Why is there a smell of poo??

[ohime]

Both myself and my housemate, separately and standing together, have been smelling a faint smell of sewage for the past three days. What's odd is that the smell isn't near a loo or a drain (and no sinks or toilets are or have recently been blocked), no one has done a poo within hours of when the smell has come on, and it's been in only two rooms, which are at opposite ends of the house. Both rooms have outer walls, so I went outside and smelled... nothing at all, either wafting onto the property from elsewhere or rising up from the drains. In fact, someone was here in the spring to fix a gutter drainage issue; in order to inspect the soakaway arrangements he uncovered the drains and pronounced them in fine working order. I doubt the smell is due to him as he came in April and the smell just arrived a few days ago. So, collective wisdom: where could it be coming from, what could be causing it, and is it necessary to have the drains guy back to dig everything up again?? As far as I can tell the smell isn't getting worse, but it's definitely noticeable - not all the time, but now and again - and it definitely wasn't here before...

Do you live somewhere with farmland nearby? Apparently, human sewage ‘sludge’ is being used as fertiliser in some farming areas and stinks to high heaven. Links to the signs that have gone up in Waitrose advising us to wash all veg.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/12/toxic-landfill-liquid-sewage-spread-farms-england?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Could be a light fitting that’s over heating. Often gives off an ammonia type smell. Get a chair and stand on it-see if it’s stronger closer to light fitting.

Oh, ugh. There is indeed a small farm nearby-ish, although I'd be surprised if the smell could reach this far. Will take a walk there tomorrow and investigate!

Will check this out as well. When my housemate initially called me into his room to ask if I could smell poo, what I smelled first was overheated electrical components...

There was an episode of Call The Midwife where a woman was hiding her turds up the chimney...

Drip tray from a fridge with some rancid gunk inside?

Gas leak?

Do you have a septic tank? If so could something not be working in it.

Defo chimney turds

Sometimes we can smell sewers in our downstairs loo, we found it was from the shower in that bathroom. Something to do with the drain trap drying out and just run plenty of water down it to flush it out.

If you have any rarely used sinks showers baths etc give that a try.

Hmm, some version of chimney turds is actually possible, ugh. When we had a mouse infestation last year, the cat was chasing one around the sitting room and it disappeared into the (decommissioned but not blocked-off) fireplace. Never saw any mice emerging from the grate subsequently, but there may have been (or may still be) something going on in there...?? After the mice unexpectedly packed up and left - they must have heard we were considering the poison option, or perhaps it was the cat's powers of persuasion - I never bothered with taking the grate off and cleaning inside the chimney, although I did disinfect the outside.

No septic tank here in town, thank goodness, as friends with them have had some nightmare incidents. Had a gas leak of sorts when the boiler repair guy left without sufficiently tightening something or other, so I know what that's like and this isn't it. And, I cleaned the fridge and freezer as part of the spring (well, late-summer by the time I got around to it) cleaning, so that's all fine. I've now gone around sticking my face into various drains; while several could certainly use a good clean, it's not the same human-sewage smell. Which leaves... finding a delicate way to ask my housemate about the turd-stuffing...

(My ex once told me that he never remembering his mum yelling - except for the time she came into the sitting room and discovered toddler-him happily stuffing his own poo into all the crevices and buttons on the face of the television...)