Gas smell issue in home, need advise.

[downey43]

About 10 months I started having issues with a gas like smell in my home and the gas board was unable to find any gas leak I've still got the issue.

When I first made contacted enviromental health I was told the following

Could be my drains and to have my drains checked.

Could be the sewers and sewer gas and to contact Northumbrian Water

I've had both checked and they say no issues and during this last year, I've now had the gas board out about 12+ times with the smell coming about 30+ times over the last year randomly.

HISTORY
I've lived in this property for 14 years, this issue only started happening last October 2022 about 12 months ago and it seems to come randomly, largely happening when weather is colder, wet and windy. June July Aug this year it didn't occur much, but its becoming more often again now. House is a 1900s terraced house.

THE SMELL
The smell is like a sickly sweet gas like smell, it fills my home heavy and you feel like your breathing in a gas. Several of the gas board men have smelt it over the past year and thought it was gas, but were unable to find any gas leak and even drilled holes outside, they couldn't understand it and all leave with no help. The man from Northumbrian Water also smelt it and said it didn't smell like sewer gas and he could find no trace of that smell in the sewer system out the back of the property. The drain guys said my drains were super clean and no issues there.


WHAT ELSE HAVE I TRIED
I tried opening an insurance claim with my home insurance, they sent someone out who sent a company. They basically came when there was no smell and don't come out on call, said if its not constant it not something rotten or stagnant and were of little help so I cancelled the claim.


HELP
I'm at a loss here, I've got an issue in which I do not know what is happening or what me and my wife and son are breathing when this happens, its so heavy and sickly. We could be breathing in something very bad for our health with no explanation why.
My neighbour is also noticing this smell in her property she's informed me last week, but she wasn't before, she noticed it when it was stormy as did we.



Some things of note, might be useful or irrelevant

Smell mainly over wetter, windier, colder periods

One of the gas men mentioned an older gas pipe was near that can make such smells if there was some type of leak into my property, but more or less said that was just a decision his boss (one man) could say yes or no to in investigation and I've not heard anything more about that in many months.

The issue started last October, the same time that the house next door was finished and live from being converted into a 5 Bedroom/on sweet HMO which involved adding new plumbing, pipes, heavy wall work, knocking our chimneys and boiler relocation.

Hope someone might have some idea or experienced something like this before.

 

[Chuck]

You might have a dead animal somewhere. E.g. a dead rat / squirrel bird under a floor or in a cavity. You smell it when the wind causes a draft in the cavity and the pressure drives some of the smell into your house. Rotting vegetable matter (wood, cabbage, etc.) is another, less likely IME, possibility.

You have my sympathy, this sort of problem can be tricky to track down.

 

[downey43]

Thanks for your reply. Has not been much wind today, been pretty calm on that front, but very rainy and wet here today and we are smelling it now also. So confusing

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Radon gas ?

 

[Ben-gee]

Radon does not smell.
Is smell only since work carried out next door?
They could have cracked a sewer or old gas pipe with their work maybe?

 

[gmartine]

It's not marijuana is it, perhaps coming from the newly occupied HMO?

If the wind direction is right I could catch a whiff of a household of users 150 yrds away, it can be really potent.

 

[downey43]

Na defo not marijuana, its definitely a gas or gas odour. Given my neighbour getting it now also when it's wet outside and she's next house down the hill, I am going more towards an older gas main cracked and the smell is seaping into the ground. They have admitted there is an old one near that has not been lined when visiting mine and my neighbours properties to investigate the smell, but always just leave and never seem to actually say they will look into the old main. One of the visiting gas men did say he would tell his boss, but that was months ago and they ain't done anything.

 

[Gasmk1]

Report the smell of gas as outside near the old main not in your house they will have to check then, but did Any of them check with their gasco seeker to see if they got any readings in your house.

 

[downey43]

There has been about 15 different guys in our houses from the gas board. Also 2 different ones in the neighbours also. Few of them that have been to mine have used multiple detectors and also the advanced sniffer they rave about each time, but always leave saying they can't detect any gas and can't explain it.

It's like a repeat pattern. They come in, check the pressure and all over with 1 or 2 sniffers, some with the advanced chemical sniffer, ask if it happens when its been raining, say they can't detect any gas leak and leave. The ones who have been while the smell is there are always thinking it's gas also and not anything rotten/decaying or sewer gas. I'm not exactly sure where the old main is in my street as they won't say. I do know there is a gas hut up hill in another street over which is probably about 80 to 100 meters away from our property which stinks with a similar gas smell. You can smell it when you walk past it, but there are lots of properties between us and that hut.

 

[Last Plumber]

There has been about 15 different guys in our houses from the gas board. Also 2 different ones in the neighbours also. Few of them that have been to mine have used multiple detectors and also the advanced sniffer they rave about each time, but always leave saying they can't detect any gas and can't explain it.

It's like a repeat pattern. They come in, check the pressure and all over with 1 or 2 sniffers, some with the advanced chemical sniffer, ask if it happens when its been raining, say they can't detect any gas leak and leave. The ones who have been while the smell is there are always thinking it's gas also and not anything rotten/decaying or sewer gas. I'm not exactly sure where the old main is in my street as they won't say. I do know there is a gas hut up hill in another street over which is probably about 80 to 100 meters away from our property which stinks with a similar gas smell. You can smell it when you walk past it, but there are lots of properties between us and that hut.

You can only keep doing what you are doing. If it is CADENT you are calling (or similar), make sure they know your concerns and ask for the log number each time you call to report a smell of gas.
Ask them if they have any kind of monitor that they can leave in your home. I don't know if they do that but it is worth asking.

 

[Gasmk1]

Nedis Plug-In LPG, Natural Gas and Coal Gas Detector - https://ukfiresupplies.co.uk/shop/nedis-plug-in-lpg-natural-gas-and-coal-gas-detector/ buy one of these