Regardless of who you are or where in the world you live, sniffing a foul-smelling odor in the air inside your home is highly unpleasant. If you have noticed a disgusting smell of rotten eggs or sulfur by your kitchen sinks, toilets or shower drains, it could be sewer gas you’re smelling.
Unfortunately, a sewer gas smell is a common plumbing problem that can be incredibly challenging to eliminate in your home if you’re unsure what to do about it. Luckily, instead of trying to mask a sewer gas smell in your home with air fresheners, essential oils, and reed diffusers, you can find it and get rid of it for good.
All you must do is read the team at Scully’s Plumbing & Heating’s top tips for how to find a sewer smell in the house and fix it. With our help, you can prevent a fire risk by removing the flammable compounds in sewer gas, like ammonia and methane. You can also ensure you remain in good health by preventing nausea, memory issues, fatigue, and dizziness. So let’s dive in!
How Does A Sewer Gas Smell Get Into Your Home?
Before we consider how to eliminate the sewer gas smell in your house, we want to tell you more about how it gets into your home. See below for a few of the most common ways sewer gasses enter your home. Identifying where they get into your home will help you fix the problem.
Clogged Drains
The most typical cause of a sewer gas smell in your house is clogged drains. When a drain is clogged, your home’s wastewater cannot go where it needs to, leading to odors making their way back up the drain instead of going down.
Luckily, identifying this problem is simple; you need only look at the drains in your home to determine if water is backing up in your bathtub when you drain it or the toilet when you flush it. Fixing those issues can be complex, so it’s best to speak with a plumber.
Improper Ventilation
Unfortunately, not every home has the ventilation it needs. The plumbing in your home needs proper airflow ways to pass through piping easily—otherwise, a vacuum is created and trap seals are lost.
If you’re smelling a sewer gas smell, your home might not have proper airflow through a reliable plumbing vent. This vent is a vertical pipe attached to your house that extends through the roof. To see if this is the cause of the sewer gas smell in your home, look at this vent to determine if it’s effectively removing gasses and odors.
Loose Or Dry Plumbing
Every home will experience loose or dry plumbing at some point in time. For example, in most homes, the connection point around the base of a toilet will begin loosening first. Should you be smelling sewer gas, you need to check the base of your toilet for cracks or incorrect seals. Human waste smells easily travel through these crevices and into your home.
Unfortunately, the bacteria from this waste can often spread throughout your home. This is why it’s a good idea to seek a plumber like Scully’s Plumbing & Heating to fix the issue.
What Are The Ways I Can Fix A Sewer Gas Smell In My House?
First and foremost, you should note that you will probably need a plumber to fix these smells, so it’s a good idea to start looking for one now. Luckily, there are many ways to fix a sewer gas smell in your home. We have mentioned a few of them below.
1. Seal Your Toilet Bases
As you know, sewer odors can leak through a dry or loose seal at your toilet’s base. So if your toilet bases aren’t sufficiently sealed, you need to properly seal them to the floor to keep them secure and prevent unpleasant odors from escaping. Fortunately, if this is the problem, it can be fixed easily. We have detailed the process below:
- Old sealant will be removed from around a toilet base with a razor or putty knife.
- After the old sealant is removed, debris will be cleared away with a bathroom cleaner and cloth.
- Once the area around the base is clear, plaster or grout will be applied between the toilet and the floor. Consider using caulk if the floor is not tile.
- Once the new plaster/grout is down, a sponge will be utilized to remove any excess plaster/grout and deepen the seal.
2. Clean Your Sink Overflow
Did you know that your home has multiple sink overflows? You will find a sink overflow underneath or across from a faucet. These areas can cause your sewer gas smell near your sink since they are prone to accumulating scum, bacteria, soap, and hair.
In addition to this, since these areas with sink overflows (typically bathroom sinks) are exposed to hard water and mineral buildup, they can prevent an overflow from draining how it should. Moreover, since it’s located in areas people often don’t want to touch, it often isn’t cleaned as much as it should be.
Usually, to fix this smell, you need to clean the sink overflows, which can be quickly done with a small bottle brush or chemical solution. Many people opt to use half chlorine and half water solution as it eats away grime. However, since these are dangerous chemicals, it might be best to leave them to professionals.
3. Clean Out Any Bacterial Growth In Your Drains
Like sink overflows, drains can also experience organic matter build-up and soap scum, leading to sewer gas smells in a home. Luckily, it’s easy to clean out bacteria growth in your drains and eliminate a sewer gas smell in your home. We have listed two of the possible solutions you can use below:
- A baking soda and vinegar solution: This is one of the best non-toxic ways to clean your drains of bacteria while getting rid of a sewer gas smell. You will add about a cup of baking soda to a clogged toilet or slow drain. They will wait a few minutes before following up with two cups of vinegar. After waiting a few minutes, you will flush the toilet and hopefully fix the sewer gas smell issue.
- Biological drain cleaner: A biological drain cleaner for your drains is another gentle approach to removing a sewer gas smell in your home. Biological cleaners don’t have caustic chemicals, and usually all that’s needed is for a biological cleaner to be poured down the offending drains.
Speak With An Expert At Scully’s Plumbing And Heating Today
In our article, we only spoke of a few of the ways a sewer gas smell can be fixed in your home. If you want professional help, you can speak with an expert at Scully’s Plumbing & Heating. We can investigate your house to find the cause and a solution, whether it involves flushing your drains, getting rid of root overgrowth, or conducting a video drain inspection. So get in contact with us today and let us make your sewer drain odors a worry of the past.
