Basement smells--how to get the basement aired out?

[Anonymous]

I have a super sensitive nose, but I always feel like I smell a faint scent of natural gas in Our basement, especially when it's been closed up for a while. I've had Washington Gas here and they detected the tiniest little leak, which our plumber came and did his best to fix since it was almost undetectable. I also had the plumber do a whole house line test for gas leaks and he found nothing. Could I just be smelling the gas from our hot water heater? Or maybe there is a little bit of the odorant left from when they moved my meter outside and capped the inside pipes? It's driving me crazy, but no one else smells it but me. Our basement windows are always closed and there is no A/C down there so there's no airflow. Any recommendations for getting some ventilation down there?

[Anonymous]

Depending on how old your house is (and how finished your basement is), you may have a drain in the basement floor. If you do, you should pour a few cups of water down it every few weeks. This helps keep the trap closed and prevents stinky gas from coming into the basement.

[Anonymous]

If you have a sump pump with standing water in the bottom, you need to clean it occasionally, and put about a tsp of bleach in it from time to time. If I don't do this, ours starts to smell, particularly in the "shoulder seasons," when we aren't using the heat pump and there's no drainage from that cycling through.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it make sense to just open the windows maybe once a week for an hour or two? (Since you already ruled out the possibility of dangerous leak.)

If you are very sensitive to smells than I think it is possible you are just smelling residual gas from whenever the water heater kicks in. Also be sure you have a C02 detector down there.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the suggestions!