mystery stink!

16 years ago

Please help us! We have been in our house (new construction) about 4 months. About a month ago, we had a sudden strange mystery stink in our master bedroom closet. It went away in about 2 days. Now is has returned, this time in the master bedroom bathroom.

These are the facts we can put together:

1. really smelly--like urine soaked training pants + menstrual pad + old fish

2. we have not stuffed anything gross anywhere!

3. has only happened these two times

4. both times were after really hard rains and lots of wind

What in the world could we be dealing with here?? How do you track down a mystery stink??

We are bewildered and at a loss as what could be causing it and how we can stop it...

Thank you for your suggestions!

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Comments (10)

wearybuilder
Original Author
16 years ago
Update....mystery stink is gone this morning. We have checked all over the house, and downstairs under the two "offending" areas, and there were no leaks of any kind, nor was the mystery stink noticed anywhere else.

That area of the house is on the outside end....could an animal be making that smell? It is not a skunk smell (former country gal--I know that smell!).

Thanks again to anyone who can help me in solving this mystery!
izzie
16 years ago
Under construction..Could it be sewer gas? Maybe your plumbing is not finished yet? Maybe the vent that usually goes up through the roof isn't finished? Or it could be a dead animal somewhere?
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FOLLOWUP! In July 2012- I had sewer gas leaking into my bedroom, bathroom, and then up to the upstairs level of the house for five months. It was awful. I have an 18 inch crawlspace and a raised floor. Under the house is dirt and the pipes. I had FOUR plumbers and TWO handymen check it out. They found NOTHING! They were too big to fit around the pipes!!! We had put in a new toilet, and I had that pulled up and put down again, just in case. but that was fine. We checked all the traps, and now keep them full of water, so they are fine. The plumbers gave me estimates of $4500 for a sewer cleanout installation in front of the house, and $6800 to repipe the bad pipes, if they found any.... I did not have the money, and they really had no plan, just guesses. Last August 2012, I luckily found a neighbor friend who was able to crawl around under the house. He was a little guy, and knew how to do plumbing and other repairs!! He found leaking and large cracks in the main drain sewer pipe at the ground level, around the back of the pipe, hidden from general view and he used epoxy to repair it. This pipe was attached to other pipes, and if it needs to be replaced it will be a difficult job. That pipe was directly below the downstairs bathroom. That reduced about 70 % of the smell and seems to be holding tight with no more leaking there. But sewer gases were still leaking from somewhere else, but not as bad, or as often. it still kept coming back about every three days.They centered in my bedroom, and seemed to come out of the floor. Oddly, from the beginning, the gases only happened around 1am until 5am, then stopped all day long, so no one could smell them, unless they stayed all night. From the first repair, the gasses only occurred about every three days or so, and not as severe, but still stinky. My friend came back into town in November, and went back under the house, and found stress marks on the larger pipe that attached to the MAIN drain sewer pipe, and ran towards the front of the house. This pipe traveled directly under my BED, and the cracks were basically under my pillow area. (What LUCK!) He had to replace that whole pipe, and to get it inside we opened the ground vents and slid it through, and the old pipe out. After he replaced that and all the fittings, the gases were gone! THANK YOU GOD!!! It cost me $800 just to investigate all this, and get nothing for the repairing of it from that! Plumbers were just ready to get paid, with no idea what was actually wrong!!! My friend only charged me $550 plus parts for this! I suffered through it for five months, and hope the sewer gases didn't harm me in any way! I sure appreciate the clean smell now!!! By the way, it was an acrid stinky burning smell. It did NOT smell like METHANE, or anything described as general sewage smells. It was just hard to breathe it, and would cause eyes, throat and nose to burn. I had a runny nose right up to the day the last pipe was replaced, and it all stopped. GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE STILL HAVING THIS PROBLEM. I learned far more about plumbing than I ever thought I would need to know!
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wearybuilder
Original Author
16 years ago
izzie--sorry for miscommunicating....we are in the house now (for 4 months). It is a newly built house, so everything had to pass code.

However, we are on a lot that had an old farm house on it previously....
davidandkasie
16 years ago
It is a newly built house, so everything had to pass code.

just because it is new does not mean everything is to code. inspectors can and often do miss things.

is there any plumbing close to teh closet? is the septic field close to that wall?
lazypup
16 years ago
"It is a newly built house, so everything had to pass code."

David is absolutely correct on that point, however not all codes are created equal.

If your local code is based upon the "UPC" (Uniform Plumbing Code) all vents must terminate through the roof, on the other hand, if your local code is modeled after the "IRC" (International Residential Code) all structures are required to have one "Main Vent" which must run undiminished in size from the "House Main Drain" through the roof. After that is achieved any additional auxiliary vents may be reduced to 1/2 the diameter of the line they serve providing the vent is no less than 1-1/4" and auxiliary vents may terminate through the roof, in the attic space, through the wall under certain limitations or they may use an unlimited number of AAV (air admittance valves, commonly called Studor vents).

If you are under the IRC, the next time you smell the odor in the bathroom or bedroom poke your head up into the attic space and see if you smell it there also. If so, you may have a vent terminated in your attic space, and understanding the some of the gases in sewer gas are heavier than air, it would stand firm that the gases being released into the attic space are permeating down through your ceiling materials and into the living space. The permanent solution would be to have that vent extended through the roof.
sacto_diane
16 years ago
Just my .02 having purchased a "new house so it's up to code" when I bought my first house. Spend a few bucks and have a GOOD home inspector come out and do a good look around. I'm sure that you had a home inspection when you bought the house but you need someone that is not affiliated with the builder that built the house or the agent that sold you the house. I'm thinking that you have some plumbing that is not venting right or is venting into an enclosed area.

New homes are built quickly and the inspectors can not check every single detail at every step. Some things do and will fall through the cracks. Also a good detailed inspection will identify potential issues down the road and help you keep your investment in good condition.

Just to close the story, the builder who built my first house ended up as a plaintiff in a class action suit. The whole subdivision was suing the builder for construction faults. Nearly every house needed $50K - $80K of repairs to get them "up to code". One builder died, one committed suicide and the last one skipped out of the country.

Moral of the story: New does not always equal good

Diane
theisma
16 years ago
It could be that your drain trap(s) are dry, and it's a simple fix to add water. I can't explain this any better, but talk to a plumber about it. If the drain trap is dry it certainly smells like a potty!
bus_driver
16 years ago
Reference an earlier post, the person(s) filing a lawsuit are plaintiffs, the person being sued is a defendant. Plaintiffs must prove their claims by a preponderance of the evidence. The defendant must merely defend against those specific claims.
sweeby
16 years ago
If it appeared suddenly and went away suddenly and correlates with changes in weather, it sounds to me like a live animal coming and going. Maybe a possum? Those can smell vile!
sacto_diane
16 years ago
Yes, you are right. Defendant not plaintiff. I know that but I was on my first cup of coffee. LOL...

mystery stink!

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wearybuilder
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izzie

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mystery stink!

Comments (10)

wearybuilderOriginal Author

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wearybuilderOriginal Author

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wearybuilder
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wearybuilder
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