Gas like smell in the house

[allycat2006]

We've recently moved into a new build & over the last couple of weeks are getting a strange gas/slightly curry ish (weird I know!) smell at regular intervals throughout the day every day. It's not gas as this has been tested by the plumber that did all the work on the house. We also turned the mains gas off & the smell still appeared.
We have underfloor heating all downstairs, but it only smells in the lounge (carpeted) & the hall (tiled). When the carpets were fitted, it smelt awful as am guessing they used glue with the underfloor so as not to nail through any pipes, but this smell went away after a few days.
Next step is to push our builder to investigate further, but any ideas? There's no smell anywhere else inside or out & we've lifted some of the drain covers outside to check.
It's starting to worry me, we've had a really stressful year building this house so want to put it all behind us & enjoy our new home, but this is really annoying as it builds up over an hour or so & gets quite strong.

Phone the gas emergency number.

Phone CADENT the gas network people in case a mains pipe is leaking. 0800 111999

What kind of paint did the builder use? I had same thing in my house once; had the Gas people out to check but nope, no gas leak anywhere.
It was the paint I'd not long used and after a few days it went.

We had a gas smell after painting as well.

Do you have any lillies? My dm had emergency gas people out and turned out it was the smell of lillies.
Ide get gas people out pdq just in case.

Firstly phone cadent to make sure you don’t have a real gas leak somewhere. It’s not always obvious.

But - drains notoriously smell a bit like gas. I would investigate the drains / pipes and see if you have any cracked pipes or blockages anywhere.

Could it be a dead rodent under the floorboards?

Weve had this in our rented accommodation for months. Had the gas engineer out several times and theyve never found a cause but the smell is in our bedroom. We have to move out as the smell is so bad at times and no source can be found for it.

I smelt gas before and called the emergency number. They investigated and didn't find anything at the back of my house where I smelt it. It was actually the combi boiler smell when first kicking in (ie when I ran the hot taps). However they did find a gas leak at the front of my house so I was glad I phoned!

Also are you semi detached / terrace? When I lived in an end of terrace I would get next doors dinner smells come into my bedroom somehow! Could it actually be curry being cooked next door?

Worst case scenario is the property is built on landfill which is giving off methane. If the smell is actually from a dead rat, which is absolutely disgusting believe me, that would be a great result compared to finding it is methane from a landfill.

Call the gas emergency people. They will be able to tell for definite if you have a gas leak. The gas could be "pooling" which is why you only smell it intermittently.

Thanks for all the replies, the plumber came Wednesday & assured us after doing a pressure test it wasn't a gas leak and the only thing connected to the gas is the boiler which is in the garage on the opposite side of the house, no smell in there or outside the house, which am guessing there would be if a mains pipe leaking outside the property somewhere? We have lifted all the drain covers to check, all fine as expected in a newly built house & no smell. The floors are block & beam with concrete screed & vented so nothing should come up from under the floor anyway. The house was a self build so we have been on site every step of the way more or less & the planning department were picky as, so made us drill the land before the foundations were dug to check everything as we in an old mining area, there was no evidence of anything untoward then. So you can see why we are at a loss.

We had gas people out a few years ago, transpires the smell was a backed up drains, and our drains started draining/bubbling up a few weeks later.

Okay - devils advocate here but please don’t lift any further lids or manholes without an an active gas detector device on. If you suspect a gas build up and lift any sort of lid for investigation, just the friction of lifting the lid can be enough to spark an explosion. I’m not being dramatic; I’ve worked in utilities for 25 years and seen it happen. If you have any gas smell whatsoever, do NOT go lifting lids, poking about or frankly doing anything without gas detection equipment working.

Aside from that; do you know anyone who works in any kind of utility at all? Electric? Telecoms?
Water? We all hold and use handheld gas detectors and my instinct would be to leave one running where you smell the issue and see what it reports. They don’t just smell gas but other airborne toxic particles and may pick up something you are misinterpreting ?

You can actually buy a small gas leak detector from Amazon. They’re about £28 and the reviews are good. I’ve never got one myself but thought about it. Might be worth a look.

Thanks, think it's a good idea to have a look at your suggestions of a gas detector or get someone in who would check. I'm wondering if it could be something the carpet fitters have used as sounds sad I know but we had a really good sniff of the carpet yesterday & it did smell.

Could be! Carpet fitters use spray adhesive quite a lot.

I've known of builders to build over gas pipes and then them crack. I've known of gas explosions as described above. Even when building control have signed it off. It's not a plumber you need it's CADENT or someone with a sensitive gas detector imo.

Two years ago I could smell gas on the upstairs landing but nowhere else in the house, so I called the emergency gas people. He came out, checked the house but nothing. He then decided to go check our neighbours house as a precaution and it turned out it was her gas cooker that had a leak. No one else could smell it, but yet I could.So odd. I'm just thankful it was detected before she went to cook her meal that evening.

Do you have any baskets made of rattan or water hyacinth, sisal etc? They can go mouldy and start to rot which smells gassy. Just a thought.

It's not the rubber underlay is it if you had new carpet recently as that can smell quite strong