Homeowner here, on well and septic. We had an existing 1990s home majorly renovated. We get an intermittent sewer/rotten egg/boiled egg smell in different parts of the house. I’ve had the builder and plumbing contractor out multiple times, usually they can’t smell it.
- I did have a lot of iron and sulfur bacteria in well water but took care of this. The smell interestingly changed a bit to more of a boiled egg rather than rotten egg…
- There is a lift pump pit in the basement that wasn’t properly vented. Fixing that helped a bit but it still smells randomly on the first AND second floors.
- sometimes the smell comes through the vents when the fan is blowing.
- They said they checked the roof vent stack and everything was fine.
- I just noticed that some of the PVC waste pipes run through the cold air returns. Could this be a problem? Is it allowed?
- Could the septic system somehow be wafting smells back to the house?
I’ve even gone through the basement on a ladder and smelled every PVC waste pipe joint and it doesn’t smell like it does upstairs.
Any ideas? I’m probably going to get a second opinion from another plumber but just wondering what they would be looking for.
- I did have a lot of iron and sulfur bacteria in well water but took care of this. The smell interestingly changed a bit to more of a boiled egg rather than rotten egg…
- There is a lift pump pit in the basement that wasn’t properly vented. Fixing that helped a bit but it still smells randomly on the first AND second floors.
- sometimes the smell comes through the vents when the fan is blowing.
- They said they checked the roof vent stack and everything was fine.
- I just noticed that some of the PVC waste pipes run through the cold air returns. Could this be a problem? Is it allowed?
- Could the septic system somehow be wafting smells back to the house?
I’ve even gone through the basement on a ladder and smelled every PVC waste pipe joint and it doesn’t smell like it does upstairs.
Any ideas? I’m probably going to get a second opinion from another plumber but just wondering what they would be looking for.