Sewer line – roots in line

[Cintia Uchida Rodrigues]

We are trying to locate an odor that comes and goes in the house. The odor does not smell like raw sewage, yet we have not located the source. We had a video of the sewer line done to rule out any problems with the sewer. There are no obvious liquid leaks. We just wanted to rule out this possibility.

The plumber said the line looks very clean, in fact there is next to no sewer gas odor coming from the line when we stick our nose right up to the cleanout.

The video did show two areas where there was a small root going into the line. The plumber said this is not unusual and this occurs all the time in sewer pipes, is not a liquid leak, and not to be concerned about these two small roots. He said they came in where there was a fitting and are several feet below the surface of the ground so there is no way we would be smelling any gas from those root areas.

Does this sound correct? Or should we be concerned that there may be actually be sewer gas smell coming out of these areas?

Thanks.

[DUNBARParticipant]

Have that plumber perform a smoke test on that plumbing system. More than likely you have a leaking wax ring that has separated from the toilet or the closet flange that is causing this issue. This happens often. Aside from that, Have you made sure that you have ran water in all the drains that are not used on a regular basis, for example a floor drain in the utility room? When the traps on a drain dry up, sewer gas/foul air can pass into the structure. I would check these possibilities to make sure that isn’t what’s happening.

[plumb18Participant]

Thanks for the tips. The odor really is not in the bathrooms. We can stick our noses right up to the base of the toilets and there is no smell.

There are only a couple of sinks and a bath in the house. All traps have water and do not smell.

When we place our nose right up to the open sewer line cleanout, there is not smell there either..surprisingly. We expected the sewer line to smell like sewer, but it must be fairly clean not to smell.

[SelgasParticipant]

You had the house tested for a gas leak with a detector if you have any gas appliances or reticulation a small leak can be very similar to sewerage in it’s smell but is easily detected and located? Just a thought to ponder.

[Author]

Posts