Apartment venting systems

Stephen P

A little background info: I'm living in a 2 bed apartment, top floor (3rd). We're getting a very bad sewage like smell coming from under the door frame, right where the sadle meets the frame, there's a slight gap left after the wooden floors where laid, its in our spare room. The smell is only coming out of one side of the door frame and no where else in the apartment. The room isn't near the en-suite or main bathroom. We cannot locate where the smell is originating from. The intensity of the smell comes and goes but seems to be always there.
I know no one on here can tell me where the smell is coming from so here's my question...
Outside on the roof there are several what look like small vents over each room. What are these vents for? Is there a pipe connected to them through the attic? I noticed a lot of other apartment developments have them so they may be used a lot. My idea of what is happening is that the vent over the spare room is blocked and the fumes are coming back into the apartment and the only way in is through the walls??? And then the only way out is through the bottom of the door frame??? Does this sound like it could happen? I'm getting the management company to check the drains to make sure there isn't a blockage and that all the seals are ok.

Any advice / suggestions appreciated!!

Stephen

smashey

A picture of that pipe/vent arrangement would tell us a lot.

How long have you had the smell?

The top of the soil stack should be at least 900mm above the window if it is within a metre of the window.

Stephen P

I'll try get a picture of it tomorrow morning before I head to work.

The smell has been there for a good while (months). Its been getting worse and worse. We probably should have sorted it before now but it wasn't really bothering us until the past couple of weeks.

Whats a soil stack for?

smashey

stephen p wrote: »

Whats a soil stack for?

It's the pipe that your waste pipes are connected to outside the building.

Stephen P

Would there normally be a soil stack above each room on the roof?

Thanks for your advice!

smashey

One only.

Stephen P

Oh, maybe the vents are for something else then, or aren't vents at all??

Mellor

Not each room, but above each bathroom maybe.
It could be any number of pipes on the roof. The smell coming through the wall doesn't sound likely. but, could be poorly built drainage system

gibo_ie

With regards to the "vents" over windows etc. Are they real skinny and fit between the bricks? Are they numerous throughout the building wall. If so these are simply weep vents for excess water buildup in the bricks and are not actually connected through the wall to anywhere and are not the cause of your smell...

possibly something stuck under the boards? A dead mouse or stale food perhaps?

muffler

Dr. smashey wrote: »

How long have you had the smell?

Any chance that there is a waste pipe under floor at that point or a vent pipe going past somewhere near?

Mellor

gibo_ie wrote: »

With regards to the "vents" over windows etc. Are they real skinny and fit between the bricks? Are they numerous throughout the building wall. If so these are simply weep vents for excess water buildup in the bricks and are not actually connected through the wall to anywhere and are not the cause of your smell...

possibly something stuck under the boards? A dead mouse or stale food perhaps?

The vents are on the roof not in the wall. Weep holes as you describe are in the external leaf and wouldn't be seen by the OP easily

250882

The last time I heard of an unexplained smell in a room it was kerosene and was caused by a builder putting a room vent behind the flue of the external boiler.
I would suggest that your smell is probably caused by the soil and vent pipe from the apartments below positioned close this room and is probably coming in through a window permavent or room vent.
The soil and vent pipe will be a 100mm dia black or orange pipe(but sometimes painted) going from the footpath with connections to bathrooms and en-suites on each floor to just above the eaves where it will be capped. The purpose of this pipe is to connect the toilets, wash hand basins and showers to the sewer and also provide ventilation to the system so generally this will result in a smell. If there is a prevailing wind from the other side of the building it could lead to the fumes being blown back down the roof and entering you apartment.
On a side note the vents that you saw in the roof are probably slate vents and will generally only be venting the attic space.

Mellor

I consider that the smell might be from the SVP if the wind was tunneled towards the window, but that couldn't explain the localised smell at the door frame.

As for the vents being slate vents, possibably if it was a pitched roof. But considering its a 4 story building, I doubt it has a pitched roof. It might, but unlikely. If it did, it would also be unlikely that the OP seen any vents.
Its too hard to guess what they might be without a picture. At first I thought they were SVPs, but there sounds like there are too many.

Stephen P

Sorry I didn't manage to get a picture of it this morning. When it was raining last night the smell got worse. When we moved in last July the builders had somehow put a pipe in the sitting room floor under the window and completely opposite to the kitchen. There was a foul stench, sewage like, coming up from it, we don't know how far down it went. My dad got a blow torch and melted it down and covered it with cement. The pipe was obviously put there in error, how? beats me!! :rolleyes:
I've a sneaky feeling the builders have put another one of these exposed pipes somewhere where the smell is coming up. As far as I'm aware directly under my spare room is a bedroom and not a bathroom but I'm not sure. My dad doesn't think the builders would have put a pipe there, afterall why would they? Last night I smelt from under the door frame right along the sadle board and the smell seems to stop about half way across. Its very strange

Mellor

You shouldn't of blocked up that pipe. It was possibably not supposed to be there, but it should of been removed, or terminated externally. I wouldn't be surprised it that is linked to the problem, if that was an unfinished but connected SVP, then you have sealed it causing a gas build up.

Stephen P

Mellor wrote: »

You shouldn't of blocked up that pipe. It was possibably not supposed to be there, but it should of been removed, or terminated externally. I wouldn't be surprised it that is linked to the problem, if that was an unfinished but connected SVP, then you have sealed it causing a gas build up.

My dad is a builders labourer and was confident that covering the pipe was a safe thing to do. What does SVP stand for?

smashey

SVP = Soil Vent Pipe or soil stack as I called it yesterday.

Mellor

stephen p wrote: »

My dad is a builders labourer and was confident that covering the pipe was a safe thing to do. What does SVP stand for?

If the pipe was an unfinished SVP, I am confidant that it was the wrong thing to do.
Now thats if, it could of been just a branch off an SVP, which would still smell.

Stephen P

If the management company don't find any problems with the drainage system for the block, I will be getting back in touch with the builders. At that stage I will contact the builders and try to determine where the pipe we blocked up leads to if we don't find the problem to be elsewhere.
I've also contacted an Environmental Health Officer, she can call out to witness the smell incase I've to take things further down the line, which hopefully I won't. The waste pipes from the 2 bathrooms meet in the spare closet and are covered by a wooden box, my dad is going to take the top off and see if there's a loose connection. I can't see how the smell would be travelling past the main bedroom and getting out from under the door frame in the spare room. But we have to go down all routes till we sort the problem.

Thanks for all the advice so far!!

Stephen P

Just a quick update on the situation I was having. The Environmental Health Officer called out a few weeks ago and said the smell was from a decaying rat :eek: She said the smell would go in a few weeks, its still there. Somehow a rat got trapped in the wall somewhere and died. She smelt it before and so did her colleague and they said it was definetely the smell of a decaying rat.

Mellor

stephen p wrote: »

Just a quick update on the situation I was having. The Environmental Health Officer called out a few weeks ago and said the smell was from a decaying rat :eek: She said the smell would go in a few weeks, its still there. Somehow a rat got trapped in the wall somewhere and died. She smelt it before and so did her colleague and they said it was definetely the smell of a decaying rat.

Charming

I'd probably try to find it and remove it, clean etc

Stephen P

If its in the wall I don't know how I'm going to get it without tearing the wall down. The smell will probably go eventually but I would like to get the little b@stard!!

smashey

The smell will go although it seems to be taking a while. The next thing you'll see will be a lot of flies/bluebottles emerging.