OK, long story short, we were gone for the weekend, I set the thermostat to 75 (which is still much, much cooler than it is here in Jackson, MS) instead of the usual 70 or so that we keep it. When we got back, there was a really strong smell in the house. I have searched high and low and can’t find anything rotting, mold or mildew, anything dead, etc. Under the house, we have an old duct system that is missing some insulation, so it condensates a bit, but still no smell. No smell coming from the atic either. It is really only bad in a few rooms. After some reading, I think I am having a sewer gas problem, like a poster a few threads back, but all my drains/traps keep some water in them b/c they are used daily. The only thing I can think of at this point are the vents on the roof. I was up there today and I couldn’t find any that had a smell coming from them, but using a long pipe snake, I checked all 5 of them. All of them seemed to be pretty dry, but I found one that came up a little funky. It didn’t feel like it was clogged, but it did indeed have some type of build up, looked like stuff from a kitchen sink or dishwasher.
My question, other than any thoughts anyone might have on the situation, is… Do the vents on the roof need to have water in them? Also, should the vent that has some gunk (again, I don’t think it feels clogged) be clean?
Vents don’t have water in them, you could take a garden hose and run some water down them if you have some crud or buildup in them.
The smell could be coming from many things even the AC unit not running as much as usual, you have togo through a process of elimination to find the source.
