New Apartment Walls Emit Strong Odor... Ceiling Removed to Reveal Bag Containing 'Inbun'

Construction Company: "Inadequate Worker Management... We Are Sorry"
Rejects Residents' Request for 'Professional Pest Removal Service'

Feces found on the ceiling of Mr. C's dressing room (red circle). Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jeong-wan] Recently, complaints have been raised about a severe foul odor of unknown origin coming from the walls of a newly built apartment complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where residents have just started moving in. When a construction company official visited to investigate the cause and tore down the ceiling of a dressing room, plastic bags filled with human feces were discovered.

According to Yonhap News on the 19th, three plastic bags containing human feces were found in the ceiling of resident A’s dressing room in the newly built apartment complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where residents recently began moving in.

As the weather warmed and the odor worsened, A posted related messages twice last month on the residents’ internet cafe and filed a defect report with the construction company B on the 29th of the same month.

On the 2nd, a construction company official visited A’s home and inspected various parts of the house, including the plumbing, floor, walls, and ceiling. During the inspection, three plastic bags were found in the dressing room ceiling. The bags contained human feces.

Plastic bags containing human feces were also found in the ceiling of A’s next-door neighbor’s home.

Resident C, who lives next door and saw A’s post on the residents’ cafe, also detected a foul odor in the dressing room on the 8th and found one plastic bag containing human feces in the ceiling while investigating.

Officials from construction company B believe it is highly likely that workers hid the feces during the apartment’s interior finishing work.

Master bedroom of Mr. A with ceiling gypsum board and wall wallpaper removed. Photo by Yonhap News

A said, "It has already been 17 days since the feces bags were discovered, but the construction company is calling the deodorization work spraying disinfectant and liquid detergent after tearing down the wallpaper and ceiling." He added, "This detergent is a mildly alkaline cleaner for bathrooms or floors diluted with water, but no matter how the construction company applied it, the smell is still strong enough to give me headaches."

The construction company stated, "We apologize for the suffering caused to residents due to inadequate management of workers," but also said, "The professional deodorization work requested by the residents during the compensation process is too costly to accommodate." They added, "We plan to sincerely negotiate and compensate the residents’ damages as much as possible."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.