Are you looking for a house?

I also happened to face the difficulty of buying a house. An important moment in life, with many indelible memories. The first step was the real search, day after day, week after week, month after month ... visiting the houses proposed by the real estate agencies, those found through private advertisements, those reported by friends, relatives and colleagues.
As you become more and more expert, you learn to understand if the square footage corresponds to your desires, if the distribution of the rooms is studied with more or less criteria, if the installations are more or less modern, if the windows are of superior or inferior quality, if the finishes have more or less value.
In short, during this grueling search, you sharpen your eyes and you also notice that there are recurring details that "speak to you" more than others. Each of us has its "speaking" details: the fireplace ... the exposed beams ... the garden ... the large windows ... the terracotta floors ...
However, there is a detail that sometimes strikes you immediately as soon as you enter the house you are visiting. I'm talking about the unpleasant smell of the sewer! It doesn't happen very often but ... I assure you it can happen. I already imagine the scene! The real estate agent, who opened the door and invited you to come in, also sniffs the stench of sewer and hurries discreetly to open the largest number of windows, exclaiming embarrassed: "You must know that the house has been closed for a long time ... rather ... it hasn't lived for years ... it's just a closed smell!"

You keep exploring the house and maybe it's even nice! Rather ... what a pity! ... has exactly the features you are looking for! But by now, although there are many details that speak to you, you have already fixed your judgment in your mind: "I will never go to live in a house that smells like sewage!"

Keep calm! Don't make hasty decisions! Maybe they are not bad installations. There could be a scientific explanation of the phenomenon:
All sanitary appliances (kitchen sink, bathroom sink, bidet, bathtub, shower, etc ...) have a connection component to the waste water discharge system (the system that ends up in the sewers), i.e. the siphon or trap. It is a small piece of U-shaped tube that contains a certain amount of water. This small "water cap" is the only barrier that, in every home, prevents the smell of waste water from going up the pipes and escaping into inhabited areas.

Well ... it's just water! And as such it is subject to evaporation!
How much can it evaporate? About 1,5 mm a day. This means that having the hydraulic protection (the "water cap" is called this way) a minimum height of 5 cm, 33 days are sufficient for its complete evaporation.
So if you leave the sanitary appliances unused for just over a month (think, for example, of a house by the sea or in the mountains), the evaporation of the hydraulic protections and the consequent escape from the stench of sewers are inevitable!
Therefore, if you happen to feel this unpleasant stench when you visit a house, my advice is as follows:

• Let the water flow for a few seconds by opening all the taps in the house, in order to correctly restore the "hydraulic protections".
• Open all the windows to renew the air of the rooms.
• Continue to inspect the house for your personal "speaking details".

If you like the house ... come back to visit it a few days later. If the smell has disappeared (as is logical), you have an extra house to choose from for the purchase. If the stench of the sewer persists ... forget it!


Please note: Source of some images = web