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he read it, he told me the tenant had hired him because The camera got footage of the man who sat next
the odor came back. I was surprised until he mentioned to Janet spraying some sort of compound on the floor
that the tenant moved some different furniture to the around her desk. That was the source of the odors!
third-floor reception area. HR scheduled a meeting to talk about the issue with
This really got to me. The tenants got it in their him, and he abruptly quit the day before the meeting.
heads that it was just the original two chairs and The tenant didn’t know what the compound was
round coffee table that had the odor. So, when they because they couldn’t find the bottle, but the odor and
brought in new furniture — probably from the same the problem disappeared after that.
’ supplier — and the odor came back, they couldn’t solve property managers can do to maintain IAQ in their
There are a lot of things building owners and
the problem on their own. They failed to see the simple
buildings, but one thing they can’t control is whether
solution that a bunch of furniture might smell bad.
What s That furniture again and see what happens. the people who work together will get along.
I told the guy to have the tenant move the new
It appears this man really didn’t like sitting next
IAQ isn’t rocket science unless you need it to be. to Janet and was trying to make her quit.
Most of the time, common sense is all you need when In all my years of chasing odors, I’d never run into
chasing odors. a problem quite like this before.
There are two key points building owners and
property managers can take away from
Smell? Here’s an odor story that’s a real first in my career. there’s low-hanging fruit, that’s probably the source
The Human Factor
my experiences.
First, don’t make IAQ harder than it has to be. If
A couple months ago, a small group of tenants in
an office building began complaining about a
Second, never underestimate the levels of human
vomit-like smell around their desks. The building of the problem.
manager immediately brought in carpet cleaners pettiness. N
on a Friday afternoon and checked the A/C system
and the ceiling tiles for the source of the smell. They Building Air Quality is a Texas-based consulting
found nothing, but on Monday morning, the smell firm in business to identify and eliminate Indoor Air
was gone. Then on Tuesday, the odor was back. That’s Quality (IAQ) problems in commercial buildings. The
when the building manager called me. scope of our service ranges from ProActive indoor
Sure enough, when I walked over to the desks of air quality investigations designed to identify IAQ
the tenants who had been complaining, there was a problems before they occur, to reactive situations
light vomit smell in the air. When I got on my hands in which we attempt to identify and solve indoor air
and knees, it became clear the smell was coming from quality problems which are occurring. Travis West
the carpet, despite the carpets being cleaned less than can be reached at twest@baq1.com.
a week prior. There was one woman’s desk in particu-
lar where the smell was extremely strong. I’ll call this
woman Janet.
Since it wasn’t the ceiling or A/C system, I began
to suspect it might have been a tenant-caused issue. I
looked around the area and noted one desk with some
food — it was possible some spilled olive oil was the
source. I also couldn’t rule out that Janet might have
been bringing something in on her shoes.
When I wrote my report, I recommended cleaning
the carpets again, moving the people who had been
complaining to another area, and seeing if the odor
returned. I didn’t know the source, but if it was
a tenant-caused issue, the odor might move with
the occupants. Later, I found out that the building
owner gave my report to the tenant, who then gave
it to their HR manager. HR decided the best approach
was to move their staff and then hide a camera in that
area and see what was up. Not to sound like clickbait,
but what they found surprised even me.

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