Hi all,

Ever since I moved into our home (built 1921) last year, we periodically get a sewer smell either in the basement or on the second floor. We are unable to time the smell with any activity (toilet flush, laundry, sump, basement ejector) and I only recently noticed a consistent smell while working in the attic. I asked a plumber come take a look and he spent a long time looking over our plumbing system. He eventually found a crack in the main vent stack before it leaves the roof. He said this was likely our issue and the smell travels down the wall and eventually smell it on the floors.

He also said, if we were to open up the walls to access and fix the pipe, we might as well update the current galvanized piping in the bathroom to copper and fix any other venting/piping issues that pop up. He also didn't seem to think our basement ejector/laundry/sump venting setup was ideal and recommended changing that.

He gave us several options: 1) fix just the upper portion of the main stack, 2) fix just the upper portion of the main stack + update the plumbing upstairs, 3) change out the entire stack, update plumbing, fix the venting in the basement and replace the secondary stack (venting for basement and kitchen I believe) to PVC as well.

For the a le cart option number three, he quoted $8900 including demolition but not replacement of drywall and the varying options were priced lower.

What would you guys recommend we do? Replace the whole thing or just replace the top portion. There's no way for me to know if we have any pending doom down on the first floor or basement. Also, is this a reasonable price for the whole project if that were necessary?

Thanks,

Drew

repair what you can see. there may be no other issues..

May be the IL branch of the FL company that does water pipe inspections.