Sewer Gas Smell In Your Home

If you think you smell sewer gas inside your home, your first step should be to make sure you are not smelling natural gas or propane.  Natural gas or propane has a distinctive “rotten egg” smell that can be mistaken for sewer gas.  If you even suspect that it might be propane or natural gas, leave your home immediately and notify the gas company or fire department.

If you have eliminated natural gas or propane as the source of the smell, you can start looking for the source of the sewer gas odor.  In most cases, the cause of sewer gas odor is a “dry trap”.  Every sink, tub, shower or other drain in your home has a short curved section of drain pipe shaped like a “P” laying face down.  This drain pipe is called a P-trap.

If you look under your kitchen or bathroom sink you will see the P-trap right under the sink.  Bathtub and shower stall P-traps are usually under the floor and not as easy to see.

The P-trap is meant to hold a little residual drain water in it to form a seal that blocks sewer gas from entering your home through the drain.  What often happens when a drain does not get used for awhile is that the water evaporates and allows the sewer gas to enter your home.

In most cases, simply running some water down the drain will refill the P-trap and stop the sewer gas smell.  If you don’t have any dry traps, you should call a plumber or sewer-septic contractor and have them check your plumbing.  You could have a broken or leaking sewer line or a cracked or broken sewer vent line.