Drain & nasty smell
Hi everyone I got overzealous with the cleaning one day and sucked some rubble out of the drain under the stoop using my shop vac. We recently started having unpleasant smells in the front of the house, and the drain seems to be the most likely culprit. Naturally, I poured a ton of water down…
Hi everyone
I got overzealous with the cleaning one day and sucked some rubble out of the drain under the stoop using my shop vac. We recently started having unpleasant smells in the front of the house, and the drain seems to be the most likely culprit.
Naturally, I poured a ton of water down there in case there is a dried out trap, and the smell disappeared for one day but then it came back. I poured some more water down there, same thing.
The drain is just a little hole in the ground that goes down into a pipe, and presumably into our main waste line because the drain is located directly over the waste. The drain is on the ground floor and is outside the house (under the stoop between the back door and the metal gate).
As far as I know, the pipe is in the ground and not accessible from the cellar.
Does anyone know anything about how these drains are constructed (house is 1880s-1890s), or whether there is a way to temporarily or permanently cap off the pipe or maybe test it? Does the drain need to be open or will the plumbing be fine without it? Could the pipe have some kind of leak and does it matter? Thanks very much.
(Oh and if anyone is wondering, we solved our other sewer smell mystery. It was merely an unsealed toilet.)
We’ve figured out that the drain actually is the fresh air vent. Unfortunately, its location stinks up the whole house.
I guess when these vents are located on the front of the house or the side of the stoop, they never give anyone a problem even when the wind blows back to the house?
Jmcq, you never have a problem with your gooseneck, even though it’s under the stoop?
Thanks.
Fresh air vents are typically terminate at street or basement level. Mine is a 5″ gooseneck under my stoop. They don’t have to go to the roof. You’ll sometimes see them in the front of a house right next to the exterior front wall or under or next to a stoop.
jmcq, where should the vent vent to? Does it go all the way up to the roof?
The clean-out should be a trap – it’s a U-shaped piece of pipe with the top of the U sticking above the level of the sewer pipe; the clean-out plugs are on each projection. You may also have another cleanout just where the sewer pipe goes into the front wall. After a certain time the plumbing code required a fresh air vent just before the house trap – the purpose being to make sure that the trap seal is maintained. It sounds as if you don’t have a fresh air vent, in which case, when you cleaned out that drain, you may have siphoned out the water in the trap.
So before calling the plumber, find one of the lowest fixtures in the basement – preferably a sink and SLOWLY run a moderate stream of water into the waste so it fills up the trap – too much water can create a siphon effect and empty your trap. If you don’t have a house trap – call the plumber.
Thanks, jmcq. I checked out the cellar yesterday, and the drain does appear to feed into the main house waste on the house side before the cleanout. I don’t see any vent. (Unless the big cast iron pipe that seems to be the waste line for the drain is actually a vent — no, I don’t think so.) (For that matter, I don’t seem to recall a vent on the other side either where the rain water runoff from the gutter also feeds into the house waste pipe.)
Anyway, if there is a trap, it’s in the ground and not visible.
Well, I was planning to call the plumber today anyway, so we’ll see what they say. Probably have a rubber thing to plug it up.
I think you need a plumber (licensed). I’ll bet when you sucked out the rubble, you removed what was acting as a barrier between the sewer gas and your nose. It’s possible that the drain is (illegally) connected to the sewer that runs from your house to the street. Without trap, you’ll have a sewer smell.
If there is a waste pipe coming into the cellar (near the location of the area drain under your stoop) and if that pipe connects to the house sewer on the house side of the trap/clean out and there is a fresh air vent, then it’s done properly.
The other problem that can occur is that the 100+ year old cast iron pipe from the area drain has corroded and no longer connects to anything. But since you’re smelling sewer gas, it would seem you still have some type of connection to the sewer.