Fixing a Smelly Basement
We hadn't really left the house in a couple of days. Came back from a long day trip running around and...phew!
The Problem
Walked straight to the basement...odor was worse. Smelled kind of like wet, moldy laundry. We have these drains sunk into the floor connected in a straight line and headed for the main sewer system under the street in front of the house. The drains! The smell was coming from the drains. One drain, specifically.
Now, we had these drains rodded first thing when we took possession of this place. Oh man! It had been awhile since anyone had done that.
The Attempt at Diagnosis: Doing our homework
Now...why the quick increase in the smell quotient? And, by the way, it was SO bad, it hit us when we walked in the front door on the first floor. Here was what had changed in the last few days that offered some clues...
Wednesday. We fired up the old dishwasher after Sears fixed the door latch and also had the steam boiler serviced for the cold weather.
Thursday. We began using dishwasher. Had been using it once a day. Who knows how long since it had been used. It was listed "as is" in the sale and, well, who knows what was put through that poor dishwasher.
Friday. We caught up on the laundry. Weather became cold overnight and for the first time ever, at about 9 pm, we fired up the boiler for more than an hour. Mmmmm. Toasty.
Saturday. We turned down the boiler because now the weather had warmed. (As we say in Chicago...wait a minute...weather'll change.) Rolled out the door pretty early to be on our way. Returned at 5 pm to, um, stinky house.
So...where to look first? Clogged mainline drain? Strange boiler issue I've never had to deal with? Suspicious dishwasher? Overloaded clothes washer?
Is this house going to blow up? We've got the windows open, it's freezing, and the only one sleeping happily, peacefully is the dog (she's got a thick coat, that dog.)
Oh yes, and the cat is accounted for. Dave's up here, hanging out in the linen built-in.
No Dave in the drain for this mystery. Unlike our poor pal on the Fine Homebuilding forum...
Our Solution
We wanted to try to tackle this one ourself. So, I turned to three resources:
1) The book, Renovating Old Houses, By George Nash
Really. If you have an old house...GET THIS BOOK! It is the MOST fantastic resource on the peculiarities of old houses. And most practical.
2) The guys and gals at Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime forum. They are most talented.
The folks at Breaktime provided us with a valuable clue, even though they've never seen our system....AIR, not water, is stinky. (I had automatically assumed it was stinky water.) Possibly from a vent stack somehow leaking back into the house.
After church, the DH and I crawled under the room on the back of the house and pulled up the cover on the catch basic. STINKY! Noticed that the water was extremely low and stagnant. Only thing getting into the pipes that drain from back to front of house was air.
Then we checked the drains set in the floor from front to back. Two of the three were sealed with a small amount of standing water in the bottom. Middle one? Stinkiest one? Dry as a bone.
These drains angle from their intake on the basement floor down to the sewer system...(They head down on an angle towards the main line under the house.)
So, the first thing we have tried is this: ran a hose and raised the water level in the catch basin. Poured a few bucketfuls down the dry drain to seal it up again.
We went out for a couple of hours. Left some windows open. If this didn't work, we were going to try something more dramatic.
How it Went
It worked! No more stinky smell in the house! The water in the drain has now sealed the passageway to the vent stack and vented air is not leaking back into the house.
After speaking to a few neighbors later, we realized that this is not a new phenomenon. We have a dehumidifier and a warm steam boiler down there. Whatever happened, that middle drain dried up mighty fast and had to be re-primed. We need to check it once a month (no problem!)
Tool & Materials We Used
- A bucket
- A flashlight
- A hose
Other Useful Resources
-The book, Renovating Old Houses, By George Nash
For example, George's description of an old home plumbing system was critical to solving the mystery:
-Fine Building Magazine's "Breaktime" forum
-Our neighbors
Cost
Nothing but time....
(6)
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Comments
Ooooo, drat! I was all prepared to sweep in and save the day, but you figured it out. Congrats! That was one of the first lessons I learned when we moved into our house. Gotta keep those traps full of water or things get stinky!
Posted by: Kitschywoman | September 22, 2003 9:04 AM
Great job guys.
This ahppens to us if wer'e gone for a few weeks without running water into the laundry tub. Same thing.
Gadzooks !!!!!
Dad
Posted by: dad | September 22, 2003 7:15 PM
Glad to hear you found a solution that works!
I'm having the same problem now. I poured a few buckets down the drain and it seemed to work. But now the smell is back. I tried it again last night and this morning it still kinda smelled.
What I didn't do was check the catch basin on the outside of the house. How much water should be in it?
-Ray
Posted by: Raymond | October 30, 2003 4:24 PM
Sorry about that bogus email address. Can't remember them all!
The more I dig around your web-site, the more I'm lovin it! I truly can appreciate what you are going through. I'm on my second bungalow. I did such a good job on the first one that someone knocked it down and built a new one. Anyways, my second one is going a lot better and was in better shape from the beginnng. Can't wait to see what you're going to tackle next!
-Ray
Posted by: Raymond | October 30, 2003 4:39 PM
Get a couple of quarts of cheap cooking oil at the supermarket and put that down the floor drains. Evaporates a whole lot more slowly than water...
Posted by: John | January 11, 2004 9:15 PM
4-17-9pm been having a smell yuks in basement. Added maybe 1 gallon of water-work on everyones else home-roofing but have not solved this problem until it seems like tonight. Added approx 14 gallons of clear h20 and drain in middle of basement floor quit gurguling after 8 gallons added 6 more (overkill)? This is the way I do my roofing don't want any call backs or dissapointments. So far the drain is not allowing air to enter drain as so my flashinglight shows. I was in the right direction just did not enter enough water but after a hard roof tear off on a 16 pitch and 3 brewskis? I decided to address my own problems and not sacum (retire) to the easy chair but delve further into the smell in the basement on my 1925 700sf home (with a big lot!) Thanks for the added water advise-take care and stay dri Richard
Posted by: richard | April 17, 2004 8:47 PM