Tim Harris
: : We live in a four year old 3 story house. There is a sewer gas smell that comes from the basement. We make sure all traps have water in them. We ran the camera down the pipes to check for cracks, but found nothing. The natural gas furnace and gas hot water heater are located in the room with the only floor drain in the basement. The smell comes when you wash cloths or use alot of hot water. The floor in the basement has cracked a little and sometimes I think the smell is coming through a crack or the floor drain. : : If it is raining or over cast you get a smell sometime. I added abount six inches to the vent pipes. Even added those vent pipes things that open and close when needed. The vent pipes things that open and close when needed help for a few weeks or at least we thought they did. Then we got the smell in the 3 floor bath. After taking those things off the vent pipes off the smell is not longer in the 3 floor bath. The smell is terrible at times it almost makes us sick. The smell follows the basement steps or comes though the furnace ducks though out the house. We can open the doors and windows in the basement to get rid of the smell till the next time. Most of the time it occurs in the morning and you never know how bad it going to be that day. We used to be able to make it occur when we washed cloths. But that is not aways true. Please help!!!!! IS THIS STUFF BAD FOR YOU TO BREATHE? : I once suffered a similar situation. I may be wrong but I think this gas contains Methane to some degree. My problem was an open vent pipe under the sink. I do not know how toxic Methane is.100% pure methane is non-toxic, except for the fact that you might asphixiate due to lack of oxygen. This is because the methane displaces the air in the confined space. The smell comes from the anerobic bacteria growing in the sewer. Get a registered plumber to fix the problem. Most likely a bad septic tank. Reply to me via e-mail for further info. -Mike
