Renter, realtors, home buyers, and home owners often miss the signs of a meth lab, which may appear to look “odd” but not so odd that it sends up a red flag. A word of advice: If you think something is odd, weird, or unusual, you should listen to what your gut is telling you. Ask questions and investigate the history of the home before you buy or rent it. Talk to the local health department, the local and state police departments, and the neighbors may help you to learn more about whether the previous occupants may have been meth users, meth cooks, or if a meth lab bust occurred at that address.
What you see inside and outside of a home may help you to identify a meth lab home, but you should keep in mind that many former meth lab homes have been “cleaned up” by their owners. Does the home appear as if it’s undergone a total rehab? Does it have new flooring, new rugs, new kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and new paint? Ask yourself “why is that”? Looking “new” is not a guarantee that a home is not contaminated by meth or meth lab chemicals. The only sure way to find out if a home is contaminated by meth is to have the home professionally tested.
*According to estimates by law enforcement agencies and meth lab cleanup contractors only one out of ten homes, where meth has been manufactured, have ever been discovered by the police. Buyer and renters beware!
Chemical stains on flooring
Chemical staining on walls and floors often result when chemicals spill during the meth cook. Floors and carpets are often stained or damaged by meth chemicals that can include liquids such as hydrochloric acid. A former meth lab may also have brand new flooring and carpets, which can signal that the previous flooring was damaged because of meth lab chemical spills.
Fixer-upper buyers beware! Also, keep in mind that meth lab homes may look brand new and not show any of the damages you see in the pictures listed here. Unscrupulous sellers who buy meth lab homes at rock bottom prices often cover stains with carpeting and new flooring and paint walls to minimize any questions or concerns about the home from prospective buyers or renters.
Burned grass or vegetation
Meth lab cooks may cook meth outdoors or burn empty pseudoephedrine packages or blister packaging for cold, allergy, and sinus medicines, to avoid raising the suspicion of anyone seeing the tell-tale meth signs in their trash. Cooking outdoors is remote locations in another way to avoid being detected by neighbors who may smell the chemicals they’re cooking. Cooking outdoors also keeps their homes from getting contaminated or exposing their children to the hazardous chemicals they’re cooking with. If you see burn pits, stained soil or dead vegetation it may indicate areas where meth lab chemicals have been dumped.
Kitty Litter
Kitty Litter is often used by meth lab cooks to soak up spilled chemicals. In the first picture, a meth lab cook uses this kitty litter container as part of their meth manufacturing process. Tubing is commonly found at meth labs, where it is often connected to a variety of containers.
Do you see kitty litter in unusual locations? It could indicate that someone used it to absorb a chemical spill.
Housekeeping
When someone is addicted to meth, meth is ALL THAT MATTERS. The effect of meth on users makes it difficult for them to get organized and keep the kind of focus it would take to keep their house neat and tidy.
Renters who are using meth and/or making meth will try to avoid having their landlord come in to inspect their home, due to its condition and to prevent the landlord from seeing anything that might evoke questions. Neighbors and other visitors are also avoided by meth lab cooks, for the same reasons.
Windows are often covered or blacked-out to keep prying eyes from seeing inside.
Strange Plumbing
Strange plumbing, vent systems, and/or electrical connections in a house should make you question why someone would have a plumbing, wiring, or electrical system like that in their house, basement, attic, or garage. Could the plumbing be installed to make it easier to dump chemicals without being detected by anyone outside of the house?
Could venting systems be installed in basements to vent out meth lab fumes? Are electrical outlets or wiring found in weird places?
BASEMENTS AND GARAGES
The windows on basements and garages made be covered or painted to keep others from seeing what’s “cooking”. Exhaust fans are common, as well.
Glassware
Police often find different types of glassware in meth labs, including glass bottles, jugs, and glass cooking containers.
Plastic Bottles
Meth cooks who use the “shake and bake” method, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, typically use commonly found plastic bottles to make meth. Water bottles, soda bottles, sports drinks bottles, juice bottles and other plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes are being used to make meth. Meth made in these bottles frequently explode causing fires and burn injuries to people in their vicinity.
This post was originally published on July 16, 2009.
Meth is no joke and the folks who involve themselves with it need to be dealt with just as harshly as you would deal with a murderer! Meth is destroying communities not just the lives of the abusers, meth users are everywhere, they will steal from you, lie to you, rape you, murder you, it does not matter to them what they do to you, they are out of there mind! I am not religious but they become Demons when high on meth! They have to be destroyed at any cost, there should be absolutely no sympathy and no second chances for these folks, if you do not destroy these zombies they will destroy you!
I live in Peru,Indiana and I know of a bunch of people cooking Meth in my neighborhood and they have been doing it for about two years now. I have turned it into the DEA and emailed the Mayor but they won’t do anything about it. I even got ahold of the child protection service and they still won’t do anything. I think there are some cops involved in it too. I know the trailer that is right next to my house a ex- cop use to live there and he was cooking it because I could smell it when I walked outside. Now the guy that was living there went back to being a cop. I don’t know what else to do. I know it cause all kinds of sickness and I have a child that lives in my house and there are other kids in my neighborhood. Can anyone give me any advice I don’t have the money to buy another home. I really need help please.
L,
Try contacting the state police, the state Attorney General’s office, and/or the FBI and ask for their help in investigating what’s going on in your neighborhood. You are right to be concerned about the safety of the people in your neighborhood, especially the children.
http://www.justice.gov/dea/submit_tip_form.htm
this has worked for some people i know here that couldnt get help with the same situation
Thanks Clifford
I had a truck unloading boxes in front of my house amd being carried next door. The truck had 2 different license plates from 2 different states. I called the pd on this character and they didnt do anything!
When i pointed out the plates; the cop began to stutter and was highly nervous.
Thats when I contacted the state police and the dea.
You have to stay with it. Because when one of these characters finds a safe place, more follow.
A meth house is a hazardous waste area. And it effects your property values as well.
There is always your familys safety to think about,so give them hell…..
I lived in a house that a slumlord rented. It was much like the pictures above.
The landlord was supposed to clean before we moved in. He was so friendly.
We saw several of his houses and they were all repulsive (our impression was that he bought some old houses and was fixing them up, like a public service.)
This was in Cleveland, TN.
The smell was disgusting. we couldn’t afford to move.
NObody would help-the legal aid office said that landlords own the property and that’s the end of it.
The one thing no one could figure out was the burned grass.
You couldn’t walk across the lawn without your feet becoming blackened with what seemed like soot. Greasy soot. Is that the kind of residue which meth leaves behind?
There were also some weird foil packages stuffed between the wall and the fireplace, and a cut off milk jug container hanging from the wall by a string. somebody said it looked to be used as a funnel.
The pipes were all broke and none of the plumbing worked.
We lived there our whole lease because if we’d have moved the landlord would’ve taken our deposit (he did anyway) and made us pay out the remainder of the lease.
Should we be concerned having lived there-I have two small children. One was a baby at the time. is there something we should be tested for?
Pleasant Hill,
The house you rented sounds like it could have been used as a meth lab, judging by what you’re told me. The blackened oily grass that you mentioned could have been the remnants from meth cooks trying to burn the “wastes” from their meth lab. For every pound of meth that’s made, 5 to 6 pounds of waste has to be disposed of. Waste can include used coffee filters, lithium battery casings, containers from the chemicals they use, matchbooks, empty fertilizer bags, empty pseudoephedrine packets, etc.
The cut off empty milk jug, hanging from a wall by a string, could certainly have been used as a funnel, which they use to pour chemicals from one container to another. Foil packages could be empty blister packs that once held pseudoephedrine pills, like those used in cold and allergy medications, like Sudafed.
I hope for you family’s sake that you weren’t living in a former meth lab, although your descriptions give me reason to be concerned that it was. The only real way to know if the house was used as a meth lab is to have the house tested, although police records and talking to neighbors can often tell you alot about who lived in the house before your family did.
As far as medical testing for your children and the rest of your family, you can talk to your family doctor and your children’s pediatrician. Keep in mind however, that they may not be familiar with testing procedures involving chemical contaminants found in meth lab homes. Locate a specialist in environmental medicine in your area, who are familiar with how chemicals affect health. You can do a search for a specialist in environmental medicine on the American Academy of Environmental Medicine website. Just select your state from the drop down menu to find specialists in your area.
If you ever find yourself in that kind of situation again, have someone test the home that is certified by your state to test for meth lab chemicals. If the home is contaminated, then I don’t think there’s a judge in this country that would hold you liable to pay the landlord the remainder of your lease. If you find one that does, appeal the judgement and take it to a higher court. No family should ever have to live in what is considered to be a “hazardous waste site”!
Pleasant Hill, I hope that all turns out well for you and your family. God bless.
YOu know what? In MO, the renter is always the victim. I had a set of white trash hoosiers in my Mom’s house renting, they absolutely DESTROYED the house, left before the lease was up, stuck me for hte rent, stole appliances, left the doors open and turned off the heat so EVERY SINGLE PIPE, TOILET, ETC froze solid, ripped up the floors, destroyed the carpet, holes in every wall, baseboards torn off, stairs bannister torn off, and you could walk across the back yard and not touch the ground on top of trash and garbage, left a vehicle in teh driveway with no wheels of tires and no engine and guess what? They are the victims, I’ve been told by the AG office that there is not a thing I can do. The cops I had out there to get a damage report REFUSED to even take one. As it turns out, one of the cops was this guys next door neighbor and his buddy.
Tweakers renting the house next door in a nice middle class neighborhood in this small town about 50 miles from St Louis. People across the street bought their house and started remodeling, said they moved here wanting “someplace quiet.” I guess we are fortunate to live somewhere where police are involved. The one woman was handcuffed at the end of the street last week in broad daylight, her car (a complete junker) was impounded. She was back within an hour. Nothing seems to phase them. Children and Family Services are now here on an almost daily basis, the police on a weekly. They’ll be cooking tonite with various smells ranging from odor of paint thiner, dead skunk, and a really strange zoo like stench. Thank goodnes we just rent. I can see where this could ruin a town.
Victory,
I’m sorry to hear that your neighborhood is being ruined by meth cooks. I am sorrier still to hear that children are involved in the meth lab home in your neighborhood. They are in serious danger and should be removed from the home, especially if the police feel that they are cooking meth in that house. As far as the release of the meth cooks, it’s doesn’t surprise me that they would get back to cooking it, soon after returning home. Addiction to meth doesn’t stop with an arrest, unless the addict gets help with their addiction problem, like they do if they’re required to attend a drug court program.
Unfortunately, what is happening in your neighborhood is happening in neighborhoods all across the U.S, where active meth lab homes exist. Toxic fumes spread throughout the neighborhood (the smells you’ve noticed) and explosions both pose serious risks to the health and safety of the public, as well as to any current or future occupants of the home.
Did your landlord provide you with a disclosure form that states that the home you’re renting from them was never used to make meth? One out of every five of the country’s more than 100,000 meth labs has been found in Missouri and Illinois, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Jason Dowdell and Michelle Dilorenzo are also from the St. Louis Missouri area. They bought a former meth lab home.
i just moved into a trailer that my boyfriends cousin lived in before us. they got busted for meth about a month ago. We had no idea that they were doing that stuff. Well i had no idea that the chemicals stay in the house after they get the labs out. i have a little baby and we have been in the house for about a week now, but i’m starting to worry. We cleaned the house really good but does that get rid of everything? Can you please give me some advise i’m scared for my childs health.
Suggest you get out of that trailer will never be fit to live in again infant especially at risk but the health of all of you are get out !
My brother in his first new neighborhood of brick garden homes the house two or three down the curved street one day fireman were there because there was a fire in that house. Basically there was so much drugs anc chemicals in it the Roof Blew Off, kapowii. Lucky for them they were able to sell their house and went to an old and established very fancy neighborhood to avoid such things hopefully again. The house the roof blew off about 100,000 of single US Dollar bills shot through the air and many neigbhors had a field day cleaning up the waste of dollars. So not only did those productive meth producers loose a nice house and $100,000.00 of cash but also probably went to jail on top of that. Crime does not pay.
I like the way you spelled Kapowii!
Beware of oily grass.
My child and I both got hives. i think my LL purposely rented to meth-makers, but at the time i didn’t know it.
Me and My family are buying a home and been living in it for about 7 yrs. Here lately, We have been noticing people in and out of a house across the Street in the middle of the night..One of the women that live there has nearly ran us over with her car and just looks crazy (not even human)..She has also went on a rampage outside her yard and took a baseball bat and just bashed her vehicle to death making animal sounds..and just this weekend a friend of mine (which is studing criminal justice) came and stayed the weekend with me and we had went out one night and gotten home around 1:30 am and she noticed a chemical smell and told me that in one of her classes they are learning how to recognize the signs of meth labs and thats one of the signs..tonite around midnite my dog is going crazy barking and I hear scuffing noises (which sounded like its coming from outside my house)when I look out the window I see nothing..about 5 min. later my dog is still going nuts and I look outside again and see a young guy walking from the direction of my house going to my neighbor’s house across the street..Is this enough stuff to get the police involved or do I need some kind of evidence..It’s kind of weirding me out cause I have 2 young kids and we like to sleep with our windows raised this time of year..but between the traffic flow in the midle of the night across the street and the chemical smell..I’m afraid too..What do I do?
Yes. Call the narcotics division of your local PD. Make a nuisance of yourself if you have to.
I would definitely report it to the police, asap! You have sufficient evidence to get the police to investigate!
I lived in a horrible neighborhood on the north east side of Edmonton (in Canada) and the house across from ours, in the alley way, was a drug house of some sort, they also had three large vans which did not move, lined up in the back yard between the fence and the shed. There were always fires (contained) and their fence was topped with towels and cork board and all sorts of trash to prevent prying eyes. I saw the front of the house, and it looked abandoned. The backyard and side lots on either side (which were vacant, houses torn down) were filled with trash and shopping carts. The people who stayed there (never seemed like the same guys either) were constantly in and out of these vans and shed… this whole thing, while all i could think at the time was “drug users”, “losers” etc… seems to me like more of a MANUFACTURING lab! I sincerely hope these scum bags have been caught, we moved away but wouldnt mind swinging by the old hood and seeing if a tip to the po-po is in order next time i visit.
So i live in Eureka Ca, which is full of meth users and meth labs. I recently moved to an apartment and i hear this noise going of an on every night (mmmmmmmmmmmmm) it sounds like a machine turning off and on. I was wondering if that is a noise that might be from the process or if i am just paranoid? Can someone please help
Joey,
Does the sound that you’re hearing sound like a coffee bean grinder or a food chopper? Meth cooks use them to grind up pseudoephedrine pills.
I hear the exact same thing and on top Of that they have installed a sound masking system . Why won’t Police help. I have contacted them several times and they tell me to move. They don’t want the hassle. Fine I bet the FBI or DEA will.
im a a 16 year old girl that has been threw my dad doing and making it with me and four other kids in the house while he was makin it with their mothers. i ened up with staff in my bones when he finally got busted thank god i was with my sisters’ mother when it happened or i would be sittin’ in jail too even tho i had no clue they were doing it
My son was a meth addict in Florida. Unfortunately, I recieved a call informing me he committed suicide. I have since developed an attitude for users and cookers. I applaude everytime the police bust a lab. I have family members that reside in a busted meth home. My wife has been in this home. I will not enter under any circumstances. They do have youngs adults with babies in the home. I feel so bad for them all. It makes me so sad that they have decided to stay in the home. I have voiced my opinion with no avail. I guess some people just won’t listen to reason and or reality. The memory of my son will forever haunt me. Everyone, please help others help themselves before this happens to you. New Castle, Indiana.
I’m an American living in New Zealand, here meth is called ‘P’ but the problem is just the same. We’ve recently moved into a home we suspect has been used for ‘p’ production. We found a burn barrel in back yard, the garage floor has strange white markings on it, there is a pile of sawdust under a bench (I already swept up a large portion of sawdust), I found several boards with green and white splotches on them. Where there was a door it is boarded up, someone said there had been a vent there, the grass and vegetatation doesn’t grow well there. The worst signs though are the rashes on my family, including my two year old son who had been sweeping in the garage.
I live next door to a meth producer in a city of about medium-sized population. I have seen no burning, etc outside, but I have seen some “digging” a couple of times. I think the waste is sometimes buried. I’m wondering if we are in danger with our water supply?? He has a fence which makes it hard to tell what’s going on in the backyard.
Anytime meth lab chemicals are buried, those chemicals can leach in to the groundwater. Whether or not that is effecting the water in your home depends on where the water you use in your home is coming from? If the water is piped in to your home from the city, then it “should” be safe. If you’re getting your water from a well, then I’m more concerned. Give your local water department a call and ask them how you can get your water tested. I would also report your neighbor’s meth-making activity to the police, before somebody gets hurt!
I live in compton,ca.I’ve lived here for a little over yr.I was wondering ,ourpipe in our apartment are constantly clogging up and we fix it .it only takes a week or less for the pipes to clogged up again..our apartment pipes are shared with our nieghbors.could this mean they have a meth lab..they’ve covered there windows with card board and as recent as 3 to 4 mths they have a cat..can you please help and were can I get help for this…the cops(sheriff)don’t listen and I’ve heard they are corrupt…thank you
Ju,
I’m not sure that you’re living next to a meth lab, based on what you’ve described. Have you smelled or noticed else that’s unusual?
We recently moved into a rental house that has been made over. There are no signs like above, but there is a smell that is making me sick. It smells kind of like cat urine, wet cardboard and my husband said it smells like syrup to him. I am paranoid do to having small kids living here. I’ve read that there is a chemical smell, but is there an oder after the clean up.
Amber,
Was the cleanup conducted by professionals who deal with removing the contamination that remains after meth has been cooked in a house? Does your state issue a certificate once the house has been decontaminated? It’s not unusual for a former meth lab home to look great after property owners spruce the home up with painting, new flooring, carpets, cabinets, bathroom/kitchen fixtures, etc, however that doesn’t remove the contamination. You might also want to do a search for information about meth lab smell on this website by using the search box on the top right hand side of the page.
can any one please answer some questions for me really quick ? My boyfriend and i have never done meth and never ever plan on it we are smarter than that, is it true that meth can spread threw walls and is it true that is smells like cat pee and sulfer?
Hi Tanya,
Yes, meth labs can smell like sulfurl (rotten eggs) or ammonia (cat urine). Fumes from a meth lab also allow the contamination to travel throughout a structure.
I want to purchase a property but for some reason when we went to see the 2 apts. included in the commercial property I had so many red flags go up. first let me say I am 56 yrs old and do not know the first thing about meth or meth labs but for what we hear on the news. When we went into the first apt. the first thing I notice was a strong chemical smell, I thought maybe they replaced carpet or flooring or something. We go in to the apt, the kitchen is smaller than my 5 by 8 bathroom!! there was a flimsy exhaust vet hanging down from the ceiling the girl there in the apt said was for a dryer??? the bedrooms were just strewn with clothes!! discusting and this place freaked me out! there was a 6 mo old baby in a carrier and the mother sat on a couch with no legs. there was 24 hours notice we were coming!!!! These people live in discusting conditions woiith this baby! I did not get a wink of sleep because I am thinking meth is made here. the upstairs apt smelled of cat pee and the restaurand had the smell of gas fumes which she says is not gas and that it was even checked by the gas company. what do you think? oh and the owner of the building called the realator the next day to see if we were interested. When she said no because the place needed to much work, the guys says” I will reduce the price 40k for repairs!!!!
The cost of remediating that property could be a lot more than $40,000! In fact, some homes are so contaminated by methlabs that the cheapest way out is to demolish them and rebuild. That property has too many red flags for me. If I were you, I wouldn’t walk away, I’d run!