This past Wednesday morning, we woke up to a lovely stench all through our house...the natural gas smell. Gross!! I recognized what it was pretty quick and called the Gas Company. Well, they were already in our neighborhood on another call, so they arrived in about 5 minutes. This was when they informed us that the gas company had put 10 times as much odor in the gas as normal!!! He said all the neighbors were dealing with the same thing. Any tiny leak would smell extremely potent...well that's an understatement!
After a thorough inspection of all our areas where gas runs into the house, the inspector found a tiny gas leak in the basement gas fireplace. The leak was so small, we had never smelled it, and it most likely was there since we moved in, but 10 times the odor really amplified it! Well, gas is lighter than air, so it had filtrated through our entire house. The gas guy said that he shut off the gas to the fireplace and it should not get any worse until they came and fixed it. We slept with all the windows open that night, and yesterday (Thursday) morning it was just as bad, if not worse. Eric had a headache from sleeping in the smell and I felt nauseous. We opened the rest of the windows in the house and I called builder to see how soon we could get the guy to fix the leak over here.
Finally, around 12:30pm, the person came to fix the leak. It took him awhile to find it because it was so small. After fixing the leak, he helped air out the entire house and get out the smell. He was very helpful...I think he was truly sorry about how bad it smelled too. I was sure it had to be something more, so he tested everything again. Amazingly enough, that little leak was all that was making ALL THAT SMELL! I have never known such as small leak to smell SO horrible. Poor Laura Richards when she came to drop-off and pick-up the kids was getting ill (it didn't help that she's pregnant). I felt bad for her.
The good news is, as of last night around 6pm, the smell was competely gone. It's funny how we take the simple things for granted like smelling clean air, until we have something go wrong, and then we appreciate it so much more. Today, I'm grateful for breathing stench-free air! :)
4 comments:
I just called the gas company a week ago because of the horrible natural gas smell. Luckily ours wasn't 10 times as potent as normal! I had a babysitter here for 3 hours and she turned on the gas stove to make mac and cheese and I guess didn't quite turn the gas off. I agree with you on being grateful for fresh, clean air!
Well, on the bright side they did find a leak that over time would have been bad for you guys to keep smelling over and over. But I'm glad your house smells better and I'm REALLY GLAD that didn't happen when I was there last week. Tee hee.
I have to agree that we don't realize how much we take certain things for granted until they are gone. I hurt my back a few weeks ago and as it got better, I was actually excited to do the dishes and do laundry because I didn't hurt anymore and I could move easily.
I'm glad the smell has dissipated.
Considering how nasty that smell is just normally--I'm surprised you lived through that--YUCK! Thank goodness they found it though and maybe it really was a blessing in disguise. By the way, nice job on the peaches! Since I live really near the co-op, I bought some too but I've slices them all up for other uses.
Post a Comment