Bean Bag + Fort = Moisture?

So I'm not sure I'm even in the right place (forum), but I figure I have to start somewhere!

At the request of my daughter, I built a fort in her bedroom about 3 weeks ago. One of the items placed inside the fort was a bean bag. We've had this bean bag since she was born (8 years ago). Most of the fort was almost fully enclosed via numerous blankets, except for a few spots on the sides where you could crawl in and out of the fort. I spent some time in there, and it was never hot or stuffy.

We decided to finally tear down the fort this morning, and my wife noticed a foul smell. I've had a cold for about a week, so I can't smell anything -- but she said it smelled like garbage. When we got to the bean bag, we noticed that the whole bean bag was damp, as well as the carpet below it (and slightly around it). A small pillow next to the bean bag was damp as well. They weren't wet, but you could feel moisture on all of those things, and (according to the wife), they smelled like garbage. About 10 billion stuffed animals were in there, and none of them were damp or smelly. The inside (filling) of the bean bag was fine. Dry as a bone, and no smell.

I thought maybe something dripped down from the ceiling, but there are no leaks, plus the blankets covering the area where the bean bag was is completely dry. My daughter hasn't played in fort in a few days (which is why we decided to take it down), so we're not sure when the moisture started. We also didn't notice any stains anywhere, and we don't have any pets. I'm pretty adamant about keeping things clean, so when she did eat in there once (with me for lunch), I (tried) to make sure that there was no leftover food. It's possible I missed something, but I figured there would be a stain leftover from whatever it was (I can't remember what we ate).

We're in the process of cleaning, which is not a big deal. I like to clean But the mystery of not knowing what caused the moisture is something I wish I could solve! It's probably a dumb question, but will a bean bag in an enclosed area attract moisture?

Well, first off, the smell of garbage tends to mean ammonia. Molds smell like wet dirt for example and is not the problem here. The ammonia would indicate to me that there is either a urine or else bacteria in play....maybe both.

It could have been condensation as a bean bag would be an insulator to that floor so moisture could condense, but again, you don't have a mold issue by that smell, so I don't think that is it at all.

Not to sound insulting, but my guess would be either urine or else spilled drinks / food and that might be why your daughter hasn't been playing in the Fort for awhile as well.

If you had a black light, you would know for certain, but at this point it isn't worth investigating much farther as the Fort is retired and your daughter isn't going to talk.

Call a local cleaner and get it cleaned......good time of the year for it anyway.

Well it is a good time of the year to get them cleaned but most cleaners are busy now so you should plan ahead and the sooner you take care of it, the better chance you can get the odor problem resolved.
That being said, make sure you pick the right cleaner since you don't know where the source of the odor is from, either black light or like me I just treat everything, but that's if the odor source is from the carpets, it could also come from the walls ?
Good luck to you :-)

What is your area? curious for temps and such. Was the AC running at this time? My first thought was a spill or urine.....a simple little water spill could create this....if the AC was of or even on with the area blocked from good circulation. Garbage smell....is it getting stronger or going away?

Go to Devons Facebook page I hear there is a cleaner there offering a cheaper price than his advertised specials

Mo wrote:Go to Devons Facebook page I hear there is a cleaner there offering a cheaper price than his advertised specials

Not tonight but I was last night Rob. Hopefully I didn't post anything that was out of line. Feel free to moderate my  posts

milspec6, dp1, Devon07, and Mo - THANK YOU! I appreciate all of you for taking the time to respond.

I had no idea about the different smells, and what they relate to. Very cool. Like I mentioned, my cold prevents me from smelling anything (which is probably a great thing in this situation), because my wife says it's definitely a garbage smell -- and not a wet dirt smell. Don't worry milspec6, I'm not offended at the suggestion that it's urine or food. You're probably right, or more like definitely right. Too bad I don't have a black light to check it out! I'm pretty sure it's not urine, as my daughter's 8. I know that doesn't mean she's not immune to accidents, but we would've known if that happened. HOWEVER, we think it might be food...

After talking to my daughter again this evening, the only food she could remember eating, were cut up banana slices (which I remember now too). And my wife pointed to a spot on the carpet (about 4 inches in diameter) that looks a bit darker than the rest -- which was underneath the bean bag, and she said was "wetter" than the rest of the stuff that was damp. So maybe one of the banana slices was there...and decomposed? What we think is weird, or scientifically fascinating, is that the dampness was confined to just the outside of the bean bag (the entire bean bag, not just the bottom), as well as a small pillow next to the bean bag (and the carpet underneath those items).

To answer Devon07's question, we live in a warm area (Northern California), and we do run the AC quite liberally throughout the day. Not much in the last week though...as it's actually been a little cooler.

But like you all said...this is a perfect time to do a cleaning! My daughter actually hasn't slept in her bedroom in a couple months due to a broken leg recovery (her bed is high)...so this will be a great way to clean and prepare her room for her eventual return to her own bed.

Thanks everyone!

It is an interesting mystery and we probably don't have it answered fully yet, but cleaning is the right answer to correct it.

Of note, if the banana did decompose there, normally you would see fruit flies in short time. Horrible monsters that multiply faster than Spock with a calculator, so maybe we don't have the mystery solved.

Oh well, good luck with it.

@milspec6

Update, and it doesn't seem like a good good sign. It looks like you're correct about the banana...

I guess I should have mentioned that I live on the second floor of a two-story condominium. Because there's not a unit above us, and because I didn't see any water leaks on the ceiling or walls, a leak (of some sort) is not something I considered.

BUT, we woke up this morning to a phone call from our downstairs neighbor, who said that she has water leaks on her son's bedroom ceiling and walls, and also the hallway wall outside her son's bedroom...that also trickled down to their carpet. For reference, the unit below is exactly the same layout as ours, and her son's bedroom is directly below my daughter's room. Coincidence? I wish...

She said the smell is similar: garbage.

We're all not sure what it could be, but we have an appointment to have a plumber come out today to check it out. Thankfully, we have probably the nicest neighbor of all time downstairs, so she doesn't seem upset about it at all. My wife and I on the other hand...ugh. Not happy.

Yikes, sounds like a sewer line may have cracked....do the pipes run through that room?

The good news is that it is easier to fix your level, the guy below isn't so lucky. You will want to get on top of it quickly though so that the damage is minimized.

How old is this unit as most have pvc lines which are not known to develop leaks like that without some help.

Keep us posted, I also do bio-hazard clean-ups so I may be able to provide some answers when you get the cavity opened up.

Sounds like one of THOSE odd situations. I have one in the works as we speak. A town house complex with garages on the front. A neighbor backed into a hose bib and broke it off. It flooded the side by side garages. The owner wasn't available so I left a de-humidifier and air mover with the property manager (who used to be in the cleaning and flood cleanup business. He installed the equipment in the garage and dried it out. I picked up the equipment three days later and sent the bill. Then early last week the owner complained of dampness in the master bedroom closet which is a good seventy five feet back from the hose bib. The cushion was soaked and water had wicked up a good two feet. Apparently water had traveled inside the common wall, past a bathroom and into the closet without leaving any tell tale moisture behind on either side. I installed a dry force cavity dryer in the closet along with a DH 1200. Water does some strange things sometimes.

Like they always taught me in Engineering School.....Water always wins.

that is a really cool picture!

Great picture! I'm closing my eyes right now...imagining that this wonderful oasis is taking place within the walls/floors of our condo, and the condo below us. My neighbor on the other hand, is wondering why it's raining in her place while the California sun is shining outside!

I was planning to save my response once I had some answers. But this update will have to do for now:

Sunday afternoon the plumber came by (a few hours after my last post). His analysis: The leak wasn't gushing (maybe a pinhole leak), and because it wasn't an "emergency" ...as well as being late in the afternoon, he wouldn't have time to open up my neighbor's walls to find the exact source. But he would be back the next day (Monday at 2pm) to work on it.

Yesterday (Monday) after I got home from work, my neighbor says that the plumber opened up her walls, but couldn't find the source of the leak. So he would need to come back the next morning between 8-10am to inspect our unit. I had meetings scheduled all morning, so my wife took this morning off to be at home. Meanwhile, we noticed that the dampness on our daughter's carpet is slowly growing. It's maybe about a 1-2 feet larger than it was before. You can't see it, and I don't really know how to describe the "dampness" ...if that's even a word. It's not like it's wet. The best way for me to describe it is when you touch something that's really cold, and therefore it feels wet. There's definitely some sort of moisture going on in the affected area, but when you press your hand into the carpet, your hand doesn't come back wet. Does any of that make sense?

Anyway, my wife calls me after the plumber leaves and says that he ran a bunch of water in our unit (bathrooms, kitchen, washing machine), and checked the pipes through the holes in the walls that he made in our neighbor's unit, but still can't find the source of the leak. He didn't open up any of our walls. Sooo...yeah. This was a plumber that our neighbor called. Forget what company it was. We called our insurance on Sunday to update them on what was happening, and followed up with them again after this. So now they're sending a "leak detector" person to come out on Thursday afternoon.

Obviously, my neighbor is getting screwed. Because of...gravity...and time. But looking at just our place, do you guys have a recommended course of action for the carpet? I mean obviously we're going to have to rip it up at some point, clean and possibly replace...a lot of stuff? But do you think we should just wait on doing anything until the source is discovered and fixed? We were thinking of just getting a big fan, and blow it at the carpet until then.

Well, I don't understand that plumber's methods at all....not one bit.

If that was my job (I have done hundreds of them) it would have been inspection with a infrared thermal camera to see if the leak is isolated to that spot or is originating farther up the pipe and only puddling at that spot.

Then, the answer isn't going through the downstairs neighbor's walls, but to open up your floor where the leak is located. If it was just a pin leak, he could make repairs in an afternoon and the problem solved.

The camera is a must-use tool for jobs like yours. Like you described, it isn't so much a damp feel as it is a cold feel. That is what the camera will capture, the different temperatures within the floors and walls and where there is water.....there is a colder temperature. It will also allow only a couple of feet of flooring to be opened up to resolve your problem as you will know exactly where it is located.

I hope the next guy is better, I hate to throw the plumber under the bus, but he failed in my professional view.

You should definitely need to wait on replacing the carpets until the leaking issue is fixed, in the mean time fans definitely would help, however your humidity is going to be higher due to the fans blowing the moisture from the carpets to the air, so if outside humidity is low you can open windows up to lower that down, if it's high outside, then you need to rent dehumidifier to capture all of those moisture up, remember to empty the water once a day out of the dehumidifier if you go that route. Good luck.

If it's possible you should peel back the carpet covering the damp spot. You should be able to see any mold growth on the back. Removing the damp pad would also be a good idea. It's cheap to replace.

Any mold growth at this stage isn't an issue beneath the carpet pad as much as it is inside the floor and wall cavities.

I hope this gets resolved before that suspected pin-hole leak turns into a full rupture and floods the place. I seriously don't understand the thinking of that plumber.