My fiancé and I recently bought a beautiful historic home to renovate, but we have a HUGE problem. As my subject line sums up, we have a horrible smell drifting up from the basement into the rest of the house making it smell just awful!

It smells so bad that you can often smell it from the yard (even with the windows closed). If you go inside the house for even a minute or two, your clothes and hair wreak of the smell until you shower (the smell actually gags some people).

I'm not sure how to better describe it than what I've stated, a sewage smell. Sorry.

Here's what we have done so far:
•Removed all carpet in the house (the realtor told us that this was the problem – which is why we bought the house with this stench)
•Used a disinfectant spray on every wall, ceiling, floor, appliance, etc...
•Used Febreeze and odor eliminators EVERYWHERE
•Capped the drain on the basement floor that leads to the sewer.
•Capped the washing machine drain
•Ran a dehumidifier
•Tested for mold - we were fine
•Found a clog in the toilet upstairs and fixed it.
•Replaced ALL of our duct work.
•Bleached the basement from floor to ceiling (# or 4 times)
•Bleached every room in the house from floor to ceiling
•Replaced any PVC pipes visible from the basement and in the bathroom and kitchen (not in the walls though)
•Added vent pipes to both bathrooms
•Sanded and refinished the hardwood
•Painted several of the rooms (someone told us the walls and floors can absorb the smell and painting would help - it didn't)
•Bought 3 heavy duty ionizers that run 24-7
•Bought an air purifier that actually cleans the air with ultraviolet light and chlorine that runs 24-7
•I'm sure there's more, but it's all I can think of right now...

If you have ANY idea how to fix this, PLEASE help us out. We’ve spent a ton of money chasing this smell. I’ve actually started to have nightmares about it. We thought we had bought this house with plenty of time to renovate it before our wedding, but after all this whole fiasco; time is starting to run out for us. We've had people offer to come over to help paint, etc... but they don't want to come in until the smell is gone - Especially now that it's getting too cold to leave the windows open.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChristyDawn,

I am afraid that this is the clasic case of purchasing a home on an ancient Indian burial ground. Generally in these instances nothing good ever comes from it. You may experience swarms of unexplained mosquitoes, and or fuzzy reception on your t.v. This is really typical of the builder cutting corners. If only he had moved the deceased Indians,this probably could have been avoided. And what about the building inspectors, how did they pass on this?

Indian burial ground?? That's a response I haven't heard before. Thank you for the smile.

It may be expensive and time consuming to track down your odor issue; it sounds like it already has been. Gas leakage is much harder to pinpoint than water. A crack in the top of a pipe can emit a lot of gas and never show any evidence of moisture. Unfortunately I have more questions than answers. When was the plumbing added to the home? It used to be common practice in some parts of the country to use terra cotta drain tiles with the ends of the tiles not joined but just butted together. Even cast iron pipe is easily cracked or separated due to settling and also quite prone to root invasion. If sewage has been seeping into the ground for many years then removing and replacing the scented soil could be done when/if the main drain has to be replaced.

Is the basement floor dirt or has it been concreted? If it is dirt then pouring a slab once any drain issues have been addressed should effectively seal off any contamination, as well as any pesky native American ghosts.

You mentioned adding vents; is the main drain vented or is there only the fixture vents you installed? Early plumbing is almost never vented properly, in my experience.

Are you on a septic tank or city sewer? Erosion can lower the gound level and bring field lines close enough to the surface to expose a noticable odor, especially during wet weather.

As far as next steps, I think it is time to call in a trusted professional. One of those nifty scopes can be used to inspect your drains for damage or root invasion and is not expecially pricey compared to the cost of digging everything up, which may turn out to be necessary in the end anyway.

Best of luck, and don't give up. Old homes are almost always worth more than the time and money needed to renovate them.

Did the prior owner have a cat?
Is there any exposed soil surfaces within the basement or crawl space if you have one?
Forget about the air purifier and all the other goodies you bought. These for the most part are scams which I think you figured out already.
Do you have a septic system? or are you on public waste system?
Do you have well water? Or city?
Painting will not stop odors within walls.
What type of insulation do you have in the walls?
How old is the house?
What type of area do you live? residental, commercial, farm etc?

Hear is my guess!
Do you have a sump pump system in basement to remove water? If so is the odor coming from it?
If it appears so, get a plumber back into home and have them scope the drain pipe to the street or if septic system. See if the pipe is cracked. Cracked pipes can leach back into ground water and flow into drain system in home. This will cause odor in house. As far as smells outside. This same pump can pump water outside of home onto ground, causing smells your sniffing when outside. This would explain all odors. Same goes with septic system if you have one. Although this should have been checked when you purchased it. In addition, many old homes used to be connected to septic systems and over the years converted to city sewer. In some cases the pipe fails where the new connection is done and this can cause all types of issues. Check the sewer pipe with camera.


One way of finding out what the smell is, is to perform a Suma-can test. This is expensive and should be last resort. This is an air test that gathers the air from within the home. This device then is sent to a lab which takes this air and uses spectrograph and figures out what gasses are in the home. This in turn can help determine what the gas is that is causing the odor. Once you have this information you can then determine what is causing the odor.

I had a client not to long ago that found his plastic runners on the floors to to protect the carpet were causing a stink like a dog made a mistake on his carpet. Once we determined what the smell was coming from we removed the runners and vola, smell when right away. But when we came up close to plastic it did not give same odor when we were trying to figure out the cause. It appears that the plastic was reacting to the carpet under it causing it to outgas some real foul odors.

A few years back I noticed a real nasty smell in my house. I tracked it to the sump pit. The pit had all kinds of nasty stuff in it. I figured it was a break in my sewer line.

I poured a whole bottle of red food coloring down my toilet and flushed it. Lo and behold, it made its way into the pit.

My old iron piping was cracked just as it left the basement to the outside. The crack was allowing waste water to get to my footer drain tile and into my sump pit. Yummy.

wtsrongwu -
I'm sure you were trying to be humerous, but with a strong Native American heritage, I don't really find your response very amusing, nor was it helpful.

Thanks for trying everyone.
Okay, a lot of questions, I'll try to answer them all.
First of all, the house was built within city limits in 1875. It is on city sewage and water. We bought the house from the bank after a reposession (We're starting to wonder if they let it go back to the bank because of the smell ). So... we don't know a lot about it, nor were we (or the bank) really held to the inspection rules at the time of purchase. We purchased it as-is with only inspections of the electricity, foundation and mold testing - as our first home, we didn't really know better.
All of the exposed pipes are PVC, so I'm assuming they can't be too old. We're not totally sure about the pipes in the wall, but we had to replace a downstairs ceiling and found PVC there as well.
The basement is actually 2/3 basement, 1/3 crawl space. The basement part is cement floor and cement blocks on the wall. The crawl space is dirty gravel floor with cement block foundation- very minimal dirt, though.
The vents we added to the bathrooms are what my dad calls "fart pipes." Pardon the crudeness there. They are intended to vent each bathroom individually. I don't know if the main drain is vented, but can check it out.
When we bought the house, there were stray cats living in the house. The type of smell at the time seemed to very much point to the cats as the reason behind it. That is why my sister and I removed the carpets and bleached the floors the day I closed on the property.
I am not sure about the insulation on the outer walls, but the basement has just regular insulation (the rolls of pink panther stuff) and the interior walls have no insulation.
Also, the smell improves with rain. I forgot to mention that, but don't know if it is helpful information or not.

The smell improving with rain seems to point to an outdoor problem, though it could be possibly due to a drainage system flushing the problem downstream. Moist air is heavier, though, and tends to subdue odors overall, though any seepage and associated smell would be noticeably worse once the soil is saturated after the rain.

Ask your neighbors and your family their opinion on reputable plumbing professionals in your area and spend a few bucks to have them take a look.

Male cat odor can be extremely pervasive, (good call on that, Home Care Club,) and hard to eliminate especially since they tend to spray porous vertical surfaces as well as the floors. I've had good success with a product called Zero Odor: http://www.zeroodorstore.com/
That particular smell is quite strong and pungent, though it is also very different from the methane smell associated with sewage.

No offense meant. I guess not every one has seen the movie poltergeist.

wtsrongwu-
Thanks for the apology. I didn't mean to be so overly sensative. I've just really had it with the whole stinky house situation - it's made me pretty crabby.

Four issues come to mind based on your response;

1. Just because your new buyers, If you used an attorney they should had advised you of a complete home inspection So should have the realtor. Bank owned properties are just that. They sell as is its up to you to get inspections done. They do not limit your right to do what ever you want. It is just that they will not do anything to fix issues. But you now have learned about that process time to fix the issue at hand.

2. Cats can be the issue, Once the tom cat enters the picture. Ferrell cats mark their territory well. nothing is exempt from this. Walls floors etc.
To get to the root of this and to be sure its cat urine. Purchase, rent or borrow a black light. The same you used when you were a kid, when its dark, turn on light. Any kitty squirt will be glowing. Salts in urine will show up.

Because you used bleach on everything does not mean that the salts are removed. It gets into everything. Under the floor boards, into the wall cavities and all the nooks and crannies. The only way to get rid of this is to rip stuff out. You can use products such as La Marlowe suggested, we use Natures Miracle. This product neutralizes the odor at its source. Can get this an any good pet store. Expensive but it works. Regardless of what you use. The product must get to the source of the odor, Spraying on walls or floors will not do the trick, You need to get it under the floor boards and into the walls, as it is most likely between them and the sub-floor.
Most homes that have been overrun by cats, (vacant comes to mind) end up being torn apart to the studs, treated and completely rebuilt. Not something I am sure you want to hear, but it is fact. You could try a ozone generator, this may help, but until you get to the root of the issue, and anytime its damp outside or in, the odor will permeate the house. If indeed this is it.

The soil within the crawl space must be treated and sealed. The little soil you have in there makes a good kitty litter box for the critters. Although you may not see droppings at this point in time, as they may have been cleaned up prior to your inspection. This soil may contain a lot of kitty smells. It should be saturated with a odor neutralizing agent. Bleach does not do this. Once dry cover this tightly with plastic and seal along the edges.

DO NOT attempt this if you’re expecting any children. Cat droppings are not healthy for pregnant women and nether is mice droppings which will be found in this area.

3. I would also get the advice of an attorney who does real estate law. The bank did an inspection on the property after they took it over. This is a normal action. They must disclose to you any critical findings that may have been discovered by their inspection process and disclose them to you and your agent. You need to find out if they had knowledge of cats in the past and if so, why did they not disclose this to you? You may have a legal recourse here. Not sure what state you’re in, but many have disclosure laws that must be followed. I assume that when the house was shown to you. The weather was fine. Odor was present, agent said just remove the carpet and clean. All vacant homes have odors and because this was closed up is why you have this smell. Sound familiar? You have a case against the real estate company.

4. An additional suggestion would still be to scope out the drain outside of the house. This still may be the suspect, but with cats around in the past, it lowers my concern that this is what it is.


Regardless of any of this, the cleanup of cat smells is expensive and down right nasty. Start with black light, and if you find a lot of glowing reviews, you have your answer. If not, plumber is next step in checking pipe outside of home.

Keep us posted.

Well, we will definately look into the black light, and consider speaking to an attorney friend of ours about what you said.

Currently we are thinking we may have found a source (hopefully THE source) of smell. Someone here mentioned the condition of the cast pipes. We decided to check them out and actually found that in the far corner of the basement, there is a cast pipe just below the basement floor that runs to the sewer. It is a 3inch pipe. Coming out of that (with a horrible attempt of a seal) is a 1 1/2 metal inch pipe. There is all kinds of space for smell to escape and that corner of the basements, by far, smells the worst. We have replaced the metal pipe and used a real adapter (instead of the expandable foam we found there). We're going home tonight with the windows open for fresh air and we're going to come back in the morning to judge the smell.
I'll let you all know if this did the trick.

Sure sounds like you found the issue. Good detective work. Foam around a pipe fitting is a sure sign that something is wrong. The stuff used for kitty smells will help kill odor in soil in that area if it is indeed the issue.