How to Get Rid of Sewer Smell in Your Home

To get rid of a sewer smell in your home, you'll need to first open all your windows and doors. This will ventilate the rooms and get the odor out as quickly as possible. When you open your windows, make sure you open windows at opposite sides of the room to encourage the promotion of cross breezes. In addition, while airing out your home, if you start feeling sick or dizzy from the fumes, go outside and breath in some fresh air until the feeling passes.

You will next need to determine where the sewer smell is emanating from. Most likely the sewer smell is coming from one of your drains, but you'll need to determine which one. After sniffing around a little bit, you'll soon find out where the smell is coming from, so that you can take measures to mitigate them. Pouring one cup of household bleach down the drain where the sewer smell is coming from will eliminate the odor and kill bacteria. It is important to note, however, that you should never mix bleach with other chemicals such as ammonia or drain cleaner, as this can cause the release of noxious and dangerous gases.

Hair can get trapped in drains and pick up sewer odors as well. To remove hair clogs from your drains, get a clothes hanger and fish them out. After the hair clogs have been removed, pour a cup of white vinegar down the drain to neutralize the sewer smell. If the sewer smell is contaminating the air, put a few pieces of charcoal into bowls and place them around the rooms. The charcoal will absorb the odors and leave your sewer gas infested rooms smelling fresh.

For persistent sewer odors, call a plumber, who will be able to pinpoint the problem. Sometimes the drains will need to be rotted out to remove clogs and odor causing bacteria. In addition, cracks in pipes can also cause the release of sewer gas, and once the cracks are repaired, the smell typically goes away. In the meantime, other methods of removing a sewer smell in your home is to place bowls of white vinegar throughout your home. Like charcoal, white vinegar neutralizes smells and leaves the air with a fresh smell, and the characteristic vinegar smell will dissipate in a few hours.

An odor neutralizing spray is also a good choice to getting rid of a sewer smell in the home. Traditional sewer sprays usually only cover up smells, but a good odor neutralizer will actually get rid of it permanently. Odor neutralizing sprays can be found at family retail stores, grocery stores and hardware stores.

Source: Sewer Gas Odor
Goodhousekeeping - How To Stop Sewer Smell