smelly pit

[jsbemail]

I have a sump pump pit in my basment. It has a strong sewer smell coming from it. The sump pump is piped into the plumbing. It was replaced along with the check valve appox 6months ago. This leads me to believe that I have a broken pipe out side of the house and sewer water is draining into the footing drain. However their is no water coming up the surface. If i do have a broken pipe what is the method for splicing in a new section. It is probably cast iron pipe because we were on septic and now tied into the city sewer. But if it turns out to be clay pipe how do i spice in?

 

[Prashster]

not a pro

Is your pit properly sealed?
Is the check valve working properly? Was it mounted horiz or vertically?

I'd look at these first.

If the pipe break were large enough to send enough effluent through your earth to the footing drain to your sump to stink, then you'd likely notice something above ground on your lawn too (either bright green patches or spongy ground, or sewage smell). Also, these pipes are deep in the ground, so a crack would probably have occured during installation and would have been noticed very quickly. If your pit is only recently starting to stink, I suspect one of the above to be a more likely prob.

important note-
I'm not a pro

 

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[jsbemail]

My pit is sealed, in that I built an enclosure around it and now have it vented out the dryvent to keep the house from smelling. I know the checkvalve is working because when the pump shuts off no water fills back in the pit. Also the valve is mounted vertically. The age of the pipe in the ground is probably 25 years old.
Could it be possible that the pipe broke due to settling of the back fill- we added and moved around dirt when we bought the house 4 years ago. Also we are having a very dry season and the ground could be absorbing the water rather than it surfacing.
If i have to fix the pipe I still need to find out how to spice in a new section.