Rotten egg smell in bedroom
matthelliwell
in our bedroom. We get a distinct smell of rotten egg near one wall,
opposite the window, near the door. The wall has a radiator on it. We
first noticed the smell sometime around when we decorated (lining
paper on 1930s plaster, wickes emulsion on the walls/ceiling and gloss
on the woodwork, cork underlay and bamboo flooring).
The strength of the smell varies. It seems strongest at the end of a
hot day, like yesterday evening - the room stank! Sniffing various
wall, furniture etc doesn't help - non of them seem to be giving off
the smell, at least to our noses.
So far our conclusions are:
1. The smell is bit more shit-like than natural gas smell so I don't
think its the old boiler. Also yesterday the boiler was off apart from
the pilot light. There was not smell around the boiler but it was
smelly upstairs.
2. I've checked the guttering and it was fine. The outside wall of the
bedroom could do with repointing (http://matthelliwell.blogspot.com/
2009/05/repointing.html) but its very sheltered and has been like that
for years.
3. The smell doesn't smell damp, more of a cross between rotten eggs
and faeces and there are no signs of the rad leaking.
4. There aren't any drains near the bedroom to check.
5. The foul drain runs nearer other rooms than the bedroom (like the
lounge) so if there was a problem with those I'd expect to smell it
elsewhere as well. I've looed at the drains in the past year and the
looked fine.
6. I've been up in the loft above the room. No sign of the smell,
plenty of venitilation and insulation not blocking the eaves.
7. We've had the floor boards up just outside the room (didn't want to
disturb the new floor!) and there was no sign of the smell under the
floor.
The only useful info I've found is that some people have reported a
similar smell with Crown paint. I'm tempted next to try and seal the
walls with something and repaint.
Anyone have any further bright ideas?
Thanks
Matt
TheOldFellow
matthelliwell <matthe...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I'm looking for ideas as to what may be causing the rotten egg smell
> in our bedroom. We get a distinct smell of rotten egg near one wall,
> opposite the window, near the door. The wall has a radiator on it. We
> first noticed the smell sometime around when we decorated (lining
> paper on 1930s plaster, wickes emulsion on the walls/ceiling and gloss
> on the woodwork, cork underlay and bamboo flooring).
>
> The strength of the smell varies. It seems strongest at the end of a
> hot day, like yesterday evening - the room stank! Sniffing various
> wall, furniture etc doesn't help - non of them seem to be giving off
> the smell, at least to our noses.
<snip>
>
> Anyone have any further bright ideas?
Hydrogen Sulphide from a pinhole in the radiator.
R.
Grimly Curmudgeon
drugs began to take hold. I remember matthelliwell
<matthe...@googlemail.com> saying something like:
>Anyone have any further bright ideas?
Don't eat boiled eggs for supper.
BigGirlsBlouse
"TheOldFellow" <theold...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:20090602122...@rad1.langside.org.uk...
have a water leak?
RobertL
wrote:
> We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
> drugs began to take hold. I remember matthelliwell
>
> >Anyone have any further bright ideas?
>
> Don't eat boiled eggs for supper.
Hydrogen suphide is toxic in higher concentrations (over 50 ppm).
take care.
Robert
Rob G
I appreciate that your description of the smell doesn't point to an
electrical fixture overheating as the smell of that is typically
slightly fishy, but have you checked for that.
The idea of H2S from the radiator is plausible - would be wothwhile
openin the air bleed hole and seeing if that is the source of the
smell as H2S is I belie one of the gas products of radiator corrosion,
and I suppose it is possible to get some sort of perforation of the
steel that is allowing gas molecules to escape but not the liquid
ones.
Rob.
matthelliwell
> I appreciate that your description of the smell doesn't point to an
> electrical fixture overheating as the smell of that is typically
> slightly fishy, but have you checked for that.
>
> The idea of H2S from the radiator is plausible - would be wothwhile
> openin the air bleed hole and seeing if that is the source of the
> smell as H2S is I belie one of the gas products of radiator corrosion,
> and I suppose it is possible to get some sort of perforation of the
> steel that is allowing gas molecules to escape but not the liquid
> ones.
Yep, visually inspected the fittings as well as sniffing around, all
seems ok.
I'll try and bleed the rad, never smelt anything like that when I've
bled them the odd occasion before but worth a try. Didn't know H2S was
a by-product of the corrosion, thought it was just oxgen and hydrogen
from the water. No sign of any leaking but I'll try anything to avoid
repainting.
Dave Plowman (News)
Sometimes. Does smell like drains to me. The kitchen drain goes into the
main drainage via a u bend outside which has a drain above it for the
patio. So smells can't really come up via that. I have an outside loo in
the corner where the smell is most obvious - when it happens - but check
there is water in the u bend. It's not much used apart from in the summer.
Next door had an outside loo which backs onto mine - but had the toilet
removed and their boiler fitted in there. The builders who did all this
were related to The Lone Ranger...
I wondered just how well they capped things up after removing the loo -
but next door say they haven't got a problem.
--
*Sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me*
Dave Plowman da...@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Toom Tabard
Are there any open ventilator grilles in the bedroom wall, or any
other way it could drift in from outside? Anything high on the wall
but under eaves can catch fumes coming up from ground-level, e.g. from
drain grilles on still hot days and it might not descend until it hit
the opposite wall of the room
I mention this since I once lived in the top flat of a three storey
block and would sometime get a strong hydrocarbon smell, a bit like
polystyrene cement, on hot still days. It would have been a glue
sniffer's idea of paradise. Turned out that at the back wall of the
bulding someone had built a coal bunker over a drain grille and coal
dust was fermenting in the drain and generating gas which was rising
up the outside back wall to the eaves then drifting along and through
the ventilators.
So a drain smell might be drifitng from its source and appearing
elsewhere.
Toom
The Natural Philosopher
The Medway Handyman
Open the bleed valve & if 'air' comes out, try & light it. Hydrogen
Sulphide is flammable as in lighting farts.
--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
David in Normandy
The gas from radiators is hydrogen not hydrogen sulphide. Hydrogen gas
is highly flammable and has no smell. I'm "rusty" :-) on the exact
chemistry but I seem to remember it is created by the hot water reacting
with the iron in radiators with a lack of oxygen present which creates
hydrogen gas and black ferric oxide rather than the more usual ferrous
oxide (rust). It is the black sludge you drain from heating systems.
Interestingly this black form of ferric oxide will also respond to a
magnetic field like iron filings.
--
David in Normandy. Davidin...@yahoo.fr
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.
Dave-UK
"Dave Plowman (News)" <da...@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message news:506527f...@davenoise.co.uk...
I used to visit a house weekly as part of my job and often I got a whiff of what I thought
was a smell of a drain by the front door. It turned out to be a leaking gas pipe.
Dave Plowman (News)
Dave-UK <he...@home.com> wrote:
> "Dave Plowman (News)" <da...@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message news:506527f...@davenoise.co.uk...
> > Just to follow the subject, I've got something the same in the
> > kitchen. Sometimes. Does smell like drains to me. The kitchen drain
> > goes into the main drainage via a u bend outside which has a drain
> > above it for the patio. So smells can't really come up via that. I
> > have an outside loo in the corner where the smell is most obvious -
> > when it happens - but check there is water in the u bend. It's not
> > much used apart from in the summer. Next door had an outside loo which
> > backs onto mine - but had the toilet removed and their boiler fitted
> > in there. The builders who did all this were related to The Lone
> > Ranger...
> >
> > I wondered just how well they capped things up after removing the loo
> > - but next door say they haven't got a problem.
> I used to visit a house weekly as part of my job and often I got a whiff
> of what I thought was a smell of a drain by the front door. It turned
> out to be a leaking gas pipe.
No gas pipe nearby. It's very definitely most obvious in one corner of the
room. And I'm pretty confident about the condition of my gas pipes. ;-)
>
--
*Rehab is for quitters
Andrew Gabriel
It also numbs your sense of smell in higher concentrations,
so you can easily be under the misapprehension that it's gone,
when it hasn't.
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
Theo Markettos
> The gas from radiators is hydrogen not hydrogen sulphide. Hydrogen gas
> is highly flammable and has no smell. I'm "rusty" :-) on the exact
> chemistry but I seem to remember it is created by the hot water reacting
> with the iron in radiators with a lack of oxygen present which creates
> hydrogen gas and black ferric oxide rather than the more usual ferrous
> oxide (rust). It is the black sludge you drain from heating systems.
IANAChemist, but I understood H2S was produced by anaerobic bacteria in the
central heating... nicely hot, wet and the same old stuff going around and
around, but no oxygen.
Theo
The Natural Philosopher
water, and its not unknown in steel either. Hydrogen is quite good at
reducing sulphates to oxides ..
Grimly Curmudgeon
Gabriel) saying something like:
>>> Don't eat boiled eggs for supper.
>> Hydrogen suphide is toxic in higher concentrations (over 50 ppm).
>> take care.
>
>It also numbs your sense of smell in higher concentrations,
>so you can easily be under the misapprehension that it's gone,
>when it hasn't.
Blimey. Who knew farts were so deadly.
Clot
Oddly, whilst catching up on the posts here, the wolf, that must be obeyed,
wanted to go out in the garden just now. I let him out, came back in the
house for a couple of moments and then went passed the gully grill outside
that receives all our kitchen effluents to encourage said wolf back indoors.
It had that odour. I guess that as a result of the heat today and no use
after circa 7.00 p.m. last evening the residues in the sump were anaerobic
and generating H2S.
Andrew Gabriel
Reminds me of the notice you used to see on busses,
"Please alight from both ends". I always though it
was laking some youtube URLs underneath as reference
examples...
Dave-UK
"Dave Plowman (News)" <da...@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message news:50654b6...@davenoise.co.uk...
I was thinking more of next door, who had a (gas?) boiler fitted, in their
outside loo which backs onto yours where the smell is strongest.
Dave Plowman (News)
Dave-UK <he...@home.com> wrote:
> > No gas pipe nearby. It's very definitely most obvious in one corner
> > of the room. And I'm pretty confident about the condition of my gas
> > pipes. ;-)
> I was thinking more of next door, who had a (gas?) boiler fitted, in
> their outside loo which backs onto yours where the smell is strongest.
My thinking is it's a bit intermittent for that. And smells more like a
sewer than gas.
--
*Why do the two "sanction"s (noun and verb) mean opposites?*
Janet Tweedy
<29a5e13e-b7d5-4e6d...@s21g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>,
matthelliwell <matthe...@googlemail.com> writes
>I'm looking for ideas as to what may be causing the rotten egg smell
>in our bedroom.
We had that in our 1930's house and being no DIY expert I just offer
this as a suggestion but it turned out to be the Bakelite type fixture
on the bedroom light. It ponged awful.
Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk
matthelliwell
> In article
> <29a5e13e-b7d5-4e6d-88f0-188d68882...@s21g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>,
> matthelliwell <matthelliw...@googlemail.com> writes
>
> >I'm looking for ideas as to what may be causing the rotten egg smell
> >in our bedroom.
>
> We had that in our 1930's house and being no DIY expert I just offer
> this as a suggestion but it turned out to be the Bakelite type fixture
> on the bedroom light. It ponged awful.
Thanks for everyone's replies.
No bakelite in the room in the room though the smell seems to have
decreased recently for some undetermined reason. No doubt it will
stay away until we have guests.
Tim Lamb
<b507c0c0-db03-47f5...@s16g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>,
matthelliwell <matthe...@googlemail.com> writes
Not rotten eggs but a distinctly sewerey pong whenever hot water was
flushed down a kitchen sink.
This was a flat conversion involving a very long waste run from the sink
to an internal soil stack. I think we have mentioned before the effect
of *horizontal* waste pipes! In this case, the pong was travelling up
the boxing of the soil stack so presumably the problem started in the
basement.
The landlord, occupying the basement, could not be persuaded to seek
professional help so some expanding foam was quietly introduced to the
boxing.
regards
>
--
Tim Lamb
KMCI
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