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hi,

Wondering if anybody could offer any suggestions to help with our problem of a bad sewer smell coming from our porch. We have had plumbers out twice and the local water board and nobody can solve the problem, so I am looking for any extra suggestions.

We have had the smell for months but recently it has been getting worse. Best described as an eggy sewer smell.

There is an air vent that comes into our porch from under our house, but then no air vent in the porch leading outside. So we wondered whether it could be a ventilation problem. The only way to ventilate the porch is to open the doors as there are no windows to open. If this was the case I would expect to smell the same smell when we lift the floorboards up, but we when we do it seems to smell ok. We have noticed that the smell is starting to weep into our living room and into the hallway now, does seem to be coming from under the floorboards at the front of our house next to our porch.

45 years ago urea formaldehyde was put into the cavity walls. When we check our vents they are blocked with the white foam. My husband tried to unblock a couple of the vents - in the porch and at the front of the house. Seems to coincide with the smell getting worse. Could this cavity wall insulation be causing the smell from inside the cavities? Costs a fortune to get this removed, so only want to consider this if it is causing the smell.

When we look under the floorboards there are a few damp patches but here are no pipes around these damp patches? This is directly underneath where the house meets the garage. Any ideas what this could be?

We have also had a toilet removed and a wall put up over it so wondering if it has not been sealed correctly. If this is the case would we not be smelling the smell in the vaccinity if the old toilet and not just the porch at the front of the house (toilet was upstairs at the back of the house)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as it’s driving us mad not knowing what it is!
 
I would get someone else in to investigate it thoroughly. Sewer could be leaking or also consider if a toilet stack was possibly leaking into wall cavity somewhere, just to rule that out.
I had a bad smell getting into my house and turned out to be an underground gas leak from outside getting in around the incoming mains electric cable.
 
Thankyou, I will check to see whether the air bricks are near drains. We are covered by British Gas who have come out twice already to investigate so think I will get them back out to check for gas leaks and the toilet stack.
 
Call national grid and say you can smell gas, British Gas are a waste of time. All they will do is test the installation and if you get a good engineer they will also call National Grid for you. So to save you the effort and ensure your safety call the number on the gas meter.

I've seen whole houses blown up from gas leaking into sewer lines.....if in any doubt get grid out. They are the only ones with the reliable enough equipment to check.
 
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