Gas smell in apartment when stove not in use?
For the last several weeks, we’ve noticed that certain areas of our apartment smell on and off of gas. It’s completely unrelated to cooking, as we smell it sometimes in the middle of the night. We live on the first floor of a brownstone, and have also noticed that our boiler room in the basement smells strongly of gas. We read postings on brownstoner not to call National Grid because they just shut off your heat (and it’s 15 degrees right now), but we’re quite worried about this ongoing problem. Incidentally, our CO2 detectors have not gone off, even though they are fairly new and have fresh batteries. Any advice of what this is and how to fix it would be much appreciated. Incidentally, this is a self managed coop, and the boiler is supposedly drained weekly, but it is possible that it hasn’t been done in a while, could this be the culprit? Thanks!
wannabebrownstoner
in Heating 13 years and 5 months ago
7
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7 replies
callalily | 13 years and 5 months ago
Call a plumber right away before you blow up. Call one who does gas and heating systems.
bowl-of-dicks | 13 years and 5 months ago
I have experienced this as well. Your gas line has a pinhole in it somewhere or improperly sealed pipe fittings. Unfortunately it probably means chasing the gas line up thru the wall with soapy water until it’s found. Open a window (to create negative pressure) before doing the soapy water test.
timber | 13 years and 5 months ago
sheesh! call in a reputable plumber right away
kidbklyn | 13 years and 5 months ago
After had some work done in my basement the back of the gas meter wound up touching the basement wall. I started to smell gas intermittently and strongly. I had it checked out National Grid. It turned out that lime in the wall’s grout interacted with the metal of the gas meter box to create a pin sized hole. Any time a gas appliance was used it would draw gas and the increased pressure in the line would force the gas out the hole. It caused a stong intermient smell. Also, I was told by a plumber, on another occasion, that a gas pipe fitting connection leak could be stopped by rubbing an unlit candle’s wax on it. This would create a temporary seal.
greenmountain | 13 years and 5 months ago
“Out of site out of mind” is easier to say in the summer time when the windows are open. Now they are closed and a cold wind intermitently blows in to your chimney, momentarily altering the inside vs outside air pressures, you smell things. Shafts and chases used for plumbing exhaust hoods, fans, ac and electric should be blocked between floors to control air movement, in the event of fire. Openings behind kitchen cabinets and vanities should not allow odors to spread from one apartment to another and from the cellar. Furnaces and gas clothes driers should be properly vented to the outside. Moisture from electric or gas driers should not be allowed to condense inside walls, floors or ceiling cavities. Lint in these cavities should not contribute to the spread of fire. CO detectors required in our homes are not very sensitive, or we would disable them for going off too much, but the traces of undetected CO that doesn’t kill us makes us stupid. You need to find out what the odor is, from combustion, sewer gas, or gas fuel and stop it from accumulating and spreading in your home for reasons of health and safety. It could pose immediate danger and if so, avoiding inconvenience is not your first priority. You may not be able to rely on your plumbers, electricians, and the folks you or your super bring in to do small jobs now and then, to properly close the openings they create or find, allowing air and odor movement through your building. You need to insist these openings are properly closed and what goes on inside your walls is maintained and brought up to code whenever shareholders renovate – even if the additional expense is burdensome for somebody on a fixed income or with a young family, or because times are tough. I often read hear about how to keep the costs of renovating down, but not so much about how paying more could protect our property, our workers, and ourselves.
stevecym | 13 years and 5 months ago
soapy water on pipe joints may help you find the leak but you should still call a plumber. Also, they make a spray bottle leak detector that works pretty good; any hardware store will have this. this should be easy to find if it is out in the open.
draining the bolier is not the issue, that is to clean the low water safety of sediment. Steve
daveinbedstuy | 13 years and 5 months ago
CO detectors won’t detect gas. Find a plumber who can bring a gas detector and have him check it out. You’re right, do not call National Grid.