sulphur smell in sitting room

[mogwai72]

This started three weeks ago. We only noticed it once then nothing again. Yesterday and today the problem is back.

We have a combi boiler in the kitchen which is four years old but the smell doesn't come from here.

The smell seems to be in the corner of the room. We have a radiator on that wall but no electric socket. The heating system in this part of the house is about 13 years old.

Our gas pipe runs under the floor in the hall, under the offending wall and across the sitting room to a living flame gas fire.

The smell starts about 11am and peaks about midday. It gradually wears off during the afternoon. This smell seems to happen during the hours the central heating is switched off.

Any ideas??

 

[JohnD]

might be that you have a CH leak and you are smelling the corrosion inhibitor chemical mixed in the water (or the corrosion gases if none)

Try bleeding the rad onto a tissue and see if the wet tissue has the same smell.

Leaks are often from the radiator valves, if old.

 

[Agile]

Part of the problem of assessing reports of smells is the difficulty for most people of identifying the smell.

Because of my scientific background and my involvement in diagnosing problems with heating and electrical I am very familiar with a wide range of smells.

Sulphur is actually odourless! So I wonder what you think you are smelling.

The very strong and pungent smell associated with sulphur is the smell of sulphur dioxide which is produced when sulphur burns.

Tony Glazier

 

[petetheleak]

It is the "Brussel sprout season" lay off them at lunch time.
On a serious note try the advice in previous posts.

 

[mogwai72]

In answer to questions

the smell is like bad eggs and no, we don't live with an elderly relative or an incontinent animal.

We have a long sitting room/dining room (used to be two rooms). There is a radiator in each half of the room. The smell was originally confined to the front half of the room. I switched that radiator off and the smell seems to have moved to the baclk of the room.

Curious.

 

[Agile]

Bad eggs is hydrogen sulphide!

That, or a similar smell is often associated with the odour from drains!

Do you have any drainage passing under the lounge?

But it could just be the effect of a wet oversite as a result of a leaking heating system.

However, I presume the combi is a pressurised system and you are not regularly having to repressurise it?

Tony

 

[mogwai72]

Thanks for continued answers

No, we are not losing pressure from the boiler. The CH and hot water systems appear to be functioning normally.

We have no drains running under the room in question. We have a cavity underneath as it's floorboards. We have wondered whether an animal has found it's way under the floor but the only way in would surely be via the external airbricks and these have only small holes in them.

We bled a radiator today in the sitting room. The fluid seemed normal and smelt fine.

 

[twgas]

try getting a floorboard up and have a sniff and/or a look.

When we used to do gas leaks I've had call-outs for things such as - a dead rat under the floor, rotting fruit in a bowl, an elderly neighbour burning a saucepan etc.

 

[namsag]

Sulphur does smell and when associated with gas it can be a fumes smell, could be your neighbours fire/ heating ,

 

[2face]

is your neighbour using solid fuel, is there chimney back to back with yours in the lounge ?

i have seen many were flue gases have crossed in the loft space and come down the cold flues next door.. soot has a sulpur acidy smell to it ..

 

[mogwai72]

Right we've had some floorboards up today and my husband has found a pool of water under the dinign room floor. The central heating system seems okay and the adjacent radiator doesn't seem to be leaking.

We've been in this house for 11 years with no previous problem of this nature. Our garden does tend to become waterlogged during wet weather (we're on a clay soil) but it's not rained much in the last few days. I'm assuming the water has been there for a while due to the smell.

We had a new patio laid in March 08 which is adjacent to this room. Our old patio had a gap between the house and the flags (filled with slate chippings). The new patio touches the wall.

How can we sort this problem out? Who would we call? could we hire a pump?

What if we just leave it?

 

[2scoops0406]

The smell of rotten eggs (probably H2S) may or may seem to wear off, as your nose gradually becomes desensitised to H2S over a period of exposure, probably due to the formation of H2S04 (sulphric acid) in your nose, H2S is also poisonous and flammable in large quantities.

Bit of scaremongering there, I'd imagine at the levels you're getting though it just smells like you have a serial trumper in the house.

If you didn't have this problem with the old patio that had a gap twixt house and patio, I would suggest reinstating the gap, as it seems like you may have bridged a DPC ?