Agricultural sulfur is unlikely to be very effective in a container situation. It can actually be much too effective. A frequent contributor in the fruit forum ended up with pH readings below three in containers that were amended with too much elemental sulfur. Yes, given the biological action that's required, it's not as effective in containers as in the soil, but that doesn't mean that it's ineffective. It just takes time. And yes, the ratio is 1 CUP of vinegar to one gallon of water - that is a 15 times dilution of a relatively weak 5% acid. Not enough of a jolt in pH to cause concern but enough to be of benefit to the plant. 1 tablespoon is not enough to have any measurable effect on pH. I don't want to be argumentative, but can you provide a reference for that claim? One tablespoon does have a measurable effect on my well water, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone recommend one cup per gallon (even for blueberries). Regardless, there's a simple way for the OP and anyone else to determine exactly how much vinegar to use -- test the pH of your irrigation water with an inexpensive test kit or strips. This post was edited by shazaam on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 19:48

Since I last posted, I've narrowed a few things down. One of the rooms that was affected (there were 2 rooms total), has been fixed. The french drain I installed around the perimeter of the front of the house, where water was creeping under the foundation, seems to have fixed the issue in the larger room. There is now no more musty smell in there. However, the other room, which is a "closet" that backs up directly to a bathroom, still has the odor, which has actually gotten worse. The smell is definitely partially sweet, and partially musty. I've cut the drywall all the way around the room to see if there is any signs of water damage, dead animals, etc inside of the walls. Interestingly enough, the inside of the walls that butt up to other rooms, smell fine. The walls that have concrete on the other side, have the odor present (perimeter walls). The only two things I haven't addressed yet are the roof (I'd have to cut the ceiling open because there is no attic access at this point for how low the roof pitches). The other thing would be the foundation (slab). I have fairly expensive laminate flooring and underlayment in that room, which would have to be removed, and the floor would have to be inspected for dampness. However, given the circumstances, it's been narrowed down quite a bit. The room has 4 walls (2 butt up to exterior concrete and 2 others butt up to interior rooms), a standard hollow core wood door, a West-facing window, and a drywall knockdown ceiling. There is only two piece of furniture in the room, which are bookcases. One is MDF (still wrapped in plastic to hold it together before I bolt it in), and the other is pine wood, also wrapped in thin plastic to protect it. I've just put two large shop fans, a big air purifier, an ionizer, and ozone generator all in the room with a big bucket of damprid (although humidity levels in that room are only 49% in south florida, which is fairly average). I've also sprayed half a can of lysol air spray into the room. I'll let you guys know how that works out, and hopefully we can figure it out. and ESMAN - let me know your notes as well. Thanks.

Based upon the general layout of this line it appears that your jurisdiction is primarily under the International Residential Code. The height of the standpipe is fine. By necessity there is always a horizontal section of pipe between the vent and the trap. Under the IRC the minimum lenght of that horizontal section is 2x the pipe diameter and the maximum length is determined by dividing the pipe diameter by the required pitch. All pipes 3" or under are required to have a 1/2" per foot pitch so if this is a 2" line the maximum developed length of horizontal pipe from the vent to the trap may not exceed 2 / .25 = 8'. The horizonatal section of pipe connected to the stack is running parallel to a concrete block wall. A standard concrete block is 16" long and the pipe appears to be equal to the lenght of 4 blocks so I am estimating the length at 4 x 16" = 64" plus another 12" for the offset to the riser. I am assuming the top of the riser is directly behind the quarter bend protruding from the wall at the standpipe location. Allowing an additional 4" for each 1/4 bend we get 64"+12+4"+4" = 84". 84" /12" per foot = 7' so the length of the run is within the allowable 8' however there are two serious problems with this installation. 1. The stack to which the standpipe line is connected is black pipe plastic pipe. We would need to see the writing on that pipe to be sure because they did at one time make black PVC pipe but normally black DWV(Drain, Waste & Vent) pipe is ABS plastic and code prohibits directly gluing dissimilar pipe. (ABS to PVC or vice versa). While that would be considered a code violation, in this case it would have no effect on the problem at hand so for the moment lets disregard that problem. 2. The second problem is that there is a toilet discharging into the stack at some point above where this connection is made. This means the vertical stack is a wet vent and code prohibits connecting a fixture drain to a wet vent downstream of a toilet. There is an easy solution: The IRC will permit an unlimited use of Air Admitance Valves (commonly called Studor Vents). On the horizontal pipe in the basement cut the pipe on the offset or near the offset end of the horizontal from the stack. Install a Wye & 1/8 bend or a COMBO with the side opening point upward. Stub a short riser vertical about 12" and put an 1-1/2" female thread adapter on the top, then screw an AAV into the thread adapter. This would then make the connection legal because the pipe from the trap to the AAV location would be considered the fixture drain but the line downstream of the AAV to the stack is now a vented branch line, which is legal to connect to the stack. Not only would this make the installation legal but it would also provide the additional venting required to resolve your problem.

The Lysol product's active ingredients are quaternary disinfectants. You could buy a gallon jug of quats at Menard's, etc., to treat the laundry--in a top loader. I would soak for the requisite time, spin out and then run the laundry in a regular cycle with detergent. Since the objective is to kill odors & bacteria & virus, just kill them at the get-go, then launder to avoid having residual product left on your clothing. I'm going to guess that buying a gallon jug of quaternary disinfectant is going to be a lot cheaper in the long run. I have a couple of gallons of it around that I've found at garage sales. Useful stuff to have around for exterior use if you live where you have lots of rain/ humidity.