How to Get Rid of a Sewer Smell in the House

Sewer smells can make your home unpleasant.

Sewer smells can permeate your home. This happens when your sewer becomes clogged or when the water in your sink traps dries up, often from disuse, allowing sewer gas to pass from the drain pipes in your plumbing fixtures into the house. It can also happen if you have a backed-up toilet that spills onto your bathroom floor. Even after you remove the source of the sewer smell, your home might still smell like sewer. Remove this smell with natural cleaning solutions that neutralize odors.

Things You'll Need

• White vinegar
• Spray bottle
• Baking soda
• Bowl
• Zeolite crystals

Instructions

1. Fill a spray bottle with white vinegar. Spray the white vinegar over hard surfaces in your home that smell like sewage. White vinegar will neutralize smells to remove them.

2. Sprinkle baking soda over soft surfaces in your home that smell like sewer such as upholstery and carpeting. Baking soda will absorb sewer odors.

3. Let the baking soda sit overnight and vacuum it up.

4. Fill a bowl with white vinegar and place it in the center of each room in your home that smells like sewer. White vinegar will evaporate and neutralize odors in the home.

5. Fill a bowl with zeolite crystals and place it in the center of the home. Zeolite crystals will absorb sewer odors. Let it and the white vinegar sit for as long as needed until the sewer smell is gone.

Tips & Warnings

• White vinegar has a pungent odor that will dissipate once it dries.

• Don't spray white vinegar on natural stone floors as it will etch them.

References

• Mrs. Clean: Musky & Musty Smell
• Mrs. Clean: Refrigerator Odor
• Mrs. Clean: Cleaning with Vinegar