Sewer Gas and Sump Pump

I have a bad smell comming from our washtub pump in the basement. Last year we had two plumbers look at the situation, and they said we needed a new pump. The pump works fine. It is the smell that we were upset about. In the spring the smell went away, but it has returned in the last few weeks. I run water in the tub in the morning for a few minutes letting the pump flush a few times, and it seems to help. Any ideas? I don't want to spend $500 for a new pump, as our pump works fine.

Please read my past articles about biofilm on the inside of drain pipes. I feel that is the issue. Type biofilm into the search box at the top of this page.

Tim, I am having a problem with sewer gas on the outside of my home. It seems to be coming from the vents on the roof and I only notice it either early in the morn or on a cloudy overcast day. I had problems with my septic system and had it replaced with-in the past year. I detect no odor around the new installation. Any advise you could give me on how to eliminate this problem would be appreciated. Thanks carl

Try relocating your vent stacks to the highest part of your roof where they will have a nearly constant breeze blowing across them.

Yes , We have moved into a new home six months ago and We have a problem. The Master bathroom has two sinks and both are used daily but one sink has a foul smell coming up through the drain always and we have the same problem in our hallway bathroom on one of the sinks in their also and it too is used always also. The bathrooms are on the top floor and the only problems with the odor coming up.

Toni,
I explain exactly why this happens in several other columns on this website. Type biofilm into the Search Box above to find those columns.

I moved into a townhouse last july. Everything seemed ok. The passed three weeks however a terrible smell is comming from the sump-pump and kitchen drains. The landlord called a drain man out and he cleaned out the main drain but it still smells. Pryer to this I had to call a plumer out three different times to fix the toliet. I don't know what could have changed.

Thanks

EN

EN,
I suggest you read all of the columns of mine that have the word "biofilm" in them. Also read all of my columns about Sewer Gas. Be sure to read all of the comments and my replies.

After heavy rain, I get a sulfur/sewer smell only in my laundry room. The "P" trap in laundry sink has water in it so it's not coming from there. The plumbers checked the vent pipe for blockage (none found). Check the height of the vent pipe (OK). Poured bleach-like substance down it to see if the bleach smell came into the room (no smell detected). The plumbers are stumped and I'm tired of getting this smell everytime we get a heavy downpour. Please help. Thanks.

Jill,

Do you have a floor drain in the laundry room? If so, have you poured any water in it recently? Some times the water in the drain will evaporate. Try pouring some water down the drain and see what happens after the next rain.

Roger: No, I don't have a floor drain. The water evaporation theory was eliminated (water found in laundry sink trap & washing machine standpipe). Most commments state septic tank drainfield overflow; however, it's city sewer. If it's just a brief downpour, there's no smell - only when it's a continual heavy rain. We're stumped because the smell is only in the laundry room & no where else in the house. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Last year we had the roto-rooter guy out to unplug our main drain. We live in a townhouse. We discovered that our sinks & bathtubs share the same main drain. Is this normal for townhouses to share a drain?

There's no floor drain. Also, laundry sink has water in P trap - evaporation theory eliminated. We have city sewer, not septic. We think it may be somehow connected to the storm drain backing up, but I'm not sure why we only get the smell in the laundry room.

My issue is very much like the original poster but I don't notice any drop in water levels and there does appear to be vented (there are to vents within about three feet on the roof above where the pump and the kitchen are). The problem is noticable only after having a shower. When we moved in, the pump would activate every time we flushed the toilet, now its more like every sixth time. The landlord tells us that the house hasn't been occupied for nearly a year and thinks things have "dried up" and will return to normal shortly. I have my 12 year old son living down in a basement bedroom so I'm very concerned. We don't really want to be paying for a plumber since we're renting, and the landlord is taking a wait and see attitude. Any advice?

I'm stumped! My basement sump pump was changed, sealed and vented properly. However, "not all the time" I still get a foul smell (sewer smell) in my basement. The sump pump is in a closet. The smell is NEVER in that area, however it is in the middle of the basement room (my office) and tends to be coming from the drop ceiling. I removed all the panels and followed the vent line (which is a seperate line) and I see no cracks or possible leaks anywhere. What can be causing this foul smell? The really confusing fact is that it only happens now and then and not all the time. Could wind be blowing back down the vent line pushing the smell back into the house? Why doesn't the smell radiate around the sump pump? It doesn't! I am really not sure what to do next. HELP?

Hi Tim, I just had a question I thought you might be able to answer. My husband and I are looking at buying our first house, however the one that we really like has some sort of a make-shift pump in the basement. It looks like a previous owner had a flooding problem and decided to cut a fairly good sized hole in the basement floor and then stuck a pump in it that sucks any water thats under the house through a PVC pipe out side. We didn't really know if this was a usual approach or just an attempt to save money vs. doing it correctly. Also the house has a crack in the foundation on the back corner... I just wanted to see how severe the repairs would be (if any) and if it would be worth the time and effort. Thanks for your time.

i have a sump pump for a toilet, washer/dryer... its making the toilet gurgle too, my question is, what if i dont have a way to vent a 3" pipe from the sealed sump up and out the house? can i get away with other options? i thought about one of those 2" vents you can buy that allow air to come in but not out (they say you can install where you have access), but that wouldnt help with the issue of if there is a pressure buildup of water rushing into the tank and air needing to get out... any helpful ideas?

i have the same issue at the "dear tim" bellow... my quesion or concern is i dont have a way to run a vent up and out the roof! can i just install one of those 2" breather vents you can buy. then just install right at the sealed sump? or is there other ideas?


DEAR TIM: We have just finished renovating our bathroom and we have a problem with sewer gas smells. The house is a split-level on a septic system. This lower-level bathroom drains into a holding tank or sealed sump. When the tank reaches a certain level, the water and waste is pumped up to where it can flow into the septic system via gravity. Each time the pump operates, the new toilet bubbles and loses some water in the bowl. Within a few minutes, the room is filled with a stinky odor

Very infrequently I have a sewer smell in my basement office. I have a bathroom there that goes to a sump pump where waste is pumped upwards to the ceptic drain line. All connections and seals were checked and found secure. However, every now and then, I get the worst sewer smell that is very offensive. I cannot find the source and it is driving me nuts. If it were a constant problem maybe I could learn what is causing the smell. Once or twice every other month the smell is strong and will linger for a day or two and then it disappears. What the heck is causing this?

My vent line was the first thing we checked and it is okay.

Help?

Dan

I work in a convinence store. As soon as I would walk in the store I could smell sewer. They fixed the problem so they say but I can still smell it in different areas. Is that possible. It still makes me want to throw up and I get a headache.

We have a smelly sump pump pit that can smell up our whole house with the use of laundry, baths, dishwasher, showers etc. It comes and goes witht he seasons and the temps and now it is back and seems to not be budging. It can go as quickly as it came. But long story short, we have been battling this problem for 6 years now on and off. We have replaced septic system and main line, smoke tests, vents checked, water tests, dye tests and STILL it comes back...WHAT ON EARTH can it be?? When we open a window in the basement the smell goes away but when you open the door to the sump pump room it STINKS!!! Open the sump pump pit itself and it stinks even more!!!! We have dumped gallons of bleach down and NOTHING. We would love ideas of what to do next. Thank you!

Hi, (sorry for the dup post, but email was incorrect on last one)

I renovated my basement (4 years ago) and installed a bathroom with shower, sink, toilet and laundry room with a slop sink. All this dumps into a sewage basin (Flotec) that I bought at Home Depot. The washing machine pumps waste directly into my sewage main (into a p-trap). I rarely use the shower or toilet because it is more of a convenience and not my primary bath on the first floor. I installed a 2" PVC pipe that runs 7' vertically to the ceiling of my basement (plus the 30" into the basin connected to the ejector pump) and then about 10' horizontally tapped into my cast iron main sewage (4") pipe. I have a check valve and a ball valve (for emergencies) installed on the horizontal section. I vented with a separate 2" PVC pipe that is independent of any other vent of the house. I did not want suction to cause the house's P-Traps to empty and cause a "sewage gas" leak back into the house. Now, I sometimes get a bad odor in the laundry room. Sometimes I don't get the smell, but it is happening more often and it starts to move throughout the house. I sometimes flush the toilet to get fresh water in the basin and move the water around. I use a septic system enzyme treatment occasionally( but don't know how often to add to my system since the directions say that only a capful is needed for hundreds of gallons--my basin isn't that big) I believe everything was done properly, but I don't know why I am still getting the bad odor. Sometimes it sets off my explosive gas detector. (either that or it is malfunctioning). Any ideas as to what could be causing this and how I can prevent it? I have checked some articles on biofilm, but don't believe it to be related. Besides, my drain pipes are elevated from the sewage basin. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi Tim. Can you tell me if there is a portable device that can detect odours in a room? Sometimes I wake at night in my bedroom and I can smell a odour, I think it could be sewer gas but I'm not sure. Is there a tester that can pick up what kind of smell I'm smelling? We have a Bison floor and the sewer pipes are attached to the Bisons (there is a large space under the bisons due to the level of the footings being raised to reach the main sewer. My bedroom is downstairs and the pipes are under my floor attached to the top of the bisons. Could the smell come up through the bisons? I have a en suite but I don't detect any smell there. I hope you can reply to this. Many thanks....Connie
PS...there isn't a smell anywhere else, the space under my bedroom is bricked up from the rest of the space under the house.

I have this smell coming from my sump pump pit in my basement and i was wondering why it is there and how i can get rid of it. Thank you

Dear Tim,
Two years ago we bought this old but new to us house in far upstate NY where there seem to be few if any building regulations. If thewre are no one knows and they are certainly NOT enforced. After a year we noticed a foul odor. We had a four year old daughter and I was, and still am, recoveringt from three heart attack and a stroke. When the odor persisted I went to the basement and was surprised to find that the septic was vented, with a 3 inch top-open PVC pipe three feet high, into our basement, not outside the house. When we asked different local (Burke,NY) plumbers they all said so what? Last spring a quick thaw cause the pipe to back-up and sewage overflow filled the basement to a depth of six inches and nearly reached the furnace. We had to evacuate for weeks, but the building inspector said the vent pipe was not a problem the high water table was. So against my better judgment we left it as it was after the cleanup. Foul odors again are gassing us out. It seems to happen only in winter. I was afraid for our health and called a different plumber; despite my telling him I wanted it to connect to an exsisting PVC pipe venting outside that had been cut off and run it up the side of the house through brackets already there, where clearly it was vented once before, he insisted I only needed to just go up a few feet. I spoke with his boss who, outraged, told me the of course it had to go up the side of the house as far as possible and he'd tell his man so! But when that fellow returned today he put it outside only a few feet, his way, not mine or his bosses way. To make it worse he put a new hole in the foundation instead of attaching it to the exsisting old (PVC) pipe that though cut off already went through the foundation to the outside. Besides that the new hole is too big for the new pipe, it's open enough now to let mice and rats march right into the basement. I'm from Massachusetts where strict codes are written and enforced, (Title V is the newest), about this sort of thing. No one here seems to even know there's even a good way and a bad way, a right and a wrong way, to do anything; let alone that there is, or are, any such things as sanitation, health and building code standards. Did I mention that last year when it was pumped out we found the septic tank is apparently just piped into the thick woods behind our house where there cannot possibly be a leach field! HELP!!!

Dear Tim,

P.S.
I think I forgot to mention that the plumber who answered our call and came to the house assured us that sewer gas was harmless. I thiught different, and so it seems do you. What the heck is going on here? Is this gross incompetence or sheer stupidity? Will negligent manslaughter be next after we all die asleep in our beds during the night? What should I, we, do???

I work at a radio station and we have a sepic system of course. However, it smells terrible in here. We've had 3 plumbers here to check the pipes for leaks,poured water down some hole, we've put bleach in the traps(?), we've had air duck cleaners here and they don't know where the smell is comming from. We've tryed just about everything that they have suggested! We cant have the public come here and it smell this way. Please help!

We have a "sulphur" type smell in our basement that seems to be coming from the sump well. The washer drains to the well, as does the ac/furnace, and water softener. There is also some type of drainage tile (french drain?) that comes in from the exterior, although it has to be raining extremely hard for a long period to get any water trickling in (we sit fairly high). We have live there 7 years and have only noticed this recently. We had a new washer installed last week, but the smell was starting a little beforehand. The sump drain does have a backflow valve, that seems ok.

I moved in to this house 6 months ago. We have a sewer smell only after doing laundry. We have a finished basement. How do we detect/correct the problem?

Mid February 09', we found that our distribution box was cracked in our septic system. We have lift station septic system. We contacted a local septic repair company and they cleaned all the leach lines, replaced the distribution box and added an aggitator to the tank. Recently now June 09', we have been getting strong but inconsistent semlls of sewer gas in our basement and outside of our home around the tanks. We have had them back out and all fittings and seals are good, they recommend pouring water down the washing machine drain and to not finish a cycle using hot water to prevent the trap from evaporating. The problem is, we have not had this problem until repairs/overhaul of our system was completed. Is this related to warmer weather? It absolutely has no rhyme or reason as to why it smells. We get the smell on warm days, raining days, or not at all. We are stumped????? Can you offer a beacon of hope as to where to look now? Thank you so much for helping us with a smelly problem!!

I have the same issue as Jill, with sewer gas smells after heavy rains. I do have a floor drain in the basement, and that is where the smell is coming from, but I regularly pouring water down the drain has not remedied.

Smell is only associated with heavy rains - could this be a city problem? I do not have septic.

Living in a home that's about 50 yrs. old. I see NO vents on the roof. The drain field is soaked. The house reeks of sewage oder. No one seems to know where septic is nore has not been emptied. They've owned for 20 yrs. No where in your answers have I seen is this stuff dangerous and how dangerous is this to ones health? And what should be done?

My stink pipe coming out the roof will some times freeze over and plug up with frost.

I have read to put oil in the sump pump crock. It will seal the stink
because cooking oil will not mix with water. I just did it tonight, so I dont know the results yet. The
oil floats to the top of the water.

moved into my house 3 years ago and in the last couple of weeks the outside drain of my sump pump has a sewer smell coming from it. my sump drains into a drain tile outside, not sure were it drains to. the smell gets to be so strong that you can smell it when you are driving by my house.