[Photo] 3 Years+ Sewage Smells in the house (man hole to fill)

[brooky_agb]

My wife is away this weekend so I thought I'd start a job I've been putting off for ages. We get terrible sewage smells in the house. A CCTV inspection showed me that there is a manhole in our hall which is covered over with a concrete floor. There is a picture below which shows it.

I am intending to dig up the floor to uncover it. There are two pipes joining it to the left which I know are redundant. Really I want to *somehow* add a semicircle or half pipe over the top and backfill with concrete.

Can anyone advise how I should go about this? Digging up the floor is the easy bit but sealing it over the top is the hard bit as I don't want concrete falling down the sides.

I'd be grateful for any advice. I have to do it this weekend when the wife is out as she will get in the way. Ha.

 

[kazuya]

can you not dig the lot up and join the two ends with a new piece of pipe?

 

[joe-90]

How are the smells getting through the concrete? You might go to all that bother and not make any difference. You need to track down the entry point where the bad air gets in first.

 

[brooky_agb]

How are the smells getting through the concrete? You might go to all that bother and not make any difference. You need to track down the entry point where the bad air gets in first.

We have tried literally everything else. We have even ripped out a brand new downstairs toilet and sink and had it refit. We have had many plumbers and builders look and NOBODY can find what's causing it.

This is a desperate last resort. It's caused a huge amount of stress in my household.

 

[brooky_agb]

can you not dig the lot up and join the two ends with a new piece of pipe?

Possibly but it depends... I believe the manhole is in a cupboard which has a painted concrete floor. I may find that 1/2 of it is under the main bit of hall which has a nice slate tile floor. I can't dig that up. The cupboard is about 1m x 0.75m so the manhole cover may be partially under it.

Sick to death of sewage smells. Our first baby is due in January. To date we have kept a downstairs window open in the hall all year round. This helps a lot but I can't bear another freezing cold winter (in a solid brick house).

I'm at my wits end with this.

Thanks so much for all your advice.

 

[bernardgreen]

One option might be to have the pipe lined. This is not a DIY task as it requires specialist equipment. A soft plastic tube is pulled through the damaged area and then it is inflated with hot water under pressure which [1] forces it to fit to the inside of the pipe and [2] causes it to harden once in place.

But one has to ask how did a manhole come to be under the floor of the hall. Is the hall part of an extension that was built over the sewer by a previous owner ?

There may be a chance of getting it cured free of charge, ( but still a bit of disruption ) if the sewer serves other property as well as yours. If it does serve more than one property then it is the responsibility of the local water company to rmaintain it. They will have to solve the problem.

 

[JohnD]

" a nice slate tile floor. I can't dig that up"

No?

Precious floors are a great nuisance to anyone wanting to do a proper job.

 

[brooky_agb]

One option might be to have the pipe lined. This is not a DIY task as it requires specialist equipment. A soft plastic tube is pulled through the damaged area and then it is inflated with hot water under pressure which [1] forces it to fit to the inside of the pipe and [2] causes it to harden once in place.

But one has to ask how did a manhole come to be under the floor of the hall. Is the hall part of an extension that was built over the sewer by a previous owner ?

There may be a chance of getting it cured free of charge, ( but still a bit of disruption ) if the sewer serves other property as well as yours. If it does serve more than one property then it is the responsibility of the local water company to rmaintain it. They will have to solve the problem.

Thanks so much for your help here. The property is a detached victorian school which has been extended. You are correct in that it is an extension over land which would have once been outside.

 

[brooky_agb]

" a nice slate tile floor. I can't dig that up"

No?

Precious floors are a great nuisance to anyone wanting to do a proper job.

LOL yes I agree. From the CCTV footage it should be directly in the cupboard area but might be partially under the slate. Photo below...

 

[brooky_agb]

Is it possible to buy 1/2 clay soil pipe? I could lay that on top of the existing one. I did a google search but nothing came up looking suitable.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Am I missing something here? There's an old manhole that used to be outside and is now inside and that has had a concrete slab poured over it.

You intend to dig the concrete slab that is over this manhole up and lay another bit in its place?

How will that solve the problem?

 

[brooky_agb]

Am I missing something here? There's an old manhole that used to be outside and is now inside and that has had a concrete slab poured over it.

You intend to dig the concrete slab that is over this manhole up and lay another bit in its place?

How will that solve the problem?

Yes you are missing the fact that there are two pipes (only the first can be seen in the first photo) coming off to the left. Basically I want to seal these f*ck3rs off in the off chance it *may* fix the issue.

I've replaced the downstairs bathroom (professionally) and we just have a sink in the utility room. All the u bends are full. This is my last ditch attempt to fix the issue before I burn the f*ck!ng house down once and for all.

 

[conny]

Petrol is quite cheap at the moment. Lol

 

[endecotp]

I presume you've tried to work put where these unused pipes lead to...

 

[brooky_agb]

I presume you've tried to work put where these unused pipes lead to...

We had some partition walls put in and a bit of a rearrange. This included toilet move and new soil pipe which goes immediately outside to junction. The one in the pic is the old redundant one. I don't think the builders sealed it off properly. We used a cheap building company which was the only one we could afford at the time. The average age of the workers was about 13 I think. LOL

Yes petrol is cheap. Rekon just a litre will do it.

Jesus I hope this works. I'm just going to dig the floor up and see what happens. Probably get a few cans of Stella for good measure to help along the way.