You've just discovered your odour producing problem. You have WET concrete (very common with garage floors...which is why it takes extra effort to put flooring over them) with chemicals that continue to emulsify and then off-gas. It is probably a lung-busting toxic stew. I suggest you remove the tiles and dispose of them properly.

Would you say that the odor that is in the room could still be the carpet tiles even though the tiles themselves dont directly smell like the odor I’ve been smelling? Not to say the tiles smell good but different Than the chemically room odor.

Did you have odour in the garage BEFORE the tiles were put down? What else is in the garage? Is this a 'garage conversion'? There are sooo many different odour causing things in this world that it is hard to say what it is without removing EVERYTHING and letting the garage air out for a few weeks.

A garage is considered an 'outdoor space' and is there for built in a VERY different way from the interior of the house. The slab is NOT sealed from below. That's where the dampness is coming from. The concrete (which is a rigid sponge) is sitting DIRECTLY over top of the biggest source of water (aka. Mother Earth = islands floating in water). All that water is CONSTANTLY evaporating through the concrete. So long as the concrete remains uncovered (ahem...you've covered yours up) this isn't a problem.

As soon as the slab is covered, even with a low-grade breathable carpet (carpet tiles probably have a better construction than indoor-outdoor grass/carpet) there will be issues with mold and mildew forming on the underside of the product.

Was there ANY form of adhesive used to install the carpet tiles? Were they 'prebuttered' on the back? How are they 'fixed' in place? Adhesives add another layer of 'smell' (ie. chemicals in the air). So long as a chemical remains moist it has the chance to evaporate off chemicals.

Whew. And I haven't even gotten to the other stuff.

Well the tiles were put in the garage just a few days before I moved in (April). There wasn‘t any real crazy odor at first or at least as I could tell. These tiles seem to have the peel and stick adhesives but from pulling up just a couple of them is when I noticed the moisture. It’s just odd to me as I cant smell ”THE SMELL” when I put my nose up to those spots or tiles Although there is a bit of a funk there too.

the only other thing I could see contributing to the odor is I painted with an ultra low VOC paint a few months ago as well. The walls themselves dont have “THE SMELL” either though. I’m so confused!

The landlord had placed it in there as a “bonus room/office space” with a window AC etc. I was gonna use it to do some hobby type stuff in (art/music etc) but the stink has put the flame out on that idea for now.

Sigh...the landlord has used it to 'increase' the livable square footage. Which tells me s/he didn't do things properly. To convert a garage to an indoor living space there has to be PLENTY done to the space before it is 'livable'.

The slab has to be sealed and leveled. As I stated above, the slab is wicking moisture through at an ALARMING rate (gallons of water per DAY?). The air conditioning unit in the WINDOW tells me the landlord has NOT updated the HVAC system in there - which really needs to be done before it is a 'liveable' space. The air RETURN has to be incorporated into the space. The electrical needs updating. The insulation (ie. there should be SOMETHING behind the drywall) needs to be up to CODE (everything has to be up to CODE). The vapour barriers in the WALLS need to be up to code. The under eaves/roof barriers and insulation and fire retardant products need to be up to code...etc. Bringing a garage to code is worth TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars (if you are in an expensive area it can reach $80K without much effort).

Garage conversions are EXPENSIVE. They should cost MORE than a coat of paint, a window A/C box and some sticky carpet over wet concrete.

In Canada, we have rental laws that protect us from 'unlivable' conditions. Our tenancy laws say that if a SPACE or an APPLIANCE (which is specifically included in the rent) becomes unusable, the landlord MUST do 1 of 2 things:

1. Fix the problem so that it becomes usable within a reasonable amount of time (less than a few weeks). If the landlord does NOT get the 'fix' done inside that 'reasonable amount of time' then the landlord MUST do,

2. Reduce the rent accordingly until such time as the space/unit is fixed for the tenant to use once again.

Do you have photos of the space? We can have a look to see if ANYTHING was done properly (ie. to indoor living codes for houses). I doubt it, but it is worth a shot.

Find your rental agreement. If the space is mentioned in the square footage or listed as a 'bonus room' in anyway, you can force the landlord to get it up to code. If s/he refuses (assuming it is in the square footage) you can ask for a reduction in rent until it is made SAFELY available to use by you.

And to be clear, there could be some old 'exterior grade' stuff in that garage that should NEVER be used indoors (the VOCs become SOOOOO dangerous that it is unhealthy for a human/animal to occupy the space).

I bet the air quality in there is HORRIBLE....which is why the CODE requirements must be met before being listed as 'indoor space'.