Smell of rotting cabbage after flood

[Lindyboo]

Thanks to Hurricane Bertha we had water ingress in two rooms, which is now being dealt with. However, one of the rooms behind those which were flooded – which has not had water ingress – has developed a strong smell of rotting cabbage and visually there’s nothing to show what’s causing it. The smell has gotten worse each day.

It’s strongest from the corner of the room for about a metre along at floor level. The wall is brick (house approx. 170 yrs old) and has a flower border against it. During the heavy rain there was a sound of dripping/slurping in that area, but no evidence inside or out (above ground level) of where any water has got in. The water did come up that wall for about a brick height above the soil level.

There are no drains or water pipes at that side of the house, there is no cellar and all the floors are concrete – no wood of any kind other than roof timbers.

Any thoughts as to what might be the source of this awful smell?

 

[Keith Bowman]

No responses yet - I expect members are waiting for photographs of the smell

Most likely culprit, as it started after a flood, especially given the slurping/lapping sound, is a damaged drain pipe somewhere...
Good luck

 

[Penners]

The trouble with smell is that (a) its nature is highly subjective, and (b) it can drift from its source.

You say that there are brick walls and a concrete floor, yet you heard "dripping, slurping noises" from that area. Can you be any more precise about where the noises were coming from - above you, below you, under the floor, the other side of the brick wall, inside a partition wall...etc?

Have you tried to use your nose really scientifically - sniffing right down at floor level, up the wall(s), etc, to see exactly where the smell is strongest? If the noises have now disappeared, that seems to be your only remaining sensor to locate the source of the smell.

 

[malcolm]

Is there a carpet in that room? If the underlay has become damp it will take a very long time to dry out. Might be worth lifting the carpet in that area to check.

 

[Lindyboo]

The smell seems to be at floor level though I’ve sniffed along the skirting board and at times it seems stronger in one area but then fades and seems to be whiffy elsewhere, though this might be because my olfactory senses get overloaded. I’ve checked the roof space (there is an eaves area with a loft hatch right over where the pong first seemed to be and which extends over the whole room) and all is dry in there. No dead creatures/flies etc. Nothing is hiding in there as the space is totally empty and is easy to examine. Daft though it sounds I’m not sure if we have a cavity wall. When we’ve had various works done the house appears not to have one.

The carpet is a tatty old thin, cheap job left from the previous bods (never got round to changing it – long story) without underlay. Have lifted it along the skirting area and all is dry.

I had a look outside along the flower border which is against the wall but didn’t find any decomposing creatures or any obvious cause for the smell. The plant roots here are fairly dense though and will need hacking back to see more. The guttering outside the offending room is clear and there is no fall pipe nearby where anything might be trapped and rotting.

The two rooms which were flooded have a ‘normal’ odour as a result of the water and the spoiling of flooring, but the apparently dry room behind has this ghastly stench.

Still stumped, alas!

 

[malcolm]

It's well worth a quick search of google for "rotting cabbage smell". There are a bunch on there so it looks like you are not the only one. (Just had a look.) Of course google says it could be anything but a few folk linked from there have fixed it.

 

[Lindyboo]

Yeah, googled last night and it seems I'm not alone. Many other perplexed persons out there.

 

[Juju]

We had the exact same smell for weeks in our bathroom - and after accusing the rest of the family of causing it - I think actually it was standing water in the pipes as we rarely use the bath in that room cos it's an old rolltop one which looks lovely but isn't very practical. Now I run water into it once a week and the smell has never come back. And my brother had the same problem in his house - he spent loads of money investigating it checking for rats, collapsed sewers, and on air fresheners etc - I don't think a cause was ever uncovered and eventually it went away. Weird.

Juju

 

[Flyfisher]

If sinks, baths, toilets are rarely used the water in the u-bend can evaporate, opening up the room to the full glory of the foul drains.

Running water once a week would keep the u-bend topped up.

 

[Lindyboo]

Well, still no solution to the pong, but I have (I think) established that it’s not emanating from the outside wall. Dug down a couple of brick depths behind the flower border against the wall and all was sound and no bad odour at all.

Removed skirting board inside, which runs along that wall and all was dry and no odour – got the beak right on it all the way along and nothing.

I now speculate that the problem lies somewhere along the interior wall running at right angles to the outer. This wall is partly brick (covered) and partly a plasterboard partition covering an old doorway from before our time. I’m speculating that somehow water has got in to that area and either activated a long disused drain (at one time the room was used to keep livestock) or that some dead rodent(s) have begun to rot, though in the latter case I would expect flies to give the game away. In either case it will likely mean tearing down a wall.

Will report back if any progress!

 

[Penners]

or that some dead rodent(s) have begun to rot, though in the latter case I would expect flies to give the game away.

If a rodent has died inside a partition wall, the flies might not be able to get in there. We've experienced that problem once or twice in the past, without telltale flies,

However, I think it would be a considerable coincidence if the rodent decided to expire exactly at the time you had your flood (unless of course it drowned!).

 

[Lindyboo]

I agree Penners. However as the day has progressed, the smell is now more like sewage. Have just finished examining the possibilities of that and not found any likely leaks. The nearest pipes, which service the upstairs bathroom, have (as far as we can determine) no leakage. However the bathroom was installed by the previous numpty, who could bodge for England, so there may be some remote pipework which has leaked due to a build of pressure during the high winds. We're trying to evaluate what our insurance covers before calling out a plumber (or whoever) to see if they can resolve it. Sigh.

I did some investigation of the cavity where the door used to be (long since plasterboarded over). I gouged a hole out at skirting level and the only odour which came through was the usual damp-ish old house smell - not sewage type. However the pong now seems to be stronger at skirting board level along the wall above which the upstairs bathroom sits. Also it's getting a bit sewage-whiffy in the adjoining room, which had been flooded.

 

[Penners]

the pong now seems to be stronger at skirting board level along the wall above which the upstairs bathroom sits.

Aha - sounds as though you're getting to the nub of the problem. If the sewage downpipe comes down inside that wall, I'd be inclined to try and ascertain its path, then break into the appropriate section of wall downstairs to discover what's been going on. I'm assuming it's a studwork partition wall - right?

Needless to say, roll back any carpets in the room below and get anything of value clear before you do this.

 

[Lindyboo]

Alas, Penners, it's a solid wall (brick) beneath. That said, we don't know if it has any cavity, but it's doubtful, being internal. We'll be enquiring of our insurance tomorrow to see what they can offer. In the meantime we plan to get carpets/skirting/upstairs boards lifted tomorrow and see what that might reveal.

Psst - anybody wanna buy a house? No reasonable offer refused ...

 

[Keith Bowman]

Of course, it will not have escaped the notice of followers of Mr T Pratchet, that you live in the real world equivalent of the Sto Plains, where the smell of rotting cabbage after a flood is only to be expected

 

[Lindyboo]

Well, I think the matter of the foul pong is resolved. The best guess is that the upstairs loo at some long ago time leaked sewage into the room below. Though it must have been cleaned away, sufficient bacteria remained behind the skirting board so that it was activated by the exceptional rise in dampness. It seems that the water which was lapping against the outer wall has travelled by capillary action around the other walls in that room. There’s a distinct line of dampness all around which suggests this and the brick dust etc behind the skirting was very damp.

Have cleaned, bleached and dried the offending area and no more pong – huzzah!

 

[Zebra]

Well done. Only you've lost the advantage now of the perfect cover-up for when you let a little one go.....

 

[Lindyboo]

Well, there's a downside to everything ...