Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before, we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc - everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening, and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.

On 07/12/2012 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and
our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys
come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly
dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a
thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing
happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they
tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc -
everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't
be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not
every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening,
and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the
building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the
building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet
it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during
the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the
building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week
when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I
just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to
worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a
gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas
and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make
sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.




I smelt gas in a public park recently. Stopped and asked a dog walker
and he said the gas co had been investigating the smell for a "few
years". Every now and then they dig something up but so far haven't
found the source.

QuackDuck wrote:
Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.
Natural gas has the smell added to it artificially. It doesn't smell
like coal gas at all. Which type of gas does yours smell like?
The smell added to natural gas is like rotten eggs. Could there be
something rotting away under the floor or behind the fridge or in a
void? I had a problem with a smell like that. Eventually it stopped.
That must have been when all the flesh had gone. I found the cat's
skeleton a few years later.
I dimly remember the tapwater in a college hall of residence smelling
slightly of hydrogen sulphide. Maybe that was sulphur.
If you have sewage pipes behind boxing-in they might be leaking a bit. I
had this problem in the basement. The smell was only there now and then.
I only found out what was happening when the sewer blocked outside and
that caused it to block inside, so the plywood had to come off, and the
outside of the stack was damp.

Bill

On 07/12/12 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:
Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

Odorous chemicals are added to Natural Gas (and coal gas in the old
days) to serve as a warning and to help trace leaks.

Mercaptans are the usual ones and are variously described as smelling of
rotten eggs or, more commonly, rotting cabbage.

So I suppose the answer to the question in your subject line is rotting
organic matter.

Another Dave

On 07/12/2012 20:36, Bill Wright wrote:
QuackDuck wrote:
Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.
Natural gas has the smell added to it artificially. It doesn't smell
like coal gas at all. Which type of gas does yours smell like?
The smell added to natural gas is like rotten eggs. Could there be
something rotting away under the floor or behind the fridge or in a
void? I had a problem with a smell like that. Eventually it stopped.
That must have been when all the flesh had gone. I found the cat's
skeleton a few years later.
I dimly remember the tapwater in a college hall of residence smelling
slightly of hydrogen sulphide. Maybe that was sulphur.
If you have sewage pipes behind boxing-in they might be leaking a bit. I
had this problem in the basement. The smell was only there now and then.
I only found out what was happening when the sewer blocked outside and
that caused it to block inside, so the plywood had to come off, and the
outside of the stack was damp.

Bill

You are right about the smell being added, but it isn't like hydrogen
sulphide at all. I think it might be methyl mercaptan. Something similar
was added to coal gas too (although I agree, coal gas had a sort of
"gas-works" smell, for those old enough to remember gas works!)

The normal sewer or drains smell is hydrogen sulphide: it's formed by
bacteria in the black slimy sludge which you find in ditches and other
places with stagnant water.

My money would be on it either being from a sewer or soil pipe with some
sort of fault or a sink / washing machine drain without a functioning
trap, or something dead and decaying. Rat under the floorboards? Pigeon
in the loft?

On 07/12/2012 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:
I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

FYI the smell in gas isn't natural. They call it a "stencher" (or at
least I think they do, though googling doesn't find it) and it's one of
the mercaptans - similar to a skunk. It's not at all like the smell from
a drain - or at least, not to my nose.

If you all think it's like the gas from the cooker that's probably what
it is.

Your CO detector won't pick it up. There are gadgets that will - like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mains-Powered-Household-Gas-Detector/dp/B000NVRBYE

in case that wrapped

http://tinyurl.com/cayer3q

Andy

On 07/12/2012 21:04, newshound wrote:


You are right about the smell being added, but it isn't like hydrogen
sulphide at all. I think it might be methyl mercaptan. Something similar
was added to coal gas too (although I agree, coal gas had a sort of
"gas-works" smell, for those old enough to remember gas works!)

Anyone in the house taken to eating asparagus?

Br J Clin Pharmacol. 1989 May; 27(5): 640–641.
PMCID: PMC1379934

Odorous urine in man after asparagus.

C Richer, N Decker, J Belin, J L Imbs, J L Montastruc, and J F Giudicelli

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1379934/

--
Rod

In article ,
stuart noble wrote:

I smelt gas in a public park recently. Stopped and asked a dog walker
and he said the gas co had been investigating the smell for a "few
years". Every now and then they dig something up but so far haven't
found the source.

we used to get that close to home, The smell came from the old - disused -
main pipe which was still in the ground. after heavvy rain a tiny bit of
residual gas would come to the surface.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

On 07/12/2012 22:13, charles wrote:
In article ,
stuart noble wrote:

I smelt gas in a public park recently. Stopped and asked a dog walker
and he said the gas co had been investigating the smell for a "few
years". Every now and then they dig something up but so far haven't
found the source.

we used to get that close to home, The smell came from the old - disused -
main pipe which was still in the ground. after heavvy rain a tiny bit of
residual gas would come to the surface.

One particular road very near home used to reek of gas on a fairly
regular basis. As all I was doing was driving through, I rather assumed
that the people who live and work there had reported it. (Anyway, I
somehow always forgot by the time I got home!) But it continued for many
months - maybe years.

After a few particularly smelly days, the gas people turned up and did
some fairly significant digging. Thereafter they seemed to have one part
or another of the road dug up for months - and not always the same
patch! I'd guess there were at least six separate areas where the mains
were replaced.

I would have expected that scale of gas loss to show up on some sort of
metering. Maybe that is expecting too much of their meter accuracy and
reading skills.

--
Rod

On 07/12/2012 20:23, stuart noble wrote:
On 07/12/2012 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.

Not relevant as (i) CO doesn't smell (that's why you need a detector)
and (ii) what you are apparently smelling is actual gas, not "burnt gas"
which is where CO comes in.

I smelt gas in a public park recently. Stopped and asked a dog walker
and he said the gas co had been investigating the smell for a "few
years". Every now and then they dig something up but so far haven't
found the source.

It's been happening in our street for years. Every few months they come
along and dig another hole outside our house and cause chaos for a
couple of days, then bugger off again. Very odd.

David

On Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:03:00 +0000, QuackDuck wrote:

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and
our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys
come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly
dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a
thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing
happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they
tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc -
everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't
be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not
every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening,
and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the
building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the
building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet
it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during
the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the
building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week
when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I
just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to
worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a
gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas
and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make
sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.

Apparently, frying garlic can smell similar. You can imagine the hilarity
in France when they started using natural gas.

I was tickled pink, when I used to work for British Gas to come across a
stash of "scratch 'n' sniff" cards they used to give out in the old Gas
Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

On a more serious note, the chemical they chose for the smell was very
carefully chosen to be detectable in low concentrations. So a slight
whiff of gas shouldn't be ignored.

On Fri, 07 Dec 2012 21:04:55 +0000, newshound wrote:


My money would be on it either being from a sewer or soil pipe with some
sort of fault or a sink / washing machine drain without a functioning
trap, or something dead and decaying. Rat under the floorboards? Pigeon
in the loft?


I've certainly had experience of a washing machine occasionally smelling rank
during it's cycle. Never did really get to the bottom of it. Is one of the
occupant running one during the day?

Andy C

On Fri, 7 Dec 2012 17:03:00 +0000, QuackDuck
wrote:

so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Bloody cabbage eaters. All you need is a few odds and sods of cabbage
bits lobbed in a corner or a whole cabbage forgotten about and the
whole place has a whiff of gas.
Or a rat under a floorboard - takes a while for the smell to go away,
but can pong for months.

On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:




On a more serious note, the chemical they chose for the smell was very
carefully chosen to be detectable in low concentrations. So a slight
whiff of gas shouldn't be ignored.

A number of years ago they reduced its concentration. Seems that people
were reporting insignificant leaks which resulted in what they
considered an excess of calls.

--
Rod

newshound wrote:

On 07/12/2012 20:36, Bill Wright wrote:

Natural gas has the smell added to it artificially. It doesn't smell
like coal gas at all. Which type of gas does yours smell like?
The smell added to natural gas is like rotten eggs.

You are right about the smell being added, but it isn't like hydrogen
sulphide at all. I think it might be methyl mercaptan.

Often described as smelling like rotting cabbage.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

On Dec 7, 5:03*pm, QuackDuck wrote:
Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and
our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys
come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly
dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a
thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing
happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they
tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc -
everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't
be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not
every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening,
and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the
building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the
building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet
it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during
the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the
building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week
when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I
just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to
worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a
gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas
and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make
sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.

--
QuackDuck

Probably accumulates when the windows are all closed up.

Could be something died. Bird, rat, mouse etc.

Carbon monoxide detector does not detect gas, only CO in combustion
gases.

The other possibility is a defective chimney, could be a neighbours
appliance in a communal wall. Look in roof space as well as elsewhere
for this. Cracked pointing etc

Could be defective drains, faulty manhole cover, empty water trap on a
sink/toilet letting sewer gas into the place.

Or could be gas from a leaking gas main outside the property coming
through the ground.

On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

I remember that now - why "high speed" gas? In what way was it 'faster'
than the old 'town' gas?

David

In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Fri, 7 Dec 2012 17:03:00 +0000, QuackDuck
wrote:

so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Bloody cabbage eaters. All you need is a few odds and sods of cabbage
bits lobbed in a corner or a whole cabbage forgotten about and the
whole place has a whiff of gas.
Or a rat under a floorboard - takes a while for the smell to go away,
but can pong for months.

Yup - had a dead rat once and it did smell like gas. Which would account
for the 'sniffer' not finding anything. That smell also came and went.

--
*I wished the buck stopped here, as I could use a few*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 08/12/2012 09:38, Lobster wrote:
On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

I remember that now - why "high speed" gas? In what way was it 'faster'
than the old 'town' gas?

David


Not sure if this is why they made the claim, but NG has a higher
calorific value and is delivered at a higher pressure.

--
Rod

In article ,
Andy Cap wrote:

I've certainly had experience of a washing machine occasionally smelling rank
during it's cycle. Never did really get to the bottom of it. Is one of the
occupant running one during the day?

Too many "eco" washes at 30C. Run a boil wash through it once a month..

Gordon

"QuackDuck" wrote in message
...

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and
our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys
come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly
dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a
thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing
happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they
tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc -
everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't
be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not
every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening,
and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the
building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the
building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet
it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during
the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the
building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week
when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I
just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to
worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a
gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas
and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make
sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.




--
QuackDuck

Any new tenants?
Somebody cooking sprouts? They smell and taste disgusting.
Onions can also stink.
Any Asians? Their food stinks. I am not a racist .................

On 08/12/2012 14:04, Mr Pounder wrote:
"QuackDuck" wrote in message
...

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

I live in a 140 year-old(ish) granite building that at some point has
been converted into four flats. Because it was all one big house before,
we do get noise and cooking smells etc travelling between floors.

Anyway, about 4 weeks ago now we noticed a gas-like smell in the
communal ground floor hallway, and we also seemed to get 'clouds' of it
moving through our (first floor) kitchen and hallway, above where the
ground floor smell was. It dispersed quickly when we opened the communal
hallway window, though.

A week later the smell was coming more frequently (3 out of 7 days) and
our neighbour called the Emergency Gas line. We had a couple of SGN guys
come out and test everything. Unfortunately the smell had mostly
dispersed by the time they arrived and they detected nothing after a
thorough examination.

A week later we called them out again, and more or less the same thing
happened - smell had mostly gone by the time they came, and again they
tested all along the gas pipes, everyone's boilers, cookers, etc -
everything they could think of. They found nothing, and said it couldn't
be gas, it's just something else with a similar smell.

Another two weeks on and we're still getting the smell, although not
every day. It's almost always there when we come home in the evening,
and seems to disperse as we open a window (or when everyone else in the
building comes home and fresh air gets in). No-one is usually in the
building during the day, and our boilers are not usually on either (yet
it appears anyway). Once the smell disperses, it doesn't reappear during
the night or early morning (also a time when no fresh air gets into the
building).

I imagine that it's a small amount of some sort of gas (not necessarily
natural gas since it tested negative) getting in and building up during
the day, as it does go away quickly when fresh air circulates. I am
concerned about the week over Christmas because no-one in the building
will be at home. If whatever it is is left to build up over a week...

Of course we could leave a communal hallway window open over that week
when no-one is around, but we are worried about pipes freezing. Also, I
just hate not knowing what it is! The emergency gas guys told us not to
worry, it will probably go away by itself in time, and it couldn't be a
gas pipe leak as that would be constant. But I've read that sewer gas
and so on can also be combustible, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Thanks very much, and sorry about the long post. I just wanted to make
sure I gave as much detail as possible

ETA: We have a carbon monoxide detector in the area of our flat where
the smell is, and it's happy enough and staying quiet.




--
QuackDuck

Any new tenants?
Somebody cooking sprouts? They smell and taste disgusting.
Onions can also stink.
Any Asians? Their food stinks. I am not a racist .................


You're not !?

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2012 17:03:00 +0000, QuackDuck
wrote:

so I wonder if anyone has any ideas
what this could be, so we can get it sorted before everyone goes away?

Bloody cabbage eaters. All you need is a few odds and sods of cabbage
bits lobbed in a corner or a whole cabbage forgotten about and the
whole place has a whiff of gas.


+1








Or a rat under a floorboard - takes a while for the smell to go away,
but can pong for months.

On 07/12/12 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

some electrical things smell funny when they're getting a bit burnt/old?

On 08/12/2012 15:58, george - dicegeorge wrote:
On 07/12/12 17:03, QuackDuck wrote:

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

some electrical things smell funny when they're getting a bit burnt/old?




Certainly can. In a former life I was usually first at work and switched
on various kit - including an old Laserjet 4. Some days, maybe one in
four but without any obvious pattern, it would stink for a while. A
strange "organic chemical" smell - towards petrol but not quite.

--
Rod

Thank you very much everyone for the replies! There are so many so I'm not going to quote them all, but that has given me a lot to investigate.

And yes, it smells like the cooker gas, so it's definitely that chemical that's added to gas (or something that smells similar - I have also noticed that garlic residue under my fingernails after cooking dinner smells like that!).

Dead animal: we did have mice in summer, so it could be that. It did occur to me but I didn't think it could last for four weeks and come and go, but if someone has experienced this with a dead rat then it's a possibility.

Washing machine: I've done a couple of "service washes" with mine recently using soda crystals and 95C water, hasn't made a difference but could be one of the neighbours.

A leak outside: another possibility - BT came and dug up our street a few weeks ago (1.5 weeks after smell had started) and seemed to be using water pumps. Our phone line had gone crackly so I think the heavy rain had flooded something underground. Surely if they had noticed gas they would have smelled it though, and we can't smell it outside (but then, it's not an enclosed space).

One of the neighbours' boilers is under the stairs, actually. The flue outside stinks of gas when it's on, but the gas guys tested the boiler along with everything else and said it was fine. I suppose it could be the flue smell, but I don't see why a) it would come back inside, and b) it would suddenly start now, after being fine for years.

On Dec 8, 9:38*am, Lobster wrote:
On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

I remember that now - why "high speed" gas? *In what way was it 'faster'
than the old 'town' gas?

It has twice the calorific value.

I seem to remember the comparison they were making was with
electricity which at that time had solid hotplate cookers

I had to have British Gas out once (in the days before Transco)when I thought I smelt gas, the bloke who came also thought it was gas, but it turned out to be coming from next door where an Asian family lived and was a cooking smell.

There's certainly one spice called asafoetida that really pongs as I remember buying some and everyone at work was commenting on the smell even thought it was inside my rucsack inside two plastic bags!

On 08/12/2012 17:06, Murmansk wrote:
I had to have British Gas out once (in the days before Transco)when I thought I smelt gas, the bloke who came also thought it was gas, but it turned out to be coming from next door where an Asian family lived and was a cooking smell.

There's certainly one spice called asafoetida that really pongs as I remember buying some and everyone at work was commenting on the smell even thought it was inside my rucsack inside two plastic bags!

It is used by ENT consultants to check people who claim to have lost
their sense of smell!

When I have consumed a relatively large amount of it (in truth a tiny
fraction of a teaspoonful), even I can smell it in my sweat for a day or
two after.

--
Rod

Because the flue now has a leak indoors?

On Sat, 8 Dec 2012 16:29:14 +0000, QuackDuck
wrote:

One of the neighbours' boilers is under the stairs, actually. The flue
outside stinks of gas when it's on, but the gas guys tested the boiler
along with everything else and said it was fine. I suppose it could be
the flue smell, but I don't see why a) it would come back inside, and b)
it would suddenly start now, after being fine for years.
--
================================================== =======
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

On 8 Dec,
polygonum wrote:

On 08/12/2012 09:38, Lobster wrote:
On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

I remember that now - why "high speed" gas? In what way was it 'faster'
than the old 'town' gas?

David


Not sure if this is why they made the claim, but NG has a higher
calorific value and is delivered at a higher pressure.

Faster than electric for heating the pans, no lag.


--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

On 8 Dec,
harry wrote:

On Dec 7, 5:03*pm, QuackDuck wrote:
Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind my first post being a request for
help, but I've been trawling the internet for days and read about every
website/forum post there is about gas smells in buildings.

[snip]

Probably accumulates when the windows are all closed up.

Could be something died. Bird, rat, mouse etc.

Carbon monoxide detector does not detect gas, only CO in combustion
gases.

The other possibility is a defective chimney, could be a neighbours
appliance in a communal wall. Look in roof space as well as elsewhere
for this. Cracked pointing etc

Could be defective drains, faulty manhole cover, empty water trap on a
sink/toilet letting sewer gas into the place.

Or could be gas from a leaking gas main outside the property coming
through the ground.

I've been taken in several times when SWMBO has creosoted (or some other
supposedly wood preserving product) the fence. The smell leaks into the house
from the garage and has sent me looking (sans match!) for the gas leak.

--
B Thumbs
Change lycos to yahoo to reply

On 09/12/2012 00:59, wrote:
On 8 Dec,
polygonum wrote:

On 08/12/2012 09:38, Lobster wrote:
On 08/12/2012 02:04, Jethro_uk wrote:

Board shops to older customers, to get them used to the different smell
of "high speed gas" as it used to be known.

I remember that now - why "high speed" gas? In what way was it 'faster'
than the old 'town' gas?

David


Not sure if this is why they made the claim, but NG has a higher
calorific value and is delivered at a higher pressure.

Faster than electric for heating the pans, no lag.


Was that not true for town/coal gas as well?

--
Rod

charles :
In article ,
stuart noble wrote:

I smelt gas in a public park recently. Stopped and asked a dog walker
and he said the gas co had been investigating the smell for a "few
years". Every now and then they dig something up but so far haven't
found the source.

we used to get that close to home, The smell came from the old - disused -
main pipe which was still in the ground. after heavvy rain a tiny bit of
residual gas would come to the surface.

Interesting. We get a very localised gas-type smell here after rain, and
we've never tracked it down. I've entertained the theory that it's being
washed out of the soil, and it's good to hear about something similar.
But although there is an currently above-round gas pipe in the area
concerned, which has been checked twice, it's unlikely that there ever
was an underground gas pipe there.

--
Mike Barnes

On Sat, 8 Dec 2012 15:52:33 -0000, "Mr Pounder"
wrote:


Bloody cabbage eaters. All you need is a few odds and sods of cabbage
bits lobbed in a corner or a whole cabbage forgotten about and the
whole place has a whiff of gas.


+1


Or a rat under a floorboard - takes a while for the smell to go away,
but can pong for months.



More annomia-ish - but more easy to track down.

Dead bodies smell a bit cabbagey-drainy after a week. Any neighbours
not appeared recently?
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

In message , Mike Barnes
writes


Interesting. We get a very localised gas-type smell here after rain, and
we've never tracked it down. I've entertained the theory that it's being
washed out of the soil, and it's good to hear about something similar.
But although there is an currently above-round gas pipe in the area
concerned, which has been checked twice, it's unlikely that there ever
was an underground gas pipe there.



Maybe a scary thought, but what was there before the houses were built?
Any chance that there are some nasty chemicals that are getting lifted
to the surface with the rain?

Any one who knows Widnes will know about contaminated soil :-) I
always thought that one area smelled of cress, the sort that you have
with salad, but it was just the mix of chemicals that had been dumped
over the years.
--
Bill

I would guess that it is some sort of rotting vegatation if it definitely isn't gas.

Well the neighbour with the boiler in the cupboard under the stairs with the smelly flue has agreed to get it serviced on Tuesday. The smell is always in the stairwell area or in the part of our flat that's directly above the stairwell, so I'm back to thinking it is gas from that boiler. The flue is stinking right now but the smell isn't around inside, so it's definitely an on/off smell even when the boiler is on.

The emergency gas guys tested it twice already and found nothing, although both times they arrived to test it the smell had disappeared. Since the boiler servicing will be during the day while the smell is usually not around, that might not unearth anything either. I suppose all we can do is make sure the neighbour makes the boiler engineer aware of what's been going on...

Bill :
In message , Mike Barnes
writes


Interesting. We get a very localised gas-type smell here after rain, and
we've never tracked it down. I've entertained the theory that it's being
washed out of the soil, and it's good to hear about something similar.
But although there is an currently above-round gas pipe in the area
concerned, which has been checked twice, it's unlikely that there ever
was an underground gas pipe there.



Maybe a scary thought, but what was there before the houses were built?

Open fields (in 1801).

Any chance that there are some nasty chemicals that are getting lifted
to the surface with the rain?

Funnily enough the outside bogs were in about the right place.

--
Mike Barnes

On Dec 9, 6:25*pm, QuackDuck wrote:
Well the neighbour with the boiler in the cupboard under the stairs with
the smelly flue has agreed to get it serviced on Tuesday. The smell is
always in the stairwell area or in the part of our flat that's directly
above the stairwell, so I'm back to thinking it is gas from that boiler.
The flue is stinking right now but the smell isn't around inside, so
it's definitely an on/off smell even when the boiler is on.

The emergency gas guys tested it twice already and found nothing,
although both times they arrived to test it the smell had disappeared.
Since the boiler servicing will be during the day while the smell is
usually not around, that might not unearth anything either. I suppose
all we can do is make sure the neighbour makes the boiler engineer aware
of what's been going on...

--
QuackDuck

That likely won't fix the problem. If the flue is faulty, it needs
fixing.
If the flue gas is leaking into your house, this is a very dangerous
situation. You could be gassed.