Help! We moved into a Victorian terraced house a year ago and have had an intermittent bad drain like smell ever since. It has been intermittent over the year but was bad when we moved in and again now. Some details on our house:
- The kitchen was extended into the side return in 2008, and as far as we know, probably over the top of where the manhole cover is. There are manhole covers in that location in other properties on the street. The kitchen floor is covered with ceramic (or perhaps granite) tiles
- There is a conservatory that backs onto the kitchen (entire length of the property)
- The waste water from the kitchen flows through the kitchen wall into the conservatory and into an open drain in the corner of the conservatory, which is boxed in. The drains run to the back of the house.
- The whole downstairs floor is covered with laminate apart from the kitchen/conservatory
There is an air brick at the front of the house but I presume the back has no ventilation due to the kitchen extension/conservatory
The main things we have noticed about the smell:
- the smell is sometimes sulphurous like drains but sometimes a bit like bins/bad breath. Generally horrid and an embarrassment
- It is worst around the side of the kitchen opposite to the drains, almost emanating from the floor. It also smells a bit in the corner of the dining room that is adjacent to the kitchen
- The smell has also come up through openings in the laminate elsewhere, like when we had the skirting replaced in the hallway the small was bad there too. So it seems to be bad under the ground floor
- There is no smell at all coming from the drains in the kitchen, downstairs toilet or from the open drain in the conservatory
- No one else on the street has had a similar problem
We are pretty desperate to get to the route of the problem but don’t really know where to start. Should we get a grain survey? Which trade is the best to approach for a solution? I was told a builder but I would like to be sure of the issue before we cause 1000’s of pounds of damage to the house.
Any help appreciated!
- The kitchen was extended into the side return in 2008, and as far as we know, probably over the top of where the manhole cover is. There are manhole covers in that location in other properties on the street. The kitchen floor is covered with ceramic (or perhaps granite) tiles
- There is a conservatory that backs onto the kitchen (entire length of the property)
- The waste water from the kitchen flows through the kitchen wall into the conservatory and into an open drain in the corner of the conservatory, which is boxed in. The drains run to the back of the house.
- The whole downstairs floor is covered with laminate apart from the kitchen/conservatory
There is an air brick at the front of the house but I presume the back has no ventilation due to the kitchen extension/conservatory
The main things we have noticed about the smell:
- the smell is sometimes sulphurous like drains but sometimes a bit like bins/bad breath. Generally horrid and an embarrassment
- It is worst around the side of the kitchen opposite to the drains, almost emanating from the floor. It also smells a bit in the corner of the dining room that is adjacent to the kitchen
- The smell has also come up through openings in the laminate elsewhere, like when we had the skirting replaced in the hallway the small was bad there too. So it seems to be bad under the ground floor
- There is no smell at all coming from the drains in the kitchen, downstairs toilet or from the open drain in the conservatory
- No one else on the street has had a similar problem
We are pretty desperate to get to the route of the problem but don’t really know where to start. Should we get a grain survey? Which trade is the best to approach for a solution? I was told a builder but I would like to be sure of the issue before we cause 1000’s of pounds of damage to the house.
Any help appreciated!
