smell in flat: gas or sewage?

I live on the ground floor of a block of flats in London. I came back to my flat from holiday and immediately noticed an unpleasant smell. I thought at first it smelled like ripe cheese like camembert but later I thought it smelled like sewage.

It seemed to be coming from a storage area where the gas meter is. I removed everything in the storage area and these things do not smell. The storage area still smells though. I don't really know what gas smells like do I don't know if I have a gas leak. There doesn't seem to be any dampness as far as I can see.

What should my next step be? I don't want to have to put up with the smell forever.

Reply to
hazchem
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Is there a floor drain in that storage closet? If so I'd try pouring a bucket of water down it and see if the smell goes away. If you don't, or if it does not, I'd call the gas company - certainly you don't want to be living in an apartment with a live gas leak!

nate

Reply to
N8N

Call the gas company. This is a dangerous condition.

Reply to
SteveBell

Don't screw around with it--call the gas company to check it out.

They aren't going to get mad if it turns out to be something else and if it _is_ a gas leak and doesn't get prompt attention then people, yourself included, could die.

For future reference, if you suspect a gas leak, don't "remove everything in the area", just leave the area, and call the gas company from a safe distance (like standing in the street or from a different building). Don't turn any lights on or off, don't open or close any doors except those between you and the exit, don't do anything but leave. You don't want to do _anything_ that has the tiniest chance of making a spark--a rusty hinge moving can do that, so can a latch striking the jamb, so can your hand approaching the doorknob, so can turning a light switch on or off, so can dialing a phone.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Get off usenet and call the gas company emergency line, leaks only get bigger. A house here blew up about a month ago (Frankfort IL) at 5:30 AM when the owner (they think) flipped a light switch. The house was completely gone and the explosion heard for a 4 mile radius, adjacent houses were seriously damaged. NG is odorless so they add a chemical that smells like the rotting cheese you described.

Reply to
RickH

-snip-

Here's another- propane, but same scenario & result- Johnstown NY- Oct 14

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[and searching for 'propane' on my local news channel turned up another explosion in Sept, & one in August. Don't screw around. The gas supplier would rather make a lot of nuisance calls than lose a customer.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Hope by now you have called for help, but after whatever your problem is is fixed buy a gas detector alarm. Should be mandatory (and perhaps is) to have one everywhere gas is used.

Reply to
Chris

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