Mystery here. I am the (unhappy) owner of 2 homes. Just built a beautiful green-certified home, and we’d enjoy it much more if we could sell our old house. It is a 6-1/2-year-old tri-level with its own well. During the 6 years we lived there, we occasionally noticed a very faint smell from the upstairs sink faucet, but you really only noticed it when drinking the water. Water from the kitchen was fine, as was the lower level bath. No problems with iron staining or severe mineral build-up.
The home has been on the market nearly a year. It was vacant from 7/1 through 10/31, then occupied by a renter from 11/1 through 12/31. We had a showing on 1/22, and the potential buyers said they loved the home but noticed a funny smell in the water. We went over the next day, and were stunned to smell a strong sulfur odor in the upstairs bath, from the tub and faucet. A slight smell was also noticeable in the downstairs bath, but not in the kitchen.
FYI, the water heater is turned off, but it had only been off for 22 days before we noticed the problem. The baths in question are stacked, upper and lower level, adjacent to the water heater which is in the lower level. Kitchen is about 20 feet from the water heater on the middle level.
We NEED to sell this house. It is in perfect condition except for this new problem, and I don’t blame a buyer for shying away from what appears to be bad water. But it’s not! Any ideas on what is causing it? Why didn’t we ever notice it while living there? And most important, how do we fix it fast?
Your advice is much appreciated. I am always impressed with how smart everyone is here. Thank you!
Replies
Septic or city sewer?
Dry traps?
Blocked vent pipe?
Perhaps the funky smell from the overflow on many bathroom sinks?
What did the renter have to say?
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Get the well water tested.
Sounds like it might have iron and you have an iron reducing bacteria.
In a case like yours it can probably be fixed by shocking the well.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
FWIW..
I grew up with a sulphur water well.
The smell from it got noticably worse after storms (we were very near a large body of water and the theory locally was that the storms somehow disturbed the water table)
The other times the smell was bad was if the well hadn't been used for awhile, It allowed the gas to be absorbed into the water. Try heading over and running a quantity of water for a few days straight and see if the smell doesn't disipate some.
If it does you can always water lawn a few days before a showing .;-)
i think all you need to do is clorox the well,run it thru the pipes to clean them out and try it. you will probably have to have the well tested when you sell and have to do it again. larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
To answer questions:
The renter had no complaints.
We have a septic system; I don't know answers to the other questions.I thought we could rule out having water tested since the problem does not exist at every faucet. The odor in the upper bath is a 7/10 with 10 being gag-inducing, lower bath 3/10, kitchen is 0.We have tried running water in all the faucets full force for about 10 minutes. The smell did not seem to dissipate. I guess we will call the water quality testers after all. The county already inspected the well (thought we had sold the house to the renter, but it fell through). They approved it with no sign of any problems. Thanks for the input.
Go to the hardware store or home center and get a charcoal filter setup and install it between your house and well. Cost less than 100.00 and you or whoever buys the house will have to change the filter every 2 months or so, depending on usage. (takes about 5 min. )Filters cost about 10.00 and I'll bet this takes care of the smell and makes the water taste better.
This fixed my well water smell, but you might want to get it tested also.Good luck!
dug
"I thought we could rule out having water tested since the problem does not exist at every faucet. The odor in the upper bath is a 7/10 with 10 being gag-inducing, lower bath 3/10, kitchen is 0."There have been other cases reported where the smell seems only collect at one faucet."We have tried running water in all the faucets full force for about 10 minutes. The smell did not seem to dissipate."That makes we thing that is more possible in the drain/sewer. I was going to suggest a dry trap, but I read your orginal post and I see that this has always been a problem, just now it is worse.One thing is that the smell is staying in the room and in your nose.Wonder what happens if you run the water for a period of time. Then open the window and run a vent fan for a couple of minutes while you go outside. Then come back in and close the windows and try again."The county already inspected the well (thought we had sold the house to the renter, but it fell through). They approved it with no sign of any problems."I think that the county is only checking for coliform bacturia and the iron and iron reducing bacturia is not checked for as it is not a health problem.Call some full labs and ask them about such tests.Also check the comment about the sink. I have heard of more than one case of buildup in the overflow starting to smell..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
There is a bacteria that feeds on iron and manganesse in the water in presence of oxygen. It does get worse when water is not used for awhile as it has more time to grow in the tanks. Chlorine shock can knock back the bacteria, but as a longer term soultion, the house needs a treatment sytem designed to handle the specific mineral component of your water.
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Bill & Piffin have provided good info. For a little more info check this info from the Water Systems Council: http://www.watersystemscouncil.org/VAiWebDocs/WSCDocs/1768011INSERT_12C.pdf
If testing indicates that chlorination will help, the same website has info on how to do that properly.
Electric water heater plus well water?
There is a bacteria that can set up shop in the water heater and produce a sulpher smelling gas. The gass will invade both the hot and cold water but will show up more in the hot water. Try this trick that has worked for me a couple of times. Get a big 1/2" drive socket set and a friend to pull the anode rod out of the water heater. (disconnnect the power and shut off the water first.) use a hack saw to remove the rod from the threaded plug, tape up and re-insert the plug. problem solved. It's worked for me a couple of times. Failed to work once. If you have metallic piping you really need that anode rod though so if this is the case go to a full service plumbing supply and get the special rod they make for this specific problem. I think it's about $60 or so. replace your current rod with the anti bacteria rod.
Getting the old rod out can be a major wrestling match so bring a strong friend and a cheater bar for your wrench.
Another thing that can be a benefit is to super oxygenate the well. There are special jets available for this that use a venturi fitting to add more oxygen. They install at the well head and shoot a high velocity jet through a small ventilated chamber and down into the well casing. It constantly adds oxygen to the well water using the pressure from the well pressure tank. They can have an amazingly beneficial effect on the quality of the well water.
Thanks for all the advice, everyone. This is above our heads. We're planning on getting a water quality specialist to test it, and then a plumber if the problem seems to be the pipes or drains. Yay- spending more money we won't recoup when (IF) we ever sell the thing.
If it's your hot water that is the source of the problem, here is your quick (chea) fix:
Turn off the power to the tank, shut off the water supply and hook up a hose to to the drain valve and start empying the tank (if you are on septic, run the hose outside).
Use an electric/air powered impact wrench to remove the anode (which is labeled on the top of the tank). Regular wrenches will not do the trick, an impact wrench is the only way to go. The anode is about 3' long.
Drain the entire tank and all of the hot water lines. Pour an entire jug of bleach into the tank via the anode hole.
Replace the anode putting plumbers tape or dopr on the treads. Buy a new aluminum anode ($70 or so) from a plumbing supply house (take your tank specs with you) to replace the old magnesium one if you want, that will help.
Refill the tank and keep your hot water lines open until you smell the bleach water coming through, then turn them off.
Keep the bleach water in the lines of at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight. Then drain the tank and hot water lines once again and refill with fresh water.
The bleach smell will dissipate in a day or so and the water should be fresh for a good 6 weeks at least. If lucky, you have solved the problem.