicotine patches for ghosts?

I don’t know if she has a smoking ghost or not, but I do know that my DH was a big-time skeptic on paranormal things - until we had a ghost ourselves. So there’s that.

Little Bug........Wow ...lets hear more about that

Like others I am very grateful to have found this thread. My parents are in their 90s and the guest bathroom is used by the caretakers to wash their hands and use the toilet but no one uses the Jacuzzi tub anymore. At first I started accusing the caretakers of smoking in the bathroom but now I realize that is not the case at all. I have put vinegar in the Jacuzzi tub and run the Jets but the smell is still there so I will try all suggestions in this thread. Everyone smells it. Not just me. It is not a ghost LOL but I think it is related to the fact that the Jacuzzi drain is never used anymore. Thank you so much for everything that has been contributed to this thread

The smell is coming from some type of mold or fungus growing in your PVC pipes. I have this problem in the kitchen of one of my beach condos. Every couple of years I have to replace the disposal, and the pipes under the sink. The smell is SOOOO strong, and nothing will get rid of it. It took years to figure out the cause. I have soaked the PVC pipes in about everything, and it will not go away. But it is seasonal, flares up worst in the fall. Smells exactly like stale cigarettes. Will permeate everything, blankets, soft surfaces, everything stinks. The smell will penetrate black garb bags, thick ones, even 2 or 3 over each other (I wrapped the pipes to buy the same ones and it stunk up my car, even triple wrapped). I have no idea what type of mold this is, or fungus, but it's bad, and it's like the fungus smell is actively spewing from the sink. It will stink up the entire place. I'm not sure how to really solve the problem for good. So I solve it periodically by replacing the PVC pipes under the sink and the disposal. Then gone. When it comes back, initially it smells vaguely organic like rotting cucumbers for a day or so, then like cigarettes, stale cigarettes. I hope that helps. I wish a biologist would find this blog and ask for a sample. I'd love to know what I'm dealing with. I'm happy to donate an old disposal for testing when it happens again. I've smelled this smell in nature too in swampy areas, but it's MUCH stronger when contained inside.

You would be surprized how much smoke gets in through the holes in walls between your bathroom or kitchen and the one next door. I once had to crawl around and find every pipe (hot water heat) and apply a sticky cord-like insulation around all the ones I could find coming into my appartment. I ended up having to move. Even air cleaners were not enough to keep my asthma in check.

Clean the FLANGE on the disposal please. You can't believe what will live under and cling to that flange. Open the darn windows.!!! Run ice cubes. or lemon slices through your disposal. Use draft dodgers at door entry thresholds if a shared dwelling environment. Ask the super ( shared plumbing ) to find out WHO may be smoking in a bathroom with a fan on................and flushing butts. Ask also if they have advised folks to please USE their disposal. You can't believe how lazy people are. A disposal needs both use..and cleaning. Same with a dishwasher. They are meant to be USED. Regularly.

I had this problem. Preamble: Scents smell differently at different distances. Got to do with strength of smell, medium, moisture, your sense, etc. Mould, mildew, and stagnation all have a faint smell of ashtray or smoke like scents. I have a free standing tub that wasn't sealed properly, leading to a layer of early mould underneath. Sprayed it with vinegar/bi carb and bleach separately. Seems to have fixed it. Treat all drains, not directly visible surface (under/behind stuff. Even sealed areas often slow feed water that builds up over time). Late to the party, but had the problem, found this thread, and there you go

The toilet tank may need cleaning. There are special tablets you can use to do this.

So back to the ghost convo…my friend moved into a house when her daughter was a baby. She would on/off smell cigarette smoke/stale cigarettes and assumed it was a neighbor. When her daughter was 5 she asked her mom who the old guy with the cigarettes was in the hallway…there was no one there. The daughter would “see” him on/off when she was little but eventually nothing. The daughter is now almost 30, but when I stayed over last fall, and guess what I smelled in the hallway?! 😳😱

Samething is hapening at my house i started smelling it after we goy

T a new hvac system