Diagnosing cause of smell that comes and goes.

Discussion in 'Builders' Talk' started by Ze2007, Jun 29, 2020.

  1. Ze2007

    Ze2007 New Member

    Towards the end of the hot spell this Spring I noticed an odd smell in my kitchen. Eventually narrowed it down to coming from underneath the oven on the back wall of the house. I suspect the cause is under the floor and the nearest gap in the floorboards is there.

    The smell is an earthy type smell, but with occasionally a wiff of stagnant water / drains.

    From what I've been able to see from pulling off facia boards and peering under the cabinets with a torch, the floor, and plaster on the back wall looks dry, no sign (that I can see) of any damp or mold. Can't investigate further as kitchen cabinets etc are in the way.

    The smell does seem to come and go, getting stronger after a wet spell and dissipating after a few dry days. Most of the time it's not noticeable in the room and you have to pull out the oven drawer and stick your head in there to even notice it. The house is old and Georgian. The floor in the kitchen is raised wooden floorboards, but tiled over (although not all the way under the kitchen units)

    So, I think cause could be one of these things?
    1) Damp / rot under the floor? :(
    2) Dead mouse or rat?
    3) Cracked drainpipe? My sinks, plugholes etc all drain fine, but I suspect a drain runs under the kitchen, and the fact there's occasionally a faint drain / sewer smell, plus that the smell increases after heavy rain..
    4) Just earth and nothing to worry about...

    Not sure what to do next. My home insurance does include trace and access cover, but even so I have an excess of £200 and investigating under the floor would be disruptive and probably involve removing kitchen units etc. Plus possibly breaking tiles (of which I don't have spare)
    Other option is get a drainage survey done to see if that reveals a problem?
    Or wait a bit longer and see if it goes away?

    Any advice appreciated. I've been in the house 4 years and this is the first time I've noticed anything.
     
  2. spirits are real 2016

    spirits are real 2016 Screwfix Select

    You could buy your own endoscopic camera and push it up your drains to find out if there is a problem..
     
    Ze2007 likes this.
  3. Ze2007

    Ze2007 New Member

    Thanks. They seem cheaper than I thought on Amazon. Having said that I've no idea what I'd be looking for. Or what a "normal" drain in a 200 year old house looks like.

    Other thing worth mentioning is that when I bought the house the surveyor did mention a lack of airbricks (there is just one pair that I can see for the whole house) and recommended checking under floorboards for any sign of problems with the joists. A couple of specialist companies came to check (1 appointed by me, the other the estate agent). None found evidence of any problems, but of course the kitchen being tiled it was impossible to check underneath there. (Under the lounge floor next door everything was fine)
    Wishing maybe I'd bitten the bullet and had some more put in, but the argument that the house had stood standing for 200 years without the air bricks worked on me at time..
     
  4. sharkey_2k

    sharkey_2k Member

    Is there any air bricks in the kitchen area could use the camera to look under the floor rather than down the drain

    there could be a bit of water under the floor is there any cupboards anywhere you could get a floorboard up and have a nose without causing too much disruption.

    if you plan on putting some airbricks in when you take a brick out to do this you can get a look under the floor that way
     
    Ze2007 likes this.
  5. Ze2007

    Ze2007 New Member

    Unfortunately the house only has one pair of air bricks (that I know of) at the opposite end, near the lounge and hallway. Weirdly the surveyor in his report, specifically mentioned that lack of air flow under the house was a risk, but he also specifically recommended the lounge and hallway as the place to check, and didn't raise any issues or potential issues with the kitchen in the report. Now I realise I have no idea how the sub floor in the kitchen is ventilated, if at all, but it seems odd for him not to mention it.
    No exposed floorboards in the kitchen so I think the easiest way of getting a camera under the floor may be via the holes behind the oven where the gas pipes come in..

    Would there be a drain smell if it was just rain water that had got in somehow from outside? This evening at times the smell was noticeable again just in the room (with cupboards closed), with noticable foul water stench. Given the semi persistent drain smell I think I will just call a drain survey company, I assume if it was just damp / rot or rain water that had seeped in from outside somehow there wouldn't be the foul smell, more just damp / mustiness. It's quite distinctive, like the toilet block at a cheap campsite!
    Of course there's a possibility I have both a drain problem and rot / damp :( Trouble is I'm not an expert at all on this. I was just trying to figure out what type of expert to call in first. Given the drain smell I guess drain people are the first ones to try.

    Worst thing is we were trying to sell the place pre Covid but took it off the market for lockdown. Looks like I'll need to get this sorted before putting it on again.. Although waiting a bit for the market to stabilise is probably a good idea anyway.
     
  6. Ze2007

    Ze2007 New Member

    Update,

    Resolved. Issue was vermin. Discovered mice had been living in the cavity behind the dry lined walls and under the floor. Trapped a few and removed access to food sources and things have been getting better since.

    Other issue was the hole that had been made for the soil pipe into the drain hadn't been sealed, leaving a gap through which sewer gas (and possibly vermin also) could get up into the house. So I got that sealed off too.
     
  7. Muzungu

    Muzungu Screwfix Select

    Always appreciated when someone gets back with a resolution.
     
  8. Wayners

    Wayners Screwfix Select

    I'm reading down and thought mouse or rat. Look up walk then plank trap just incase they come back. Mouse trap Monday on YouTube for reviews before you buy traps ect. Most are rubbish. They will come back as they smell where others have been
     
    Ze2007 likes this.
  9. BiancoTheGiraffe

    BiancoTheGiraffe Screwfix Select

    Glad you got it sorted!

    I hate it when people don't seal up soil/vent pipes properly, had issues for years in my old flat which I couldn't solve because it would have involved smashing out a load of tiling!
     
    Ze2007 likes this.
  10. Ze2007

    Ze2007 New Member

    Wanted to follow up since its fairly easy to find threads of people reporting these sorts of issues, but you rarely see the updates stating what the actual root cause was and how they fixed it.

    I had a massive lockdown flour stockpile that they had found their way to. I won't be storing flour in paper bags close to the floor anymore..

    Not sure if the gap for the soil pipe was related or not, but I'd already paid a call out fee for the drainage guy to come out, and it was easy for him to fix. He cemented it up from the manhole / drain side, so no issues with fixtures in the house.
     
    Squashrobinson and Muzungu like this.

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