Let's play stump-the-plumber!

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Friends, I come to you today with a heavy heart. (And a headache. And a queasy stomach. Don't worry, it's all related.) I need to know if any of you have had any unusual plumbing problems that I might suggest to my own plumber to perhaps rattle loose an idea of what the freaking hell is wrong with my house.

You see, we moved into our new house about three weeks ago. We've been building it for more than a year. And it's wonderful and marvelous except for the intermittent cloud of evil reek that steals out of a particular corner of the master bathroom.

The plumber can't figure out what's wrong. The smell is getting bigger (presumably because the septic tank is, um, maturing.) We can't find any common denominator. It doesn't seem to be related to any other plumbing usage in the house (dishwasher, other toilets, washing machine, etc.) These blooms of noxiousness can come at any time, but reliably it will happen at some point overnight or in the early morning hours while we're all asleep.

The professionals have checked all the plumbing and the venting and everything looks fine. They even revented the toilet and replaced the wax ring seal, but nothing is working.

Anyone have any off-the-beaten path plumbing problems to suggest as a possible culprit?
 
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Are you sure it's a plumbing problem? Do you have cavity walls?
Yeah, it's definitely sewage. At first they were hoping something was dead and could just be removed, but the smell is too intermittent - when it's gone, it's completely gone.

And it's not decomp reek. It's septic.

And it's killing me.

Luckily, the weather's nice and we can keep the windows open. Obviously, that's not a permanent solution.
 

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Are you sure it's a plumbing problem? Do you have cavity walls?

Yeah - possibly something got in there and died?

Not to creep you out at all (haha!) but I had a friend once who went on holiday for two weeks, and a while after she got back she noticed a grim, worsening smell in her bedroom. She found a loose floorboard under her bed, and in the cavity under it there was a slaughtered, decomposing cockerel. Yeah. Never found out how it got there, but didn't stick around.
 

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I also realize after doing some reading that my husband and I need to start sleeping with the door open. I didn't think about it being really bad for us until we both woke up damned near ill this morning.
 

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Have the outside pipes been checked? It could be seepage.
They've spent hours poking around. Everything looks (and smells) fine, inside and out. Except inside a couple of times a day. It's so weird.

There's no sewage smell outside, either --- except now there's a mountain of funky smelling mulch out front, delivered on Saturday. Really, I should probably just get a nose-ectomy.
 
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I also realize after doing some reading that my husband and I need to start sleeping with the door open. I didn't think about it being really bad for us until we both woke up damned near ill this morning.

Uhmmm yeah.... mate..... you know how your sense of smell works, don't you?
 

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Yeah - possibly something got in there and died?

Not to creep you out at all (haha!) but I had a friend once who went on holiday for two weeks, and a while after she got back she noticed a grim, worsening smell in her bedroom. She found a loose floorboard under her bed, and in the cavity under it there was a slaughtered, decomposing cockerel. Yeah. Never found out how it got there, but didn't stick around.
I just don't think it's decomp. I, unfortunately, know that smell. And it doesn't seem like it could come and go as it does if something we're dead still (ha!) and simmering in nature, right?
 

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You're going to try to make me cry, aren't you?

Ermmm no. I'm not going to try exactly....

Your sense of smell works by particles of whatever it is you are smelling going up your nose and setting off the sensors in your nose which send a signal to your brain which then identifies the smell.

So... if you are waking up feeling sick, that house may not be too healthy for you to be in at the moment. Sorry mate.
 

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Has the plumber has checked to make sure all the right fixtures were used, properly installed and valves are place to prevent any back flow and fume leakage?
 

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Has the plumber has checked to make sure all the right fixtures were used, properly installed and valves are place to prevent any back flow and fume leakage?
Do you mean sink fixtures? I would have thought they checked everything, but I'll put that on my list of suggestions.
 

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Waaaaah! That's what I thought you were going to say.

Ermmm no. I'm not going to try exactly....

Your sense of smell works by particles of whatever it is you are smelling going up your nose and setting off the sensors in your nose which send a signal to your brain which then identifies the smell.

So... if you are waking up feeling sick, that house may not be too healthy for you to be in at the moment. Sorry mate.
 

Maryn

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I suggest a search for dry traps for all drains in that bathroom. There should be a layer of water which blocks air return from any drain (toilet, shower, tub, sink) but if a drain is little used or has a leak, the trap can disappear, allowing air from sewer or septic system to waft in as temperature and air currents dictate. If the trap has simply dried up, running water into it solves the problem--unless there's a leak or crack. It may take a lot of water going where it shouldn't before a leak becomes apparent, and when the water appears, it may have gone some distance from its source. (Our wet family room ceiling was from a shower 25 feet away. Huh?)

I'm no plumber, but consider letting some water stand in the sink and tub, with the drains closed, when they're not being used, to see if the odor occurs in that situation. If it stops, one of them probably has a dry trap. It may take some ingenuity to block a shower drain (I'm thinking water balloon with a layer or two of plastic wrap to prevent punctures), and I have no idea how to block the toilet--but the standing water in the bowl should be sufficient to minimize any possibility of a dry trap there. (Unless, I suppose, it's a tankless model.)

Blocked or improperly installed vents (which don't lead outside) is another possibility, but your plumber already checked vents, right?

Another option is to contact a building inspector or an environmental specialist for an assessment of the problem. Even a seasoned plumber doesn't know everything these people know.

Maryn, who likes her seasoned plumbers with cracked pepper and a little lemon
 
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My first thought on these things is p-traps either missing or not large enough for the pipe they are on. (past experience)

Then to wonder about the timing of the odors, and what else is the house doing in the hour or so before that time. (laundry, central air processing, dishwasher, etc.)

Next would be to wonder about air flow in that area of the house. For example, is the smell actually coming from that corner, or gathering in that corner while you sleep?

Has anything made a home in the attic, crawlspace already?

ETA: And a dry trap was exactly the problem we were having in a basement toilet because it didn't get used regularly. AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON puts plumber and crack(ed) in the same sentence?
 
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I suggest a search for dry traps for all drains in that bathroom. There should be a layer of water which blocks air return from any drain (toilet, shower, tub, sink) but if a drain is little used or has a leak, the trap can disappear, allowing air from sewer or septic system to waft in as temperature and air currents dictate.

Sadly, that was the first thing we checked. The traps are full of fresh water. The last two eruptions, we double-checked. The traps seem fine.
 

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My first thought on these things is p-traps either missing or not large enough for the pipe they are on. (past experience)

The p-traps were the first thing we checked. And we've double-checked the last two times, because that would make so much sense.

Then to wonder about the timing of the odors, and what else is the house doing in the hour or so before that time. (laundry, central air processing, dishwasher, etc.)

We've been pondering that, too. We were wondering if the toilet flushing, or the dishwasher running, or my daughter's shower was somehow causing a pressure shift. We've put that line of thinking on hold, because we can't duplicate it (we've tried with the plumber on site) and it doesn't explain the overnight exhalations while we're all asleep.

Next would be to wonder about air flow in that area of the house. For example, is the smell actually coming from that corner, or gathering in that corner while you sleep?

It seems to originate there and disperse, getting fainter the farther you get from that corner.

Has anything made a home in the attic, crawlspace already?

We're 95% sure that it's sewage and not decomp - firstly, because of the, erm, quality of the smell, and secondly, because of its intermittent nature.

ETA: And a dry trap was exactly the problem we were having in a basement toilet because it didn't get used regularly. AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON puts plumber and crack(ed) in the same sentence? Lol!
 

seun

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That's nasty. I know bugger all about plumbing so all I can say I hope you get it sorted soon. It's no joke being unhappy in your own home.
 

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Your sewer line is cracked, probably where it goes through the foundation. Get a plumber with a camera setup that goes down the sewer line for a proper inspection.

This is a critical situation, sewer gas is deadly-- get it fixed right away and you probably shouldn't sleep in the room until it's fixed.