On Friday, April 25, 2014 12:07:25 PM UTC-4, Danny D. wrote:
Living in Silicon Valley, it's hard to get mold since it's so

sunny and dry most of the time.



Had guests over (don't ask) who needed to do wash and we

washed what turned out to be their moldy stuff with my

towels.



When they left, we noticed the musty odor in the bathroom, so

we narrowed it down to the towels washed with their stuff.



No problem. We just re-washed (and re-washed) the towels.

Yet, in the bathroom itself, even after almost a week of

airing out the tile bathroom with the windows wide open,

the faint moldy smell still exists, ever so faintly - but

it's definitely there.



Googling for how to locate the source, I find the keyword

MVOC (microbial volatile organic compounds), e.g.,

http://www.emlab.com/s/sampling/env-report-04-2006.html

http://blackmold.awardspace.com/mvocs.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18333991



End result? It's a complicated mess. But, yet, I still have

that faint yucky musty smell of mold sticking to the membranes

of my nose whenever I enter the tile bathroom.



The bathroom never had this smell before; and it won't

get rid of it now. It is a 100 tile bathroom, very dry,

on the third floor, with tons of sunlight and wide open

with no wet anything anywhere.



What on earth is the mold sticking to?

Any suggestions?



PS: I'm wont to snap a picture but I don't know how to snap

a picture of a mouldy smell...

Years ago I had a problem with an untraceable bathroom odor. I finally located the cause; the holes under the toilet rim had clogged up with mineral deposits in one section so that the mold and germs weren't being washed away.. I used a nail to remove the cement-like deposits and the odor disappeared..

Paul