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scryn

mystery sewer gas smell !

scryn
17 years ago

It is driving me crazy!

When I use the upstairs bathroom I will come downstairs and often smell sewer gas smell coming from the room below the bathroom.

Now, we replaced the ceiling in that room a year ago and I am 99.9% sure there are no leaks. Sometimes I smell the gas in the upstairs hallway also and it seems very "temperature" related. It happens more in the hot summer than the cool fall and winter. I sometimes will smell it in the hallway even if I didnt' use the bathroom and it seems to be an early morning thing or late evening thing.

Now, we have a c 1850 farmhouse. We just replaced the tub faucet so I know the piping runs through the inside wall and that the wall is not insulated. I was thinking that somehow the smell was in the attic and that when the hot water is on it heats up the air and starts to rise and the smelly air from the attic falls down to the first floor or the upstairs hallways. Of course this doesn't explain why the smell would be in the attic. We have one turn-style vent in the attic, and the occasional soffit vent but I suppose this isn't enough.

We do have a vent pipe that sticks up out of a roof extension so it is possible that the stink could be getting sucked into the roof soffit. It is really difficult to see this vent because of the location. My husband said he saw it when he was cleaning a gutter though and he couldn't reach it because of the location of it on the roof. However it IS NOT on the highest part of the roof.

But first of all, does my theory sound plausible or not? Anyone else have any ideas?? Does one vent produce THAT much stink??? We are hooked up to a city sewer system. I figure that vent works for the kitchen sink and upstairs bathroom and that it may be tied directly into the main sewer pipe, judging by the location. We have a second downstairs bathroom that has it's own vent.

thanks for you help!!!

-Renee

Comments (37)

  • lil_geek
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I complained about this for 3 weeks.... told DH we needed the septic pumped, turned out it was the major problem. Since you aren't on septic...not the issue.

    We still have 'stank'. Turns our our drainage pipes weren't done correctly and 2 of them leak,(sink and shower thankfully no the toilet)... i suspect they release just enough gas for me to notice some days. I would attempt to chekc your drian pipes if possible for any leaks.

  • scryn
    Original Author
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    No, I don't think that is it. our pipes run over the new ceiling and when we replaced the ceiling we didn't see any leaks and we don't see any stains on the new ceiling.

    -renee

  • housekeeping
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You might check to see that all your traps have water in them. In this heat, in rooms that are not used much it can evaporate allowing smell to percolate up.

    To fill all the traps just run a lot of water down them.

    Hope it's that easy to fix!

    (Is it getting any cooler, yet, where you are, I am 'way east of you and I'm waiting for good news ........!)

    Molly~

  • tryinbrian
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That's a tough one, alright, but I don't think a sewer vent that runs up throught the roof would be causing the problem. Those vents don't have to be at the peak to work properly.

    Sound more like an opening to the sewer system somewhere in the house. Dry traps are the most common example, but it could be a loose clean out plug somewhere, or just a loose pipe connection (wouldn't necessarily leak water). With an old house like that, maybe a drain/vent line in the wall has a loose connection.

    I don't know why this would only occur in hot weather though, except that high humidity seems to make everything more rancid smelling.

  • scryn
    Original Author
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It doesn't happen in humid weather all the time, mostly it seems to happen when we have hot days, cool nights or something like that which is why I have the attic theory. The attic air would cool down and fall if we have cooler nights.

    I have no idea how to get to any drain lines to check to see if the connection is loose. What is a clean out plug??

  • scryn
    Original Author
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh ya, If it were a leak in my tub drain and it doesn't leak water (I assume the tub because it happens when I use the shower and not when I use the toilet or sink) wouldn't it smell bad all the time in the house?? We smell it maybe 10% of the time and I use the shower everyday.
    I wonder if logging the temps of the days I smell it would be useful or just crazy???

    Oh, when the ceiling was down I still could smell it sometimes and I would look at the piping with a flashlight and touch areas to make sure it wasn't moist and still couldn't find anything, which is why I am thinking there isn't a leak there.

    This is so frusterating and embarrasing!
    What am I supposed to tell my friends??? I guess I could say my house is old and has gas???
    ha!

  • normel
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My guess is a loose vent connection. You smell it worse in hot weather because the rising heat is pulling the vapors up into the house. I'd look for a vent problem on a lower level.

  • tryinbrian
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Your comment about smelling it "when the ceiling was down" is another clue pointing to a disconnected vent line in that area. Sounds like perhaps the break in the system is behind the wall somewhere - maybe that keeps it from being noticed unless there is some kind of thermal air current to bring it into the living space.

    This is not really very helpful to you, of course, because you can't go tearing down plaster on the hunch of a broken vent pipe "somewhere". You're going to have to try and pinpoint it somehow, maybe by getting up in that "creepy" attic and let your nose lead you to where it seems to be coming from. Just keep in mind that a drain/vent system should be entirely air tight except where it leaves the house (roof vents and main drain) and where there is a water trap to seal it.

    I hate to say it, but it's possible somebody did some plumbing at one time by adding a drain for something (e.g. another sink) and for a vent just stuck a pipe up into the wall cavity or the attic (it's a lot of work to either properly connect it back into the existing vent or send a new vent through the roof). Such a shortcut might only create an issue in certain conditions, such as you describe.

    BTW, I wouldn't bother logging temperatures - your general description of the conditions should be enough.

  • scryn
    Original Author
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    tryinbrian,
    When the ceiling was down it only happened occasionally. I don't think it smelled more often.

    Hey, finding a vent stack leading to the attic wouldn't faze me at all. TRUST ME, we have seen way worse things.

    YOu never asked me why the ceiling was down, well we tore it down because someone nailed though the waste pipe from the sink while putting a subfloor down and fixed it with some epoxy and a paper towel. When my long hair plugged up the drain (uhm ooops) and my husband decided to plunge it (uuhm double oops) you can only guess what happened!!!

    So, I think we can deal with the vent stack if that is the problem. I just wish we knew where it is. Our attic is very old and the hole to get in it is VERY tiny. My husband can barely squeeze through and I would rather not squeeze through although I have a feeling it will be me.

    So, Where do vent pipes from bathrooms usually come from? Are they usually just attached to the sewer line?? I think the first thing we can do is check to see if the attic smells when the room smells. Then if it doens't I am not sure how to pinpoint the smell further and I can't really figure out why the bathroom never smells. The only thing I can think of is that the ceiling we put up isn't as "tight" as the older ceilings so it actually allows air in and out from the cavity above it. The attic access panel is not very secure either so I would think that is where the smell comes from in the hallway.

    If we do find a pipe, don't we just extend it out of the house??? We do have to think about getting a new roof soon so is it safe to leave it the way it is untill we do that. I guess it can't be any worse than it is now.

    -renee

  • tryinbrian
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Finding a vent pipe sticking up into the attic would actually have a relatively easy solution. It's called and air admittance valvle or something like that, and it's a relatively new code-approved way to avoid having to go through the roof. Basically, it's a one-way valve that lets air in as needed, but doesn't let sewer gas out. Of course, you could just extend the ventpipe up through the roof as well.

    If the vent was terminated in the wall, that would be more of a problem, of course, since you'd have to get access somehow. Although above mentioned valve is not code-approved for wall cavities, it would probably do the job there too as long as it got enough air.

    Back to your comment about the nail in the drain pipe: there is a good possibility THAT is where the smell is originating (if you didn't replace the pipe) As I mentioned earlier, the whole sytem has to be air tight, and if he put a hole in the top of the drain pipe it's not air tight. (Since the hole is on top, it would rarely or never leak water.) Better get some more epoxy and paper towels (or a new section of pipe) and see if that solves the problem.

    I think you are right about the fact that where it smells and where it doesn't is more a function of household air patterns rather than the precise location of the leak. You probably smell it most is places with air currents coming from the leak location.

  • scryn
    Original Author
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh no, we replaced the pipe so I know that isn't it. The pipe was actually cracked down to the bottom. So we cut that entire portion out and replaced it.

  • Rudebekia
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't suppose this will help, but I'll share my experience. I had a sewer smell upstairs (a finished attic space) and in the backyard for nine months. It was so bad I stopped inviting guests over and was really embarassed. It was much worse in hot and humid weather, although little whiffs of the smell were always around. I had my handyman and two plumbers out but they couldn't locate it (or even smell it to the degree I did), so I was at my wits end. We checked everything in the house, even dug around in the back yard to see if some old sewer pipe or septic system had emerged (we're on city water). One day the smell stopped. About the same time my neighbor, who I had asked about the smell but she said it wasn't appearing at her house, announced that her husband had finally finished his nine month bathroom remodeling project. To make a long story short, the neighbor had diverted his vent pipe during the remodel in some way so that it was venting toward my yard and house. None of us had connected the smell at my house with the bathroom remodel at the neighbor's. Mystery solved--but boy did it plague me during this time! I thought I'd have to move out of my house!

  • abnorm
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A plumber could conduct a SMOKE (or PEPPERMINT) test where smoke is introduced into the DWV system with a pump/fan and then observed.......

    Broken pipes......bad connections or dry traps will quickly emit smoke pointing the finger at the problem to be solved .....

    Here is a link that might be useful: Smoke Testing

  • greycat
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello , I stumbled on your post to this forum about your sewer gas smell. Did you ever solve it? Our smell started about 4 days ago and it is only in our bedroom. There is a vent pipe that goes up inside the wall between our bedroom and the bathroom. There is no smell in the bathroom. There is also a smell outside the house if the wind is right. We have smelled the smell outside in the past so that is really nothing different. We live in the country and have a holding tank but my husband checked that and it is OK. There is no smell in the basement and only a faint smell in the attic above the bathroom and bedroom. My husband has been crawling around in the attic and can't find anything broken or leaking. Short of cutting a hole in the wall in the bedroom we don't know what to do. We can see up through an opening in the basement ceiling where this pipe comes down and can't see any breaks in the pipe and cannot smell anything down there right next to the opening. Our house is a 24 year old ranch home and all the drains in the house are vented to the outside through the roof. Well anyway I was just wondering if you found a solution to your smell or know any tips or ideas that we can use to find the source of our smell? Thank you
    Karen

  • jersey_jamie
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Not sure if it's related at all, but we live in a 1911 house and when we moved we were replastering the walls and while we had them opened we decided to install central AC. Well a few years ago, in the summer only, we started smelling this awful smell that was similar to a horribly rotting potato. We tore the room apart, and kept investigating and investigating. At first we thought maybe an mouse had died in the walls or something, but it's lasted too long for that. It smells the worst after a long hot day when the AC runs a lot. We are pretty sure that the smell is coming from condensation getting trapped between the insulation and the AC duct in the ceiling. We think the insulation is getting wet and decomposing, causing the smell. Now that we are pretty sure we know what it is, my husband just has to fix it.

    Could that possibly be your smell?

  • bulldinkie
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maybe it wasnt installed or vented properly.

  • Sully6
    17 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wonder if you could have a crack in your vent stack.

    Check out the link below for one couple's quest to solve their sewer gas smell.

    Here is a link that might be useful: House in Progress: Of joists and pipes

  • gammalouie
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We are having a similar problem(1913 house) When use upstairs sink, smell comes from shower drain(bad!!)Running water in shower helps. We also experience a sewer like smell upstairs in our bedroom on occasion. Sometimes will go on for a few days.Then don't have it for a month or more.We also think it may have something to do with roof vent and air flow over the roof related to weather. Smell seems to come from attic but have had two plumbing companies crawl around and not find a thing. We have never been able to get them here when it is happening and can't seem to do anything to duplicate it for them.Don't know if the two curcumstances are related. It is embarrassing and frustrating. The worst is we have to live with it the guests can go home. We are now thinking of ripping out walls and replacing pipes but very expensive and what if it doesn't solve the problem.I thought this was unique to us but seems more common than I would have suspected. Since opening windows will help, is it just airing out or could there be a negative pressure in the house?!!

  • gammalouie
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sully, Checked out your suggested link. That's exactly what I'm afraid of. Also have that type of pipes in some of the house. Where do you look first? Is there any way to isolate where to start ripping out plaster because once we start, we may never finish. We are not handy or knowledgable so would have to hire someone to do the work so although I want it fixed, I am also not rich.

  • calliope
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    hmmmmmmmmm.......my daughter moved into a new home and she was having intermittent nasty smells in her bathroom and after all the piping and traps were checked, still having them. It was only obvious at certain times of the day or weather conditions and then it was severe. Other times, it was absent. A contractor friend figured it out. Seems when they built the house they vented the plumbing in the bathroom through the roof, but they stepped down the pipe size toward the hole where it exited the roof. Sometimes under certain temperatures or weather conditions, it caused the gases to in essence bottleneck and feed back down into the house.

  • texfixit_integrity_com
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    1)Check the drain pan under your refrigerator and under and behind the refrigerator for mold or a water leak. Even if it is not your problem, you will be grossed out by what you find. One of the worst smells a house can make is when stuff starts growing in the drain pan. Don't let it start.

    2) Intermittent bad smell is often mold growing hidden in the home someplace where it gets moisture to grow on, but not all the time. Mold can smell like sewer gas at times. All mold needs is a little moisture and BOOM!

    Leaks in plumbing or uninsulated pipes that sweat. Leaking sewer pipes. Leak in roof or attic. Plumbing vent pipes leak at roof line. Rain gutters allowing water to get into home and run down inside of walls and other areas. Gutter down spout system. Cracks in brick and mortar. Bad silicone around windows or doors. Indoor gas burning heater, stove or fireplace will produce a lot of moisture into the home (not an outdoor gas pack with a heat exchanger). Bathroom or kitchen vent not vented outside. Air conditioner drain pipe dripping inside home. Leaking water heater, ice maker, house plants, toilet floor mount. And many more...

    Any way mold can get moisture, it will grow there and it may be hidden. When ever conditions are right, mold spores do there thing. Bad for the health too.

  • reneep_peoples-ebank_com
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Could it be possible that you have too many drains on one vent to the outside? We too have the sewer gas smell. We run water in the traps, have the drains regularly cleaned and we maintain our home very well but cannot figure out this smell. I smell it in the bathroom tub drain, shower drain, and washing machine. (All in one location). I also smell it in the trap in the drain in the shower in the basement. However, not in any other drains in the house. Anymore have a suggestion?

  • renovator8
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The first thing to check is the vent pipe on the roof to see if it is clogged.

  • CeeJaa56
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am so thankful to have found this website and quite possibly the answer to the nasty sewer gas smell in my home. I've had it! I've been dealing with it since I moved in back in November 2001. But since the smell is not constant, I'd forget about it until next time then vow to do something about it. By the time I got around to it, the smell would subside. Now I've truly had enough. I'm ready to do whatever is necessary to get it fixed. I'm tired of having a stinky embarrassing smell in my house. I have had my local plumber out to deal with it. The first problem with him is he has no sense of smell. I guess it's a blessing in his line of work but it is not very helpful with finding my problem.

    He put traps into my bathroom sinks (they had the smell coming up through them) and also replaced a sewer line pipe in the basement ceiling that he said was the wrong size. It was filled with gunk. Ewww...nasty. After reading the posts on this wonderful forum, I believe I either have a cracked vent stack or a leaky pipe connection somewhere in the walls.

    I am on a septic system and even went so far as to have a NEW concrete holding tank installed and a new drain field put in. I'd hoped that would have solved the problem. NOT!!! So, should I start jack-hammering the walls to find a leaky pipe. Surely someone has some type of device that can sniff out where the smell is coming from without ripping out all the walls.

    Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you in advance. :)

  • sundahlia
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I completely hear you on the embarrassing part and not having friends over! Yes! We've had a lot of experience with sewer gas smells (one from a leaky toilet, one from a stopped-up drain, and one as of yet not solved) and I can tell you that they are located right where you smell them most intensely. You will know. It sounds like the original poster has an open pipe somewhere in the bedroom where the smell is. And the smells do tend to travel downward, not up. Could be an old vent line or other pipe. Are there any plumbing pipes in that bedroom?

  • brickeyee
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "Seems when they built the house they vented the plumbing in the bathroom through the roof, but they stepped down the pipe size toward the hole where it exited the roof. Sometimes under certain temperatures or weather conditions, it caused the gases to in essence bottleneck and feed back down into the house."

    That still does not make any sense.

    The DWV system is sealed off from the interior of the house by the traps.

  • thaeatons_att_net
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am having the SAME problem. We have lived in our two story house for 7 years & just recently started having this problem. The reason it just started is, my daughter & step-daughter just moved up stairs (ah the lovely teenage years are about to begin). Well, everytime they shower, BOOM, the smell covers the upstairs and back half of downstairs. We pouredDraino down the shower drain and it seemed to help for A day or two, but back came the smell. Ok, didn't get it completely unplugged we thought. So, 3 tries later (and three stink free days) and the smell is back. I am ready to sell the house & build a one story house! My wife says no. While I run things in my house (I run the vacuum, the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher a d whatever else I am told to run), selling and building is out of the question. Plummer just left one hundred dollars richer & he said he didn't have a clue what was causing the smell. I am hesitant to call another Plummer out to smell the funk, tell me he doesn't know how to stop it & charge me another C note. So, has anyone solved this mystery, or, should we all get together & start our own reality TV show?

  • sugarx2
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    FOLLOWUP! In July 2012- I had sewer gas leaking into my bedroom, bathroom, and then up to the upstairs level of the house for five months. It was awful. I have an 18 inch crawlspace and a raised floor. Under the house is dirt and the pipes. I had FOUR plumbers and TWO handymen check it out. They found NOTHING! They were too big to fit around the pipes!!! We had put in a new toilet, and I had that pulled up and put down again, just in case. but that was fine. We checked all the traps, and now keep them full of water, so they are fine. The plumbers gave me estimates of $4500 for a sewer cleanout installation in front of the house, and $6800 to repipe the bad pipes, if they found any.... I did not have the money, and they really had no plan, just guesses. Last August 2012, I luckily found a neighbor friend who was able to crawl around under the house. He was a little guy, and knew how to do plumbing and other repairs!! He found leaking and large cracks in the main drain sewer pipe at the ground level, around the back of the pipe, hidden from general view and he used epoxy to repair it. This pipe was attached to other pipes, and if it needs to be replaced it will be a difficult job. That pipe was directly below the downstairs bathroom. That reduced about 70 % of the smell and seems to be holding tight with no more leaking there. But sewer gases were still leaking from somewhere else, but not as bad, or as often. it still kept coming back about every three days.They centered in my bedroom, and seemed to come out of the floor. Oddly, from the beginning, the gases only happened around 1am until 5am, then stopped all day long, so no one could smell them, unless they stayed all night. From the first repair, the gasses only occurred about every three days or so, and not as severe, but still stinky. My friend came back into town in November, and went back under the house, and found stress marks on the larger pipe that attached to the MAIN drain sewer pipe, and ran towards the front of the house. This pipe traveled directly under my BED, and the cracks were basically under my pillow area. (What LUCK!) He had to replace that whole pipe, and to get it inside we opened the ground vents and slid it through, and the old pipe out. After he replaced that and all the fittings, the gases were gone! THANK YOU GOD!!! It cost me $800 just to investigate all this, and get nothing for the repairing of it from that! Plumbers were just ready to get paid, with no idea what was actually wrong!!! My friend only charged me $550 plus parts for this! I suffered through it for five months, and hope the sewer gases didn't harm me in any way! I sure appreciate the clean smell now!!! By the way, it was an acrid stinky burning smell. It did NOT smell like METHANE, or anything described as general sewage smells. It was just hard to breathe it, and would cause eyes, throat and nose to burn. I had a runny nose right up to the day the last pipe was replaced, and it all stopped. GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE STILL HAVING THIS PROBLEM. I learned far more about plumbing than I ever thought I would need to know!

  • anitamacey
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This post is very old but I hope someone gets some help from my solved situation.

    Moved from CA to northern WY. Had the CA plumber do the plumbing on the new WY house. All the vent pipes were sized for CA. In WY you need 3 inch vent pipes or in cold weather they frost and ice over and cause sewer gases to accumulate in your house.
    Also the septic installer didn't use the 90 degree elbow where the sewer line enters the septic tank. Then all sewer gases come right back though your drain pipes and into the house. The septic 90 elbow was a quick fix. The vent pipe enlargement was a little more involved.
    Maybe one of those my above senarios is you problem.
    A friend came over to our house and immediately had us open doors and windows. He said we had gotten used to the smell and it just might have killed us. He was on our roof immediately cleaning the ice and frost blockage out of our vents. He probably saved our life and improved our health.

  • mike13
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I realize this is a very old post but thought this was pertinent...

    We had what we thought was a real bad sewer smell that popped up a few days ago. I went under the house & checked the main drain line which everything pours into. It checked out fine so I'm thinking it has to be the vent stacks are clogged & the sewer smell is not rising thru the vents & is coming back thru possibly vent pipe joints that have gone bad but are below the roof & above any water levels as we don't have any water leaks. (BTW, we have water in all the traps so it wasn't coming from there & I checked all the toilet seals, etc).

    Turns out we had bird/birds in our chimney that had died just above our flue. The wind has been really high lately & the downdraft through our chimney was dispersing that smell into our house. I would have swore it was a sewer gas smell. Hope that helps.

  • maryinthefalls
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wet dirt can also smell like sewer gas. If you have bare dirt in your crawl space and it gets wet, then it will smell. Perhaps intermittent water or inadequate ventilation was responsible for some of the above problems. Installation of a vapor barrier and leaving the crawl space door open will help.

  • tim45z10
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I disconnected my bathroom sink for a month, while I remodeled. When I reconnected the sink a sewer smell emenated from the sink. I found it to be the overflow was the cause.

  • cadreamin2
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I live in a townhouse in california. Recently the weather changed to hot. I have this smell in the hall stairs. We put water in all drains, and closed this did not change anything. Only get smell when heat over 79 degrees outside. Yesterday, Iturned on air conditioner and smell stops.. Like it is cooling off something. lts only in hall going up the stairs...if it gets hotter it travels to only one upstairs bedroom, nothing in bathrooms, and drains did nit stink before this. Outside this wall are all the gas meters for all tenants. Three have been replaced in the last two months after l smelled gas outside my door. Gas company checked my house for gas, said the detected methane in upstairs bath at a # 5. SMELL GONE AT NIGHT until outside temps heat up. I can isolate the smell in stairwell and hall be shutting bedroom doors. Its awful. Any clues where to look? Plumber coming in morning when its cool to go in attic and check pipes. Prior to using air conditioner, l opened all windows and doors at night, let cool air in, smell gone in morning until the heat starts up again. Is this odor dangerous?

  • cadreamin2
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I live in a townhouse in california. Recently the weather changed to hot. I have this smell in the hall stairs. We put water in all drains, and closed this did not change anything. Only get smell when heat over 79 degrees outside. Yesterday, Iturned on air conditioner and smell stops.. Like it is cooling off something. lts only in hall going up the stairs...if it gets hotter it travels to only one upstairs bedroom, nothing in bathrooms, and drains did nit stink before this. Outside this wall are all the gas meters for all tenants. Three have been replaced in the last two months after l smelled gas outside my door. Gas company checked my house for gas, said the detected methane in upstairs bath at a # 5. SMELL GONE AT NIGHT until outside temps heat up. I can isolate the smell in stairwell and hall be shutting bedroom doors. Its awful. Any clues where to look? Plumber coming in morning when its cool to go in attic and check pipes. Prior to using air conditioner, l opened all windows and doors at night, let cool air in, smell gone in morning until the heat starts up again. Is this odor dangerous?

  • cadreamin2
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I live in a townhouse in california. Recently the weather changed to hot. I have this smell in the hall stairs. We put water in all drains, and closed this did not change anything. Only get smell when heat over 79 degrees outside. Yesterday, Iturned on air conditioner and smell stops.. Like it is cooling off something. lts only in hall going up the stairs...if it gets hotter it travels to only one upstairs bedroom, nothing in bathrooms, and drains did nit stink before this. Outside this wall are all the gas meters for all tenants. Three have been replaced in the last two months after l smelled gas outside my door. Gas company checked my house for gas, said the detected methane in upstairs bath at a # 5. Smell gone at night until outside temps heat up. I can isolate the smell in stairwell and hall be shutting bedroom doors. Its awful. Any clues where to look? Plumber coming in morning when its cool to go in attic and check pipes. Prior to using air conditioner, l opened all windows and doors at night, let cool air in, smell gone in morning until the heat starts up again. Is this odor dangerous?

  • jeanplough
    6 years ago

    I had sewer gas smell in my house. It was VERY bad in cold weather at night. The cause was roots growing in my outbound sewer line before the pipe meets the main sewer at the street. First plumber put camera down toilet pipe. He saw roots in the line. The plumber put the snake down the toilet and removed a lot of roots from the pipe going from the toilet to the street. The sewer gas smell is completely gone after that. Afterwards I put copper sulfate down the toilet to retard future root growth. You can buy copper sulfate at a hardware store. First the snake has to be put down the toilet to cut and remove roots that have gotten into the pipe.