IF YOU SMELL GAS

Natural Gas Odor

If you think you are smelling natural gas, the gas that is used to heat your home and run some appliances, leave your house immediately and report that you have detected the odor of natural gas to Detroit Edison from a neighbor’s phone or from your cell phone, but do this away from your house. To avoid a possible explosion, do not turn any lights on or off or do anything that might cause a spark.

Sewer Gas Odor

Sewer gas odors from the sewer system only get into your house through your house drains. Every drain in your house should have a gas trap under it. That’s the "U" shaped pipe that is under your sinks. The shape of the pipe allows water to be trapped in the "U" shape of the pipe keeping sewer gasses from entering your house. Check to see if all drains have a gas trap. Don’t forget the clothes washer drain. The drains in the basement floor should also have gas traps.

The most common cause of sewer odor in homes is when the water evaporates out of an unused or seldom used floor drain. It is easy to forget about them if you have covered them when carpet has been installed in the basement. This is an easy fix, to correct the problem, just pour water down the drain every so often to keep the gas trap, the "U" portion of the pipe filled with water.

Another cause of sewer odor is a plugged or restricted sewer gas vent pipe in your house. Any build up of sewer gas pressure in the sewer mains should be vented thorough the vent pipe out into the atmosphere. If the vent pipe is plugged (or does not exist), the sewer gas may have enough pressure to bubble through the water in the gas traps in the plumbing system.