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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Help! My House Smells Like...
sh!t!  I am at a loss. It smells near the vents. We have forced hot air. It literally smells like sewage near two of the vents (two different rooms/parts of the house).
DH and I seriously thought one of the kids had a dirty diaper.
We called our heating company, 3 plumbers and a cesspool company... Apparently none of whom "deal with that".
I want to cry. The cesspool is fine, plumbers say since it's coming from the vents call a heating co., but heating co says call a plumber One company even told me to call an electrician
The first plumber (guy who has done work at our house) did agree it was a plumbing issue, definitely cesspool smell (not an animal or something in ducts), thought it may be a hole in pipe somewhere, making smell from cesspool back up, getting into ducts, vents....
Ahhhh. I want to sell my house. Not that anyone would buy it with an issue like that.
Oh the cesspool guy agreed it probably is an issue with pipes, but problem is finding it. First plumber said that was the issue too. There are companies that " smoke out the pipes" to find the hole, but they don't know any.
Who do I call next?!
I would greatly appreciate any help
UPDATE: I had A1 (plumbing) check it out and they were not able to find the cause, BUT they think it MIGHT be that the waste line from the kitchen sink is broken or rotted, OR that a vent was left exposed when my kitchen was redone.
The waste line runs under the concrete slab, so their suggestion was to bring in a "floor guy" to open the floor.... just to see if there is water under the boards.
We installed wood flooring last year, which is on top of plywood, on top of the concrete... oh and the cabinets sit on top of the wood and waste line.... we also have stone counter tops, which would need to be broken first
all just to see IF it is the waste line....
Did I mention that we just finished the kitchen last year?
There has to be another option. Why would anyone own a house?
Message edited 1/30/2013 10:44:29 AM.
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Posted 1/21/13 3:42 PM  |
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itsbabytime
LIF Adult
Member since 11/05 9644 total posts
Name:
Me
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Hi - not sure if this is going to help but - here goes - I find that with forced air with returns in each room the smells circulate through the ducts SO your problem might not be in a duct or a pipe it may just be in one spot at one point in the day and it is being spread throughout the house. Since you have forced air also - where is the furnace? Is it in the unfinished part of your basement? If so, any smells in that room will also be circulated through the ducts throughout the house. We had a similar issue where at night we would smell a weird smell. We realized that it was an issue with our dry well - it would occasionally back up into our laundry room sink because it was full - this is separate from the cesspools which we had pumped when we moved in. Anyway the water that backed up would smell not so good like sewage and it would circulate throughout the house when this happened. Also, sometimes in the damper months if we don't run the humidifier in the unfinished part of the basement that smell circulates as well. My point is - when you smell it - I would immediately go room to room and ESPECIALLY check out the basement to see if anything is backing up. It was a mystery to us for a LONG time because the water would drain before we saw it in the sink...hope this helps!!!!
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| Posted 1/21/13 4:57 PM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Thanks for the help! We have checked the basement, including the furnace room, but not sure if it was during. I will definitely check the basement when it happens. We (and the plumber) thought at first that it was from not using our basement bathroom. When he checked it, it was actually dry, so the trap had no water and thought the smell was backing up and like you said, being suck into the return, blowing around the house, but now that we make sure to run the water, flush toilet, it still happens.
Cesspool guy said no signs of back up etc. no problem with dry well.
Funny, when trying to explain it to plumbers on the phone, they tell me to calla duct company (who is coming next), because they don't understand how, if it's the pies, it would be coming from the vents.
You are right, it does come and go, sometimes it's very strong, sometimes I don't smell it at all.
So the duct people are coming next, they actually said they will check the ducts and unit. After that I will have to find another plumber who is familiar with Plumbing And heating.
Crazy, I thought many plumbing companies were both, but am finding so far the plumbers don't deal with heating.
Or maybe a plumbing company that does plumbing, sewer, etc.
Thanks again!
Message edited 1/21/2013 6:11:56 PM.
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| Posted 1/21/13 5:56 PM |
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Justcantbe
LIF Infant
Member since 6/12 163 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
A1 sewer/ plumbing
They are awesome and reasonably priced.
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| Posted 1/21/13 8:16 PM |
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Goobster
:)
Member since 5/07 27557 total posts
Name:
:)
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Do you have gas heat? Gas leak can smell I have heard.
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| Posted 1/21/13 9:24 PM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Bump for update in original post.
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| Posted 1/30/13 10:11 AM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Thanks, we had them check it out.
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| Posted 1/30/13 10:11 AM |
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GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!
Member since 11/06 26792 total posts
Name:
Shawn
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Posted by Goobster
Do you have gas heat? Gas leak can smell I have heard.
Natural gas has a very distinct rotton egg/sulfur smell added to the gas. I would *hope* that any licensed plumber would know the difference between sewer smells and natural gas smells. They are very different smells.
Today is relatively warm. Can you turn off the heat today, and just smell the kitchen throughout the day? If the leak is under the kitchen, you should be able to smell it pretty well. If not, I would say it's probably not a leak under the kitchen. Also, a leak under the kitchen would most likely be more consistent.
Do you have any vents or heating ducts under the floor, or are they in the ceiling in your kitchen? If you have ceiling ducts in the kitchen, that would also make an underfloor leak less likely, since the ducts wouldn't be able to pick up the smell easily.
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| Posted 1/30/13 11:01 AM |
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cityandbeachmom
Vineyard hopping time
Member since 6/10 1821 total posts
Name:
Suffer the pain of discipline,
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Check behind your fridge or between where the fridge meets your counter. Once I dropped a raw chicken breat by accident, never knew and it smelled like death!
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| Posted 1/30/13 3:42 PM |
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Faithx2
All good things in 2016!!
Member since 8/05 20181 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
I was going to mention the waste line. It might not be vented properly...
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| Posted 1/30/13 5:36 PM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Posted by Faithx2
I was going to mention the waste line. It might not be vented properly...
Yes this is one of the theories. Now how to test it without ripping my house apart.
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| Posted 1/31/13 1:12 PM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Posted by GoldenRod
Posted by Goobster
Do you have gas heat? Gas leak can smell I have heard.
Natural gas has a very distinct rotton egg/sulfur smell added to the gas. I would *hope* that any licensed plumber would know the difference between sewer smells and natural gas smells. They are very different smells.
Today is relatively warm. Can you turn off the heat today, and just smell the kitchen throughout the day? If the leak is under the kitchen, you should be able to smell it pretty well. If not, I would say it's probably not a leak under the kitchen. Also, a leak under the kitchen would most likely be more consistent.
Do you have any vents or heating ducts under the floor, or are they in the ceiling in your kitchen? If you have ceiling ducts in the kitchen, that would also make an underfloor leak less likely, since the ducts wouldn't be able to pick up the smell easily.
Ducts are in the floor and the worst smell is by the duct that runs along the kitchen sink wall.
You are right though, heat has not been running much the past two days and the smell has not been strong, actually I don't smell it today.
And yes, the plumbers agreed it was not sulfur/gas
Message edited 1/31/2013 1:15:00 PM.
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| Posted 1/31/13 1:14 PM |
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CrankyPants
I'm cranky
Member since 7/06 18178 total posts
Name:
Mama Cranky
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
We thought we had a leak under the slab as well-it didn't smell but there was something going on with our water meter that indicated we had a leak somewhere. We had plumbers out to check but they could find nothing and suggested that it might be under the slab.
They need special equipment to find a leak in the slab, it's a sonar of some sort and it's very expensive so not a lot of plumbers have it. Cost us $350 to have someone check it out. I would give you the name of our guy but it won't help since we are out of state. I would call some plumbers and ask if they have this equipment.
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| Posted 1/31/13 4:14 PM |
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Danamz
LIF Adult
Member since 6/06 1978 total posts
Name:
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Re: Help! My House Smells Like...
Posted by CrankyPants
We thought we had a leak under the slab as well-it didn't smell but there was something going on with our water meter that indicated we had a leak somewhere. We had plumbers out to check but they could find nothing and suggested that it might be under the slab.
They need special equipment to find a leak in the slab, it's a sonar of some sort and it's very expensive so not a lot of plumbers have it. Cost us $350 to have someone check it out. I would give you the name of our guy but it won't help since we are out of state. I would call some plumbers and ask if they have this equipment.
Thanks! You are right! I definitely need to call another plumber, with better equipment.
One plumber recommended an environmental specialist who can try to find a hole by running hot water and using an infrared device to find a hole in a pipe ... sounds like hocus pocus to me, not sure how it would find something through the slab, but they supposedly have high tech stuff..
May be worth a shot (depending on the cost) before ripping up the floor and cabinets we just installed a year ago
Message edited 2/1/2013 2:04:39 PM.
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| Posted 2/1/13 2:03 PM |
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