New smell from outside vents

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75meters

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Hello All —
We've lived in this house for 3 years now with no issues. About a week or two ago, we've noticed a sewage smell coming from the back clean-out vents in the back yard.

You can tell that its gets worse on windy days as it wafts around the backyard. The main line dosent seem to be clogged. All of the plumbing inside the house is also fine. No backups, slow drainage, gurgling, etc.

I have 2 clean-outs in the back that lead down into the city sewage main line. Each clean out has a mushroom cap on the top. Can I use threaded caps? Or do these need to vent?

Any ideas on how to correct?

Thanks
Jason
 
Hey. No septic. Im thinking of putting a threaded cap on them... If I do that, would the smell come into the house? I guess its worth a try... Thanks
 
Just had this same issue come up here. Called the city and they rerouted some pump stations for a major construction project. Give the city a call and see if they’ll check it out. Our guys knew it was an issue. Solving it....different story. They put these huge, what looked like urinal cakes in the man hole to try to a leash minimize the smell. Capping your lines will just push the problem to the next person, if it’s the same issue.
 
If you cap the cleanouts then the gases may vent from your roof vents.
 
Just had this same issue come up here. Called the city and they rerouted some pump stations for a major construction project. Give the city a call and see if they’ll check it out. Our guys knew it was an issue. Solving it....different story. They put these huge, what looked like urinal cakes in the man hole to try to a leash minimize the smell. Capping your lines will just push the problem to the next person, if it’s the same issue.

Thanks — strange thing is that they JUST finished construction on a newer, larger pumping station down the street... Im guessing its not a coincidence. I called the city and the guy came out and said "...I didnt smell anything..." and told me to monitor it and call if its back... But its always there. — What did they do to correct it?

Im going to call the city again tomorrow.
 
It didn’t go away, they just tried to make it smell better. Carbon mushroom filters are what they suggest, at your cost. But ultimately, you’ll just be pushing the smells to the next guy. Isolate best you can and see how you can manipulate where the gases end up.
 
Perhaps installing an inline trap somewhere Downstream or Upstream will help stop the smell from escaping, unless they're already is an inline trap and you just need to renew the water as it's been so long that the gas has penetrated through the water as gas is lighter than air
 

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