[badsmell]

Hello.

I've lived in my house for 4 year and every year around fall, winter, and spring I get a bad sewage smell in my house. I smell it more at night time and in the morning. When I turn the heat on in my den it appears to smell worse. My house type is cape and was built in 1951 and uses a septic tank.

I was told to make sure that every unused sink or drain hole had water in it. This did not work. I was told to purchase sweatair filters and put them on the vent pipes on the roof. This did not work. My next step is to have the sanitation company come in a do a smoke test but they charge an arm and a leg to do the test.

Can I do my own smoke test. It does not sound like rocket science?
If so, what do I need to get and where can I get it?

Any suggestion to what other steps I can take.

Thanks

BadSmell

[doug238]

To do a smoke test you need a 12 gallon or more wet vac, a smoke bomb, a pie tin.
Pull a toilet or even better find a cleanout plug. Plug or cap all roof vents. Seal all openings that do not have a trap. Put the smoke bomb in the wet vac on a pie tin and light it. Put the hose on the exhaust side of the wet vac and force the smoke into the system. Seal the hose from the vac with rags. Have another person walk around looking for smoke. The whole test takes about 20 minutes after you start pumping smoke into your system. May sure you check for multiple smoke leaks. Don't stop the test prematurely if you find one leak.