Strange ammonia smell

Walter

When my roommate and I moved into our new place we noticed a really strong ammonia smell coming from the garage. We traced it to somewhere over by the (electric) water heater, where it was strong enough that we couldn't breath. I'm not certain that it was the water heater but it was definitely coming from nearby. Since we're lazy and nobody spends any time in the garage, we just ignored it for 8 months. It comes and goes but its never really been a huge problem.

However, today the smell was in my room. Not quite as bad as it was in the garage but strong enough that I had to leave. My room is above and adjacent to the garage so I figured the fumes were wafting in from there. When I went to check, the garage smelled just fine. What the heck is going on and should I be worried?

Kingthlayer

Talk to your landlord about it, maybe?

MagicPrime

Stray cat, pissing in your garage.

Pussum

Run a check through your garage and if you have storage space in the rafters of the garage check there to. Something may have died or is living in there marking its territory and slowly moving into the house.

Sarcastro

Aside from actual ammonia, very few things smell like ammonia, and cat piss is one of them.

Find the Cat quest seconded.

Walter

That sounds right actually. My neighbors have a couple cats that they let roam all over the fucking neighborhood. Cat piss will smell bad enough to actually choke a person?

Sarcastro

Hells yah. Unneutered toms are the absolute worst, but they all reek pretty bad, especially if there's build up in a favourite place.

chamberlain

It most certainly will.

Getting rid of the smell is going to be very, very difficult even if you find/get rid of the cats.