Possible smell of sewerage inside the house

J

jessie175

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We have just recently noticed an occasional smell of something bad like sewage inside the house, which is disturbing. House was completly rennovated last year.

It started just after we had an blocked sewage pipe out the back of the house which we cleared using sewer rods. The sewerage pipe goes from the back of the house under the hallway and out to the front where it meets the main pipe servicing our row of houses, only a few feet from our front door. Another sewer pipe from upstairs meets this main pipe somewhere under the hallway, as far as we remember.

The house was built in the late 1800's, so under the floorboards is about 2 feet of air and then soil, no foundations. Any investigation will probably involve pulling up floorboards etc.

I am reluctant to call our original plumber as we have had a number of problems with the plumbing since he finished. Who would be the best person to call: another plumber, someone who specialises in drainage, a builder?

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Could it just be a dead mouse under the floor boards though?

Where is the smell - is it confined to a particular area?
 
Get hold of a good reputable builder, who will be able to take a look and trace back through drainage if necessary. If you have a timber suspended ground floor maybe under your stairs there is a "trap door" that he may be able to get under floor. If this only started since the extension work was carried out more that likey problem is out there. I would be reluctant to bring back the tradesmen you have had to date, if you are not happy with them!
 
If you smell sewage the pipe could be broken outside your house. Speaking from experience, albeit in a more modern house, if you have used rods and you still have a problem then it could be the above. Try phoning your local county council (we did), tell them you have tried clearing it and suspect that the problem might be in the council pipe. They will come out to check and diagnose the problem for free. If the pipe needs replacing, you will have to pay for it or if it is a shared pipe with other houses you will all have to contribute.
 
Thanks for your replies

Caveat: Pretty sure it's sewage but can't rule dead mouse out! Smell is only in the hallway, where the pipe runs underneath. But the smell can be at either end of hallway on different days.

Eng_car_1: No trap doors I am afraid so it will involve taking up wooden floors, plywood, insulation etc. No building work was done only rennovations but new sewrage pipes were laid.

Ophelia: We called local council but they will only look at pipe work on the road. They will not even look at the sewage connection from our house to the shared pipe that serves our row of houses as the connection is on our property (manhole on our pathway to front door), we will have to get it looked at privately and pay ourselves.
 
Hi,

Check all toilet connectors, the white plastic fitting at the back with the black rubber inset, these often leave out smells.

Ensure your vent pipe is un-obstructed.

You could get a cctv survey done on line, Dyno rod and other similar companies offer service. Ring around for price.
 
DavyJones said:
Hi,
Check all toilet connectors, the white plastic fitting at the back with the black rubber inset, these often leave out smells.
Click to expand...

Yes!

Meant to mention this. This is exactly what happened to us - in fact I think I even had a thread about it. Smell gone about €10 and 10 minutes later in our case.
 
We had the same problem on windy days - the problem was the U bend on the shower drying out. The bathroom was not used regularly.....so when the wind blew from a certain direction it blew down the wastepipe outside the house.
It was a bit confusing because the smell was downstairs. But this was to do with the "problem" air being heavier....so all we do now is run the shower for a few minutes. I also lowered the cowl to below the gutter so it does not happen as frequently.

-pm
 
Caveat said:
Yes!

Meant to mention this. This is exactly what happened to us - in fact I think I even had a thread about it. Smell gone about €10 and 10 minutes later in our case.
Click to expand...

Hi Caveat,

I cannot locate the thread you refer to. Can you please elaborate on the €10 cost in 10 minutes please? I am having a similar problem (bad smell) that only seems to occur when the washing machine or dishwasher is turned on.
 
Here you go Gebbel.

May not be your problem of course but worth looking at.

The fitting in the pic in the link was only something like €10 - a 'handy' mate fitted it in 10 minutes - good luck!
 
gebbel said:
I am having a similar problem 9bad smell) that only seems to occur when the washing machine or dishwasher is turned on.
Click to expand...

From the sound of it though, you might have a different problem than we had - ours was not related to any other appliances at all.
 
Check the outlet from the dishwasher - it probably sits into a white wavin / waste pipe under the sink. You may need to pad around this pipe so that odours from outside are not entering via this pipe.

Also check for any waste outside where is exits the house - might be some waster build up on the trap that is adding to the odours.

-pm
 
you say the house was renovated last year, dontknow if there was any plumbing done, sometimes plumbers link waste pipes together, when you empty the bath some water bubbles up in the shower, you hear funny noises in sinks or showers, etc but worst of all this can cause a suction effect which can suck the water out of one or more of your traps thus allowing fowl odours, as a tester try keeping all traps topped up with water, the €10 euro fitting behind the toilet is called a multiwick check it out fully as they can often not leak water but will leak air.
 
I had a similar problem some years ago and discovered the solution by accident. I was having an upstairs bathroom revamped when it was found that a sewage down pipe from the upstairs toilet located in a cavity wall had been perforated. This happened about 10 years previous when I was having an extra radiator fitted. The plumber drilled through the cavity wall to the next room and pushed the copper radiator piping through to the next room. Unknown to anybody, the copper pipe was pushed through the sewage pipe and every time the upstairs toilet was flushed a small seapage occured. Fancy trying to detect that one.
 
Thanks for your replies.

The smell in the hallway is not near any bathroom, sinks or dishwashers though. Could it still be a problem with bathroom or appliance fittings?

Mullking, We've been thinking it cold be something like that i.e. a leak somewhere. Did this cause an occasional odour or a smell present all the time?
 
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