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    jokruise's Avatar
    jokruise Posts: 5, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Oct 22, 2009, 03:48 PM
    Basement smell eminating through the house
    PLEASE HELP. We bought a foreclosure home one year ago. The home was five years old . There was a funky smell in the house but the realtor and the home inspector said it was probably from the pit where a sewage grinder (lift pump) was taken because it had some standing water, although there was no smell coming from the pit. We replaced the lift pump. Also, the people had taken a toilet, so sewer gasses were probable coming from that uncoverded hole. But we bought a new toilet and secured it tightly. The smell is not coming from there but from the basement someplace. We have had a coule of plumbers out but they can't seem to find the source. There is no place it partically comes from. It's just floating in the air it seeems and is especially bad by the stairs which are a little more unclosed. There is no door to the upstairs so the smell goes up into the kitchen, lilving room and hall. Its not in the bedrooms as much as I can tell. The landry room has a little musty smell, but different from the downstairs smell and not so strong. IUt can be smelled through the heating vents, but mostly if the smell is particularly bad. The smell is chemically, maybe a little musty, maybe a little sewery. Sometimes bad and sometimes not so bad. It's been driving me to tears. A couple of weeks ago, a new smell started, different from the other smell. It comes after we shower in the upstairs bathroom. This is more of a sewr smell. Sometimes it comes ater a shower and sometimes not. The smell does not come from the bathub drain, maybe ever so slightly from the bathroom sink, but a whole lot of smell from the basement till it subsides a coule of hours later. Basement drain has water. Roof vent seems clear. The basement is plumbd for a third bath but all capped off.
    Please, can you help?
    speedball1's Avatar
    speedball1 Posts: 29,301, Reputation: 1939
    Eternal Plumber
     
    #2

    Oct 23, 2009, 06:27 AM
    Have you checked the basement floor drain to be sure there's water in the trap? Cheers, Tom
    jokruise's Avatar
    jokruise Posts: 5, Reputation: 1
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    #3

    Oct 23, 2009, 07:49 AM

    Thank you for answering so quickly. Yes there are 2 in. of water in the basement floor drain. Today after two showers and rain sewery smell is not there. That smell which started only about 2 weeks ago , and is there only after showers, is there sometimes and sometimes not. Can you tell me why and what it is from? The other chemically smell , which has always been there, sometimes stronger than other times, is also very frustrating. We had our furnace go out, and the furnace man said that our 5 yr old furnace was in worse shape that he had ever seen for that age. It is rusty he said due to condensating poblems,probably due to the house siting empty for a while. Does that help you trouble shoot the chemically and after shower sewery smell? I know you are not a furnce guy but maybe it will help troubleshoot. One more thing, when we bought the house, one toilt was full of poop. I cleaned it very well so would that have anything to do with it. It is that bathroom we shower in. Last week we tightened that toilet but that didn't seem to help. Tank you so much

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