Hi everyone. I'm looking for inspiration to try to track down a disgusting eggy smell which appears in my house from time to time.
Our house was built around 1965-1970. We moved in about 5 months ago. Straight away we noticed occasional foul eggy whiffs which came out of nowhere and disappeared again after a couple of minutes. We have been unable to find the source.
At first we suspected a drain problem but can't find anything wrong with the drains. We dug up a section of surface water drain outside and found a great big hole in the top of the pipe which we have now replaced. However the smells still happen.
Our house was extended some years ago to build over the driveway. Consequently our soil stack is part inside and part outside the house. The internal portion is boxed in. We have cut a hole in the boxing but get no smells from within. The soil stack seems fine. It connects to an underground chamber beneath the (now internal) floor and then runs off to the street. The chamber is completely covered over with tiled flooring. Before moving in we had a camera survey of the foul drain which revealed no problems.
As I can find no faults with the drain runs I am starting to wonder about central heating. This is where it gets interesting. Initially the smells were in two places - the rear lobby and the upstairs bathroom which is above the rear lobby. The boxed in soil stack is also in the rear lobby and two upstairs toilets connect to it. We had a brand new combi boiler installed a couple of months ago and since then the bathroom smells have all but disappeared. However we still get them in the rear lobby and they have started to appear in the front lobby as well. It's as if something has caused the smell to relocate.
The timing may be coincidental but it seems odd that the bathroom smell (which was VERY strong) goes away round about the same time as we get a new boiler fitted. The new boiler is in a different location from the old one so new underfloor piping has been laid and old piping is now partly redundant.
Before the new boiler was commissioned we had a power flush so there should be no foul sludge in the system. Pressure on the boiler is good with no evidence of leaks.
I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Our house was built around 1965-1970. We moved in about 5 months ago. Straight away we noticed occasional foul eggy whiffs which came out of nowhere and disappeared again after a couple of minutes. We have been unable to find the source.
At first we suspected a drain problem but can't find anything wrong with the drains. We dug up a section of surface water drain outside and found a great big hole in the top of the pipe which we have now replaced. However the smells still happen.
Our house was extended some years ago to build over the driveway. Consequently our soil stack is part inside and part outside the house. The internal portion is boxed in. We have cut a hole in the boxing but get no smells from within. The soil stack seems fine. It connects to an underground chamber beneath the (now internal) floor and then runs off to the street. The chamber is completely covered over with tiled flooring. Before moving in we had a camera survey of the foul drain which revealed no problems.
As I can find no faults with the drain runs I am starting to wonder about central heating. This is where it gets interesting. Initially the smells were in two places - the rear lobby and the upstairs bathroom which is above the rear lobby. The boxed in soil stack is also in the rear lobby and two upstairs toilets connect to it. We had a brand new combi boiler installed a couple of months ago and since then the bathroom smells have all but disappeared. However we still get them in the rear lobby and they have started to appear in the front lobby as well. It's as if something has caused the smell to relocate.
The timing may be coincidental but it seems odd that the bathroom smell (which was VERY strong) goes away round about the same time as we get a new boiler fitted. The new boiler is in a different location from the old one so new underfloor piping has been laid and old piping is now partly redundant.
Before the new boiler was commissioned we had a power flush so there should be no foul sludge in the system. Pressure on the boiler is good with no evidence of leaks.
I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?