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irenejd · May 11, 2010, 03:36 PM

I'm a desperate woman. We moved to AZ. After a few months in the house, now going into the summer, we have an odor that is awful. Initially it smelled like someone had a terrible digestive problem. It smelled like a sewer. It is in one half of the house. It smelled like very strong sewer gas/cigars several times. Then, one day I walked into the area and it smelled like someone had urinated on my head! Very, very strong! The smell generall starts in the afternoon as it is getting warm. If it is a 'strong' day, it lasts through morning and is so bad I have to sleep on the couch. If it is not a strong day, it will fade in and out. Again, it is mostly in the afternoon, and it is not every day. We have had a plumber come out and scope all the pipes going to the street. Everything is as clean as a whistle. We replaced all the seals on on the toilets. While these were off, there was no smell. I am not convinced it is coming from the sewer. We have looked into the A/C vents and see nothing. No droppings. We don't notice a smell coming out of the vents. Today, it was a urine smell just under the cold air return. However, when we took the grate off and stuck our heads inside... nothing! We have rinsed all the drains with vinegar as the plumber suggested.

Can someone suggest what our next step should be? We are at a loss and it is bad enough to depress me. Certainly we can't sell the place and move as we don't want to pass this problem on.

ANY advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you soooo much! (Wasn't sure what category to put this in so chose plumbing.)

cdad · May 11, 2010, 04:19 PM

Have you tried fabreeze or another product like that? Since it has been a few months then it could be something in the carpets. As the sun warms the home during the day it should have to do with the amount of sunlight.

jbarnes1985 · May 11, 2010, 04:40 PM

It seems like a problem my neighbor was having, which was bad enough to smell at my house. And we just fixed it this weekend. His drain pipe to his washer came undone and all the water was draining under his house. It has been doing this for the past six months. The water had started to turn to sewage and smell. Every time he used the washer it agitated the water under the house and would cause it to stink.

Check the pipes for the washer make sure they are not clogged or the pipe hasn't come loose.

irenejd · May 11, 2010, 08:33 PM

Thank you, CalifDadof3. We've tried Lysol, Febreeze, and others. The areas that smell have tile as we ripped out the carpet thinking that was contributing. We cleaned the floors ourselves, and professionally.

I agree. The sun has something to do with it, but I haven't figured out a pattern yet.

Thanks for responding!

Originally Posted by califdadof3

Have you tried fabreeze or another product like that? Since it has been a few months then it could be something in the carpets. As the sun warms the home during the day it sould have to do with the amount of sunlight.

irenejd · May 11, 2010, 08:38 PM

Thanks for responding, Jbarnes1985! This is interesting. I didn't think about it, but I don't think the plumber scoped the washer area when he scoped. He said he did all the drains and toilets, but I'll bet he didn't do this one. I'm going to have to check it out. This is a possibility! We just got a new washer and dryer, so the hoses are fine. However, it doesn't mean the drain/pipe they go into is OK. I'm glad you got the problem fixed... for both of you! Thanks very much for the suggestion. We will check it out.

I will be sure to keep the forum posted so anyone else who has the problem knows what works and what doesn't. Thanks again, all of you! Don't you just love places like this? :p

Originally Posted by jbarnes1985

It seems like a problem my neighbor was having, which was bad enough to smell at my house. And we just fixed it this weekend. His drain pipe to his washer came undone and all the water was draining under his house. It has been doing this for the past six months. The water had started to turn to sewage and smell. Every time he used the washer it agitated the water under the house and would cause it to stink.

Check the pipes for the washer make sure they are not clogged or the pipe hasn't come loose.

truck 41 · May 11, 2010, 10:21 PM

We've had this problem in some areas where the sewer gases are extremely strong, did the plumber check to see where the sewer vents are located on the roof? Some times the vents are to close to the a/c unit if you have rooftop units there should be at least 10ft. Separation between the vents and the a/c units. If the vents are to close or higher than the a/c then there's a chance that gases are being sucked in by the a/c when there is no air movement outside to blow the gasses away. Hope this helps, goodluck ----zeke----

irenejd · May 12, 2010, 07:53 PM

Thank you, Zeke, for responding. Our A/C is on the roof, on the same side of the house as the vents. This is an excellent suggestion. I'm not sure there is 10 ft between them. And, of course, there are 2 of them! That could explain why it's intermittent. I will check this out tomorrow. Thank you very much for the idea.

I will keep you all posted, but I'm sure it will be a few weeks before I have any news.

truck 41 · May 12, 2010, 09:00 PM

Your welcome, and welcome to AZ.

irenejd · May 13, 2010, 10:41 AM

Thanks, Truck!

irenejd · May 13, 2010, 05:52 PM

Um... I'm new. How do I rate an answer? Do I wait until I have a solution? Simply say that I tried it and either know or don't know that it works yet?

Thanks for the help.

cdad · May 13, 2010, 05:53 PM

You can comment on a post at any time. All you need to do is click submit if you agree and you might want to comment ( in the box ) and then click submit.

irenejd · May 16, 2010, 03:52 PM

Thanks, Califdadof3! I didn't see that box before.

irenejd · Jun 1, 2010, 05:27 PM

We think we've isolated the problem. As the weather gets hotter, the smell changes to a definite urine-only smell. We removed the rug in the bedroom and acid washed the floor after removing all the baseboard and tack strips. It has just a very, very slight smell. We're going to acid wash it again, then put some KILZ on it. We're also going to remove the bottom pieces of wallboard and KILZ the studs, put fresh insulation in the bottom half. Another issue we think we have is this. The cold air return is in the hallway. That is outside our bedroom door as well as outside the guest bath door. The master bath is just inside the bedroom door. We think that odors are going into the cold air return, out the AC vents in those areas, and then back into the cold air return. This just circulates any bad smells in the same areas. We are looking at moving the cold air return but we're not sure if we can do that efficiently. And we don't believe the bathroom fan is big enough, or maybe not working properly.
Thanks everyone for the great help. I don't know if we've solved the problem, but it is sooo much better that at least I can sleep at night and my nose and throat don't burn and I'm not getting nauseous. I will continue to post here until it is totally gone so that this thread will help others if needed.
Thank you all, All!