Since we bought this house a couple of years ago, we smelled sewer off and on. It wasn't ever consistent and often coincided with an offensive odor outside. So we suffered for a couple or three years.
But, a couple weeks ago, ML was wandering by our neighbor and saw water coming down the sidewalk. They called the plumber, who looked at it and said: "You'll need Pete the Leak Tracker!"
They were at work, so we volunteered to meet Pete at the house. He was amazing. He gets out his air compressor and attaches it to the water system. He gets out some listening device. Finally, after goofing around awhile, he says, "It's right here." He gets out his mini-jackhammer and goes at it awhile. Then he says, "Yep, that's where. Call the plumber. Tell him he'll need a 60 pound jackhammer."
A day later and we meet the plumber. He showed us the leak right where Pete said it was.
Meanwhile, we talked to Pete about our sewer leak. He said, "You just need a smoke test. Let me know if you want one. It'll cost $250.
A week later, we gave in and called Pete. Of course, the only day he could come, Bob and Glenda were going to be there. But they're flexible. He shows up and walks around the house. His helper gets up on the roof, stuffs a rag in all the air vents but one, and uses a bucket, a smoke bomb, and the top of a shop vac to force smoke into the plumbing pipes. Pete checked all the pipes. He says, "I just saw a few tiny leaks - they're probably not what you're smelling but it could be. I'm going to check that other vent stack just in case."
A few minutes later, we looked into the kitchen from the porch and it was absolutely filled with smoke. Pete says, "We found it! It's a rotten pipe just as it goes under the garage concrete slab. It's gonna cost you!"
$250 lighter, we thanked Pete and off he went. Clearly, this will be continued!
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