Horrible smell in house only at night. Help me figure it out.

[Anonymous]

We’ve recently notice a horrible smell in our home which is over 100 years old. It happens around 8pm nightly and lingers for about 15 minutes. It smells like someone has the worst stomach sickness of their lives. We did recently have a bathroom remodeled but our crawl space is bone dry. One friend suggested it could be our hvac condensation line but we’re not sure. What could this be?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like sewer gas coming out of sink drains?

[Anonymous]

OP, I am so sorry to tell you this, but you are not a great cook.

[Anonymous]

The ghosts have gas.

[Anonymous]

Check your sewer drains.

[Anonymous]

Keep a diary of what goes on in the couple hours leading up. Is somebody flushing the toilet? Doing the dishes / running the disposal? You could have a leak from somewhere that appears because of your routine.

Also, not to be rude, but take turns having each of you (and any pets) absent during the stinky hour. Somebody could just be farting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve recently notice a horrible smell in our home which is over 100 years old. It happens around 8pm nightly and lingers for about 15 minutes. It smells like someone has the worst stomach sickness of their lives. We did recently have a bathroom remodeled but our crawl space is bone dry. One friend suggested it could be our hvac condensation line but we’re not sure. What could this be?

Toilet seal? Are you running your exhaust fan over stove or in bathroom? Maybe there’s negative pressure that’s sucking sewer gas in. I know from experience.

[Anonymous]

Toilet seal is a good guess. We had the stink intermittently. Once we replaced the toilet (not necessary, but a good excuse), the stink went away.

[Anonymous]

It's a haunting

[Anonymous]

If related to drains, would anything outside run on a schedule? Sprinklers? Nearby business closing up?

[Anonymous]

Make sure you don’t have any unused drains that have dried out, like a shower or sink in the basement that doesn’t get used. Run water through every drain for a few minutes. That way you can rule out a dry p trap. Then I think you’re looking ay sewer stack leaks and stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

AC generally slows down when the sun goes down. Perhaps the smell is emanating but blown away during the day.

[Anonymous]

In college my roommate and I had this problem in our smallish dorm room. It smelled like somebody had intestinal trouble, even when we entered the room after an absence of several hours. It turned out to be a houseplant that exhaled (or something) every evening, no kidding. Although OP's problem sounds more pervasive.

[Anonymous]

We had a dry p trap in the drain under our washing machine, and every night at 8 ish my kids would shower and the exhaust in the bathroom would create the negative pressure and the smell would emanate. Super annoying bc that drain is hard to access due to the pan under the machine, but we got a tube that I now keep in the drain that I can funnel water through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like sewer gas coming out of sink drains?

This. Check your laundry/washer discharge hose for siphoning water out of the P-trap. Common cause to have the discharge hose too far into the drain pipe and cause this.