If your home needs a deep clean, you might start to catch a whiff of some foul scents, particularly in high-traffic areas like the bathroom or kitchen. However, if the unpleasant odors smell like a sewer, the problem could be more serious.
If you detect the smell of sewage, more than likely it is coming from your sewer line. However, since that runs both inside and outside your home, it will take some investigation to pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from. Some common culprits for sewer odors are sink and shower drains. However, more often than not the source is often found in the basement, near a sewer drain or utility room drain. That’s because the gas responsible for sewer odors, hydrogen sulfide, is quite dense and has difficulty traveling upwards to your main living area.
In most cases of sewer smell, the culprit is an untrapped drain. Drains in the basement or in utility floors rely on a barrier of clean water and air in a U-shaped section of pipe to separate your home from the stench of your city’s sewer system. If the pipe is untrapped, sewer odors can escape and seep into your home.
If the smell is isolated to the kitchen sink or shower, it could be as simple as a clog in the pipe that needs to be cleared out. Try a plunger, and if that doesn’t work, a drain snake. Drain snakes, also known as plumbing or sewer snakes, are usually about 1/4-inch thick and have a handle on one end. Most sink or shower drain clogs can be cleared by using a 25- or 50-foot drain snake. Simply unspool the snake into the pipe and crank it to drive the snake into the clog. As it starts to break up and flush through the drain, use the snake to pull the remaining clog out.
If you are only noticing the sewer smell when outside your home, and also spotted puddles of water and a high concentration of mosquitoes or flies, it could point to a more serious issue – a damaged, burst or worn-out sewer line. If you suspect there’s an issue with your sewer pipe, you’ll want to act fast because it could contaminate your water supply. Luckily, the sewer line repair experts at EcoClean are only a phone call away!
Our technicians can assess the damage with a CCTV camera inspection. Once we identify the issue, we can then either repair or replace the damaged pipe. In many cases, we can perform a trenchless pipe replacement. That means we can repair the pipe in place, without the extra time and cost of digging it up and replacing it with a brand-new sewer line. By using specialized equipment to repair or replace damaged sections of the pipe, we help save homeowners money, and spare them the disruption of having to dig up their patios, walkways, driveways, garden or landscaping.
If suspect your sewer pipe may be leaking or think you need a sewer repair, give EcoClean a call right away at (207) 420-8962.
