Brichards
Member
Good afternoon,
I posted this in general versus septic because I have no idea what the root cause of a sewer/septic smell is in my house.
Here's the explanation...
Moved into a 10-year old house about a year ago (unknown how long it sat vacant, believe about 4-6months).
- Septic System
- Water Softener
- Well Water (with pump and pre-pressure tank)
- Propane heat.
Shortly after moving in, noticed a strong septic/sewer smell in the basement. Couldn't trace it to the root, and it does not smell like it is coming from any drain.
After a while it starts to make it's way to the main floor of the house. Faster now that its winter, presumably because I am running the furnace?
Here's what I have tried to get rid of it, or related changes.
- First though it might be a propane leak because the smell is kinda eggy. Had gas company out, they found no leaks.
- Ensured all drain traps had water, and do so consistently.
- Basement has open drainage pipes that go to an empty pump-crock. Basically for the addition of a bathroom. It doesn't feed into the existing system, but I capped the open drain pipes and sealed the crock anyway.
- Had Septic tank pumped.
- Ran Bio-Clean and a bunch of other septic products.
- Snaked all of the drains and the septic vents (put the caps on the vents that keep leaves and animals from clogging them). None were clogged.
- Cleaned water softener components and ran cleaner through it.
- Replaced groundwater pump when it went bad.
- Replaced water heater anode rod (it was all used up).
- Replaced Furnace humidifier.
- Replaced pre-pressure tank.
- Had smoke test completed on the entire system. No leaks, vent stacks were clear.
- Found a nest of deceased mice in my furnace, on the burners, this year as I was inspecting before winter use. They had crawled in through the exhaust vent. Put metal grid over the vent outside to keep animals out.
So at this point I am totally lost, and not sure what to do. When I have the local plumbing company out, it costs hundreds of dollars, and I have yet to get a solution.
I have combed many forums about septic/sewer smell and not found anything that I haven't tried.
Here are the hints I have.
- Seems to be worse in cold weather.
- Vent stacks outside seem to omit a lot of septic gas. More than I would expect.
- There aren't any water usage patterns that seem to cause it to happen.
- Only myself and one other person live in the house.
- If I keep a window in the basement opened about 3 inches, it keeps the smell at bay. If I close the window completely, the smell starts to come back within minutes.
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my issue.
Happy Holidays!
Blake
I posted this in general versus septic because I have no idea what the root cause of a sewer/septic smell is in my house.
Here's the explanation...
Moved into a 10-year old house about a year ago (unknown how long it sat vacant, believe about 4-6months).
- Septic System
- Water Softener
- Well Water (with pump and pre-pressure tank)
- Propane heat.
Shortly after moving in, noticed a strong septic/sewer smell in the basement. Couldn't trace it to the root, and it does not smell like it is coming from any drain.
After a while it starts to make it's way to the main floor of the house. Faster now that its winter, presumably because I am running the furnace?
Here's what I have tried to get rid of it, or related changes.
- First though it might be a propane leak because the smell is kinda eggy. Had gas company out, they found no leaks.
- Ensured all drain traps had water, and do so consistently.
- Basement has open drainage pipes that go to an empty pump-crock. Basically for the addition of a bathroom. It doesn't feed into the existing system, but I capped the open drain pipes and sealed the crock anyway.
- Had Septic tank pumped.
- Ran Bio-Clean and a bunch of other septic products.
- Snaked all of the drains and the septic vents (put the caps on the vents that keep leaves and animals from clogging them). None were clogged.
- Cleaned water softener components and ran cleaner through it.
- Replaced groundwater pump when it went bad.
- Replaced water heater anode rod (it was all used up).
- Replaced Furnace humidifier.
- Replaced pre-pressure tank.
- Had smoke test completed on the entire system. No leaks, vent stacks were clear.
- Found a nest of deceased mice in my furnace, on the burners, this year as I was inspecting before winter use. They had crawled in through the exhaust vent. Put metal grid over the vent outside to keep animals out.
So at this point I am totally lost, and not sure what to do. When I have the local plumbing company out, it costs hundreds of dollars, and I have yet to get a solution.
I have combed many forums about septic/sewer smell and not found anything that I haven't tried.
Here are the hints I have.
- Seems to be worse in cold weather.
- Vent stacks outside seem to omit a lot of septic gas. More than I would expect.
- There aren't any water usage patterns that seem to cause it to happen.
- Only myself and one other person live in the house.
- If I keep a window in the basement opened about 3 inches, it keeps the smell at bay. If I close the window completely, the smell starts to come back within minutes.
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my issue.
Happy Holidays!
Blake