smellyhome
Sep 15, 2008, 10:38 PM
Hello,
Here is my stinky house problem. I live in a 2 story modular townhome. 3 bedrooms upstairs. The heater located downstairs. Whenever the air conditioner or heater is turned on the whole house smells like sewer. I had a plumber/hvac guy inspect my furnace and AC. Luckily, there was nothing wrong with the unit. However, he ended up spending 6 hours trying to figure out why it caused the house to stink. Well, he and I narrowed it down to the cold air return was pulling in the smell from somewhere to the return air vents to the blower unit. He had a camera that he used to snake into the vents and noticed some plumbing vent pipes but couldn't tell if there was a leak in them. His camera could only go so far and thus was unable to see all of the pipes. He discovered that some of the plumbing vent pipes in the attic were never connected or cemented to the vent pipes on the roof. He fixed those. But it still smells. It seems that the cold air returns in the different rooms are not a direct route to the blower. The air is pulled from the 3 bedrooms upstairs through the return air ducts that are just holes through the walls to the blower downstairs. So, the smell could be coming from anywhere inside the walls. Sure enough, if I put my nose to the return air vents I notice the smell now without running the blower. I am not sure what to do? How is something like this fixed? What kind of expense am I looking at? Please help! Ugghh!
-smellyhome
Here is my stinky house problem. I live in a 2 story modular townhome. 3 bedrooms upstairs. The heater located downstairs. Whenever the air conditioner or heater is turned on the whole house smells like sewer. I had a plumber/hvac guy inspect my furnace and AC. Luckily, there was nothing wrong with the unit. However, he ended up spending 6 hours trying to figure out why it caused the house to stink. Well, he and I narrowed it down to the cold air return was pulling in the smell from somewhere to the return air vents to the blower unit. He had a camera that he used to snake into the vents and noticed some plumbing vent pipes but couldn't tell if there was a leak in them. His camera could only go so far and thus was unable to see all of the pipes. He discovered that some of the plumbing vent pipes in the attic were never connected or cemented to the vent pipes on the roof. He fixed those. But it still smells. It seems that the cold air returns in the different rooms are not a direct route to the blower. The air is pulled from the 3 bedrooms upstairs through the return air ducts that are just holes through the walls to the blower downstairs. So, the smell could be coming from anywhere inside the walls. Sure enough, if I put my nose to the return air vents I notice the smell now without running the blower. I am not sure what to do? How is something like this fixed? What kind of expense am I looking at? Please help! Ugghh!
-smellyhome