Sewer odor

[Yuck]

I was directed to this forum by some people on the plumbing forum. So here goes..... We're having a problem with intermittant sewer odor in our home. It usually happens after we've used large amounts of water, such as showering and laundry. It doesn't start right away, but several minutes after we've used the large amounts of water. (Maybe when the gas water heater kicks on?) The smell is in the basement, and when the furnace runs, it quickly spreads the odor all over the whole house!
We already have made sure that all traps in the house are full, run water in them all of the time, we checked out the basement floor drain, which can't be the issue, because it doesn't drain into the septic system. All sinks, toilets, showers are draining fine.
We just wanted to see if this is something that we can rectify ourselves before calling in a plumber. Our well pump was replaced about a year ago, maybe a year and a half. Also we got a new pressure tank. The odor just started several months ago. Seems to be worse when it's cold outside here in Michigan. Cold meaning in the 30's or less. I did notice one day, as I was getting some water from the faucet that looks like one of those old farm pump things, that comes up directly from the well, that the water smelled similar to our sewer odor in the house. But being windy, the smell wafted away before I could get a really good whiff of it.
By the process of elimination, we're next going to try finding all of the connections in the drain lines in the basement and use some plumber's putty around all of them. After that, I suppose we'll have to call someone to go up on the roof and either do a smoke test and/or run something down the vent stack to see if there's a partial blockage or something. We have no tall trees, so don't think leaves are down there, but could be a yellowjacket's nest, a bird, something......
So could this actually be a water issue, not a plumbing issue? I had our water heater set at 120 degrees, but recently turned it up to about 140, thinking that perhaps some bacteria are in the water heater. If this were a water issue, why would the basement smell?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Yuck]

I see that people have viewed my post, but nobody has come to the rescue yet..... Any advice on well/water problems that could cause a sewer odor in my house?
Today there was NO odor at all! Two things were done differently than normal. One was that the water had gone hard and we didn't know it. So when we took showers today in hard water, *not good*, there was no odor at all. The other thing was that we switched over to using a corn stove for heat, so the furnace didn't run at all today.
Maybe it's the soft water/water heater issue. Or maybe our furnace is doing something wierd.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

It sounds like you may have a break somewhere and the furnace blower is sucking fumes into your house. It is also possible that there is something in the ductwork - a dead mouse, chipmonk, etc that only smells when the fan is on moving air around.

 

[Yuck]

Do you mean a break in a drain pipe or in the vent? I was wondering that too. If it's in a drain pipe it could be easy to fix - of course if the break is in the basement. If not.... oh no....start tearing out walls?

 

[Sweetfilter]

Odor Coming from Vent Pipe

Your comments on the odor being stronger on cold mornings/evenings and the "wind blew the odor away" suggest that your rooftop vent pipe, also known as a "stink pipe," may be the culprit. Try filling all your tubs, sinks, etc. with water. Then drain them all quickly at the same time (also flush the toilets) and go outside and see if the odor gets stronger.

If the odor gets stronger than a rooftop ventpipefilter.com can help eliminate the odor. Most suppliers like Sweetfilter(tm) offer a 90 day no odor warranty or your money back so there is little risk involved.

 

[Sammyhydro11]

Is it a sewer odor or does it smell like rotten eggs? I have heard of people having problems with methane in their wells. I would post this topic on www.waternet.com. There are alot of experst there that could help you on this topic. I don't know much about it so i have little to no comment.

SAM

 

[Gary Slusser]

Methane is a clear, odorless and tasteless gas, so it's more likely the odor is H2S (sulfur).

Since the odor is more noticeable after heavy water use, you may have a sewer line break/leak, septic or cesspool or other source(s) of sewage under the basement floor. The floor drain trap may be out of water unless you've added water lately.

To see if the odor is in your well water, spray water into a bucket with your nose on the rim smelling for the odor. The best place to do this is at the pressure tank boiler drain valve. If you don't smell the odor there, spray water into a bucket in a bathtub as you smell the air exiting the bucket. If you smell the odor there, sanitize the softener by adding a 1/4 cup non-scented household bleach in a gallon of water poured into the water in the salt tank and do a manual regeneration. After the regeneration run 10-15 gallons of water and repeat the odor test at the tub. If present, repeat the sanitizing of the softener with only 1/4 cup of bleach in gallon of water. Tom much chlorine kills resin. Repeat smell test, if present replace the resin in the softener after sanitizing and rinsing the empty tank.

 

[Randyj]

I ran into a similar problem. Found that there was a hole in the cleanout plug which was at ground level. Another time I found a vent pipe had been knocked out of its connection about 2 ft off the ground. Another time I found sewerage surfacing in the yard above the septic tank. Just goes to show you... it's always something......

 

[morianna]

Hi, I have been hunting an odour for a long while. Like you it occurs when there is a combination of a fair amount of water going out to the system and the furnace is on. It is worse in the winter and on windless days although I live on a hill and there is usually a wind here. I had a smoke test done last summer and it was inconclusive. I was getting by by making sure the furnace was never on until I was finished showering and/or washing clothes. I would wait 15 min or so. Then if I let the furnace come on there would be minimal to no odour. Often though I would forget. I got so sick of doing this I again called the plumber and we spent three hours creating the odour by going through the various actions. He was stumped . Previously we had heightened the "stink pipe" and increased its size. This seemed to help only marginally.

So this week he covered the pipe in question ( I have a second pipe at the other end of the house, that was left open). The thought was that due to the placement of the pipe the odour was sucked back into the house as soon as the furnace came on.) I am cautiously optimistic that we have found the problem. This morning I showered, did laundry etc , let the furnace come on and I can't believe it but there is no odour. I have been living with this fo rso many years. I will wait a few more days and keep testing the system before I say it is solved.

The plumber (and this time I got the more experienced person) said that the pipe is in the wrong place and that it should have been put on the highest roof. Mine has a couple of levels. The pipe is on the lower roof although we did extend it quite high but in order to make it high enough to go above the high roof it would look pretty ugly. The pipe is above a small deck and a side entrance to the house ... a bad idea. The plumber says he would never chose to put the pipe near a deck or entrance. So if we have solved the problem I will be having the pipe moved.

Good luck and I will come back and update if the problem is solved.

I just realized how old the post is ... oh well this may help someone else.

 

[SewerRatz]

I had a home owner call me recently that has been dealing with an odor in their 1 1/2 year old home. They too noticed it strongest when the heat was on. I went around the basement checking all the traps and piping, and did not find any source for the odor near the furnace. I explained to the home owners I can get some peppermint oil and pour it down the vent pipe on the roof and that will help us pinpoint the source of odors. We all went outside so I can show them the vent pipe I was talking about, but to all our surprise there was none. So we proceeded to his master bedroom which is on the top 3rd floor. He opened up his closet and removed an access panel and let me have a look in the attic. Sure enough I had found the vent pipe it stopped 2 feet from the roof. So the vent pipe had been venting into the attic all this time, and when he furnace turned out it just moved the smell around the house.

 

[NHmaster3015]

If the house has forced hot air heat and is a tight structure, it is possible for negative pressure to occur when the fan run thus pulling odors from any opening that it can find.

 

[Ichabod]

Sewer smell

We had a sewer smell in our master bedroom that I could not pinpoint. While doing a bathroom do over I had to pull the toilet. Lo and behold the part of the toilet that goes into the wax ring had a casting defect that left a hole that did not get sealed by the wax ring. When I replaced it I put a big chunk of wax in the hole and the smell went away. A defective wax ring could be your problem.

HTH,
Ichabod