To want to fix the drain smell in our house

[StinkyHouse85]

Our house smells of sewer gas on and off. It has done this for several years since we moved in. We have had a couple of plumbers around and made some slight changes (fixed dodgy seals etc) but neither of them have fixed it.

Today it smell really overpowering and is making me feel sick. We have an 11 month old.

I want to get some drain people in to have a proper look at the pipes (CCTV survey etc) as I suspect there might be a cracked pipe. DH doesn't want me to because he is tight and we might spend more money and still not have it fixed.

It's so bad I'd honestly want to move if we can't sort it, and I don't think it's good for DS's health to grow up in a house that's sometimes full of sewer gas.

To avoid a drip feed I am the breadwinner (DH is going to be SAHD), we have plenty of money (10k emergency savings, 4.5k other savings and we've already overpaid the mortgage by 10% this year) so money isn't an issue other than that DH always acts like we're poor because he's tight.

AIBU to insist we get someone around to fix it properly this time?

Get it sorted. We had something similar and it turned out that the ‘gentlemen’ who fitted our kitchen had rammed some piece of plumbing the wrong way round onto another pipe (I am somewhat hazy on the details) so all shitty sewage smells belched out into the kitchen. It was a super-simple fix, took less than an hour and has transformed my life. It didn’t cost much either, if memory serves. Less than £200. Just do it.

Definitely get it sorted OP. YANBU at all.

I would be telling your husband this isn't up for debate. You are calling a plumber and that's that.

why are you allowing your husband to dictate this?

We are in exactly the same situation at the moment. We were going to wait until next year to get it looked at (as it was intermittent, it's now constant) as Dh is getting made redundant but it's too awful to wait. We too think it's a cracked pipe. We have phoned a local drain specialist who is coming round tomorrow to have a look. He has a camera so I'm hoping he may be able to tell us what is going on.

YANBU, it's really unpleasant, you do need to get it sorted, especially if you have the funds to do so. Good luck, hope you rid of the awful smell soon.

We had similar issues when we moved into our house. Changed all the traps etc made it a bit better but not entirely. It wasn't until we changed the bathroom and ripped the floor up we found the causes... pipes laid wrongly by previous owner - FLOWING UPWARDS above a heat pipe this lots of stagnant water being left to heat and smell!

We used to get the smell off and on.
It was drain pipe air vent at fault.
Never had it again since we replaced it

Plumber.

Tell your DH that he has no idea what damage could be being done by whatver is causing it. What maycost a few hundred no could cost thousands if left unchecked.

Or it could be soemthing really trivial and hardly cost anything!

And when you have told him that tell him you have booked a plumber, he doesn't get to veto it!

Get it fixed as it could be a minor fix that could end up costing thousands if left unchecked. I once rented a house that had a damp problem. The landlord constantly denied there was something very wrong and refused to get it looked into. He got us a dehumidifier and told us to open a window. Anything left on the floor was wet after a few hours and the mould was awful
You could see the damp blooming up the plaster walls. We moved out. Found out from a neighbour that he was forced to deal with it after a tenants foot went through a rotten floorboard. It was just a dripping pipe that hadn't been capped properly, could have been fixed easily and cheaply, but because it was left for years under the floorboards it cost tens of thousands to rectify. Floorboards and carpets needed to be replaced and they had to remove all the plaster off the walls and redo as it was so damp and rotten. Insurance wouldn't cover as he had more than enough notice of the problem, environmental health had condemned the house until the problem was sorted and selling without the repair work would have left him in serious negative equity.

Get it sorted!

We got the specialists out with their cameras. Best 150e we ever spent as it turned out to be something relatively small which was easy to fix. Smell went over night

People spend £150 on colouring their hair (not me, I should add) or clothes or whatever. Does he get to decide whether you get your hair cut too? I wouldn't even be discussing this. Get the drain people in yesterday. That smell is disgusting. How do you have people around?

Thanks everyone. I've booked someone to come tomorrow afternoon.

DH is now saying that he's OK with it "as long as they sort it" I guess this means I should expect a mega-whinge if they don't find out immediately what the problem is. He is so frustrating a lot of the time.

Good luck stinky, I'm hoping our guy has some answers tomorrow too. Fed up of the horrible smell!

Good luck!

Depending on who the water company is, they might be able to help too if the issue is outside the property. They own the pipe from the pavement/chamber but depending on your deeds or house info, which should show drainage maps, they sometimes own up to the front door.
Similar thing on new estates with management companies.

To be fair sewage works smell like washing machine water so if it's worse than that then the drainage survey is a good bet.

So glad I got the drain people around. It turns out we had a pipe that should have had a valve on the top but there wasn't one so sewer fumes were coming straight into our house (not envy!). Can't work out whether it's the original builders' fault or the previous owner who did all sorts of botched DIY.

DH is a bit grumpy that we'll have to pull up some tiles to fix it but at least it will be fixed. He's organised another plumber to come around early next week though which was nice of him.

Fgs, tell your husband to stop being such an insufferable prick. You must be fed up with him.

I'm happy you're getting the problem sorted, though!

Glad you are getting it sorted. Our guy wasn't able to do much unfortunately. He thinks it may also be the valve letting gas in but we have no idea where the valve is. We think it may be behind a tiled wall in the bathroom which is a rubbish place for it. I feel like ours may also be a botched job.

We used Dyno Rod @Punxsutawney and the guy was great. Really thorough and even cleaned our kitchen drain at the end because he had some spare time. Charged us £145 which seems cheap now that we've finally got a diagnosis. He was able to tell us where the missing would be too, although it helped that we have a corner next to the loo which is boxed off and you could see the corner of the plasterwork through the end of the valveless pipe!

He also checked the outside drains and noticed stagnant water in one of the shared ones which shouldn't be there and can stop valves from working properly. It's not our main problem because we don't have a valve at all but he told me to contact the local water company next week to give it a clean which will be free.

I hope you find an answer anyway. DH was saying last night that he's sceptical that this will actually fix it but I'm sure it will and am so relieved after 3.5 years to get it sorted!

We get a smell come and go but a urine smell rather than sewers. I’ve been putting off getting someone out due to expense and faff but that price seems really reasonable!

It does sound like you might have found the answer! Yes we reckon our valve is also in a boxed off area. We are becoming concerned that we are almost getting used to the smell. He told us that he could smell the gas as he was going up the stairs. We actually didn't think the smell was too bad yesterday, so I hope we are not becoming immune to it!

I think Dh is going to take off the tiles and boxed area this weekend. It will make a big mess but we need to find out what is going on. He is getting a redundancy pay out next year so the plan was to completely re do the bathroom then, if we can wait that long! It's not a pleasant thing at all, so I hope it all gets sorted for you soon especially after 3 years.

Good luck @Punxsutawney Our guy mentioned that the valves are normally roughly a metre up from the floor (slightly above the level of the sink and the toilet tank) so you might want to start around there with the tile removal.

Thanks Stinky. We really dislike being in the house at the moment. Fingers crossed we both have lovely fresh smelling homes soon!