my house is pretty old lately we have been smelling sewer gas in the house our drains are used regulary although there are no traps no breaks in any pipes and no standing water outside and all drains including the toilet work fine (no back up) i notice the smell strongest in the basement no visable leaks there is one vent that comes out of the side of my house and one vent coming out of the ground from the tank. i flushed the vent coming from the tank and was unable to get my snake in the vent in the side of the house one thing i noticed was that we did not have a problem until the weather changed as we live in new york and its cold here could it be as simple as weather change or is there something else wrong i dont really know the size of the tank as we just moved here 2 yrs ago or is it that the tank is getting full as i said there are no sighns of back up can anyone give me any advice
2007-11-28 12:36:00 · 5 answers · asked by blkdmd16 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
Not sure I read the question correctly, did you say there are NO traps in the lines in your house?, if so then that's the reason you're getting sewer gas. Other than that you'll probably need a plumber to come inspect the system to see what's going on.
2007-11-28 12:44:59 · answer #1 · answered by Corky R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What I have done in the past is to rather than do a visual check looking for leaks do the nose check and go around and sniff out the problem.... that at least gives you a good starting point..
Also some times your vents out the top of your house get clogged and when you say flush a toilet it creates a vacuum and siphons the water out of the p-trap.
To check your vents ...put a garden hose in them and if water comes back up..... the vent is clogged.
2007-11-29 00:17:52 · answer #2 · answered by PEACE 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you say no traps?
we had some remodel done and the guy we hired to install plumbing to a washer drain did not put in a trap... w/out a trap your entire line is open to the raw sewage... a trap is designed to TRAP water so the air doesn't escape.
also... u might have your yard checked for leaks... if you can poke a stake in the ground and smell sewage you have finger problems and will require a $$ trip from the $$ plumber.
ugg.
good luck!!!!
2007-11-28 20:42:50 · answer #3 · answered by stevesherri 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You may have a broken vent line behind a wall. That would cause both the smell and the inability to snake the vent.
Bert
2007-11-28 20:53:58 · answer #4 · answered by Bert C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have a basement drain, the p-trap may be dry. Pour some water in it regularly.
2007-11-28 22:29:02 · answer #5 · answered by gotech 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋