So a few weeks ago I noticed a propane or natural gas like smell in my house. I called the home warranty company and they said I had to have the gas company locate the leak before they could fix it. I had the gas company out, they tested every joint and elbow and found no gas leaks. I then bought a CO/Gas/Propane detector and never got any gas readings at all. We talked to a guy that we know that does HVAC and he said it could be "sewer gas" coming up from the drains. Has anyone ever dealt with this? I bought a main line cleaner from home depot and dumped some down both drains (1 in the garage, one in the laundry room) the problem/smell started out only in the garage but now is coming up through the vents when the furnace kicks on, but I'd like other people's experiences or ideas. I bought another commercial grade main line cleaner but it's been too cold to put it through the pipes. I really don't wanna pay roto-rooter to snake my pipe, but if you guys think of anything else it could be let me know. I also have some old car batteries in the garage from when I bought it, I also was wondering if they could be venting somehow? Anyone offer more ideas please, it's getting worse by the day. Thanks

 

Do you have an drains that never get used? If the water in the trap evaporates then sewer gasses are free to come into the house.

My suggestion is to take a cup and pour water down every drain in your house, particularly the drains that you do not use very often. Before my son was born I had to run the tub in the 2nd bathroom about once a year to keep the trap filled. Now we use it to bathe him, so no more problems.

CanopyFlyer

 

Is there a dead animal in or near your fresh air intake for the furnace?

 

toss the old battery's, run hot water for 5 mins then pour the main drain cleaner.

We had a smiler sitiuation but it was more of rotten food smell.

 

+1. Those little bastards smell bad. Depending on what it is, it may decompose in a week or two and smell goes away.

Is your heater starting when it should or does it seem like you are getting a late start? That can be dangerous. When I was growing up we had weak gas pressure and the gas would build up in the chamber before it would ignite. It made a nice boom. Luckily the house didn't blow up. A church in the neighborhood did blow its roof off because of the same problem.

 

+1

I had to do this in floor drains in my last house.

 

I'm leaning toward the drain/trap. The issue started in the garage, which I also noticed is a slow moving/draining drain. However both the drains had water in the "trap" so I'm not sure if that's the issue. Like I said I have a drano like sewer line cleaner but it's been too cold to put it in my sewer pipes. How do I dispose of old car batteries?

 

take it to any car parts store they should accept it some even pay you 5-15 bucks for old battery's.

 

Isnt the smell of ass and natural gas distinctfully different?

 

yep

 

Bingo. Most likely this is what it is. Gotta keep those traps filled. You don't even need a cup, just run the taps on every sink, tub, and shower in the house.

 

The traps are full, I tried flushing water into the slow moving drain in the garage, and it wouldn't go down at all, stuck a long screw driver in, and it was all clogged with mud and god knows what from the last owner of the house, I'm hoping that's my problem

And the smell started off smelling like natural gas, has gotten more offensive in the last week or 2, I had a sewage backup at my last rental and a septic tank at my place b4 that, so I know what smells like, however reading about sewer gases this is what it sounds like

 

Smell keeps getting worse, I noticed that it started coming out of both drains and the shower drain, so we have a plumber coming over to snake out the lines tomorrow, hope that fixes it.

 

Im wondering if a vent pipe is clogged?

 

The ones on the roof? if that's what you mean, that's the way I'm leaning too

 

Yes. the plumbing should all connect to 1 or more of the vents. Im wondering if one is plugged causing the gases to back up thru the next available place, toilets drains etc..

 

But that wouldn't slow his drains down.

Any updates?

 

One or more of your drains would be extremely slow or the toilets wouldn't flush if it was a blocked vent pipe. Not to mention the traps are still between the inside of the house and those vents. So even if one was blocked as long as the traps had water you would not get sewer gases inside the house.

 

We had this issue at our cottage. Every thing worked just fine but the gases (though we were on a septic) backed up into the house. Turned out squirrels plugged it up with acorns and leaves.

 

HELP

I Have this too! In my home with our two year old.
Are there any professionals that are certified in inspecting and cleaning vent pipes?

All our traps are fine but the basement stinks and it invades the upstairs at times. Its doing so as I type rather severely actually.

We just had our septic pumped and cleaned, and that guy couldn't locate the problem either.

We have to do something i need help.
I'm considering contacting the EPA.

 

What is the EPA going to do about your house smelling funny?

 

Jwpb contact a plumber if you can't find the source of the smell yourself.

Did you check the floor drain in the basement? Try pouring a couple cups of water down it, then air out the basement as best you can (if there are any windows that open etc.)

 

obviously the epa isn't going to do anything!
But they might be able to tell me who could. There's a local office I'm going to try.
The devote alot of time to managing sewer gas maybe they can help me figure out how to test it.

The "traps" are all full, myself and the septic guy looked around at them.


I don't really trust any old plummer, i think i'd be inviting him to take me for a ride!
Do you think anybody is actually equiped for this sort of thing? .. gas leaks
Is roto router? ...I guess I'm going to find out

 

This could be caused by many things. Calling a plumber was a wise choice.

Now, I had this issue in one of my bathrooms. It was the toilet wax seal that was bad. The toilet didn't leak, or if it did it was so minor it went unnoticed. Replaced the wax seal and the smell was gone.

 

 

Ummm why is this in here

 

Well did you fix the issue? What was it?

 

Wtf? Lol

 

It ended up being a gas leak, at the elbow underground where the pipe turns to come up to the meter. I forgot all about this thread.

Got red tagged and had to pay a plumber to dig the frozen ground on the coldest day of the year and run a new plastic pipe through the old rusted metal one... good times

 

going into the meter? That's the utility's responsibility, no? Is by me.

 

Nope, anything from the street onto my property is my responsibility. The gas company shut me off and I had to call a plumber to come fix it.

 

in NJ? you are responsible for the gas line from street to the house... same with the water...

power is slightly different... for above ground, you are responsible for where the wire hits your house... not sure how it works if the power is underground...

 

never heard of such a thing... hrmf... PS just replaced the line going to the meter a couple years ago besides...

 

A victim of 'infinite scroll'. Though he was posting in an original thread, but as really in a 'related' or 'recommended' infinite scroll thread.

 

 

I started this discussion, and I am not a nuclear physicist or a rocket scientist or anything else some of you other people are. I do not care if the car idles "rich" or "lean" or in between. My question again is........on a tank of gas, how much is being typically saved when using the auto idle stop feature? Is it 8 oz? If it is 8 oz, this is the equivalent of about 22 cents per tank? If so, is that really worth having slower starts (once the auto idle stop feature has turned off the car)? And is really worth taking a chance on wearing out some components of the car prematurely, leading to costly repairs?

 

Glad we got resolution to this 10 years later. Finally some good comes from AZ's "here's a random old thread that we are going to sneak your reply into" feature.

 

Holy crap this was 10 years ago

 

It is the damn similiar thread shit at the bottom of continuous scroll.