Hi,
Two problems:

We have a 1/2 year old house, two story with a basement. We are on acreage, so we have a septic system. We have been noticing a sewage smell coming from either the water from the faucets, or from the drains. I have tried smelling the water (I put water into my coffee pot or a glass and smell it) and it sort of seems to smell, but then if I let it sit for a few minutes, I can't smell the sewage smell any more, so I'm not sure if the pipes or the water smell.

We also get a mildew smell from the master shower only when the water runs and I have cleaned the ens out of it with bleach cleaners, to no avail. After about 2 days the mildew smell comes back. We are in a pretty dry climate, so I wouldn't expect mildew to build up so fast on the tile, but can it?

We had another problem that you resolved earlier, a vent pipe cap had not been removed so we had sewage smell floating all over the upper floor, but the plumber came and fixed that (by getting on the roof and breaking the seal with a broom handle). I'm not totally convinced he fixed it, however, because this winter when we had a hard freeze, the tub started gurgling again when the toilet flushed, so I assume that water got trapped in the vent pipe somehow, and froze, blocking the vent pipe. Once things thawed, the gurgling and smell went away again.

Could these things be related? Another thing, we have gone and run water in every inactive sink or drain pipe, in case the smell from the sinks is related to an unfilled p-trap. Doesn't seem to help.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stacey

Have the water tested.