aries

After being in my flat for 18 months and constantly complaining about a bad smell in my little 2 metre by 2 metre conservatory, I've finally been told that the smells from the street's main sewer (100 feet away), have been blowing back because a drain in my conservatory wasn't constructed properly.

The room had previously been an open patio and was closed off for security reasons, as was an identical one for my mirror flat on the other side of the building. The resident there said she doesn't have any problems, and other residents said the smell in mine must be a minor problem and just needed
discinfectant. It didn't of course work.

Last week I awoke during the night worried that I could smell gas, so despite the darkness and cold outside, I opened up all windows and doors to clear the air.

Two evenings later I heard my letterbox rattle, so checked if somebody had given me a Christmas card. There was nothing, so I looked through the door's viewer and saw a man walking away. I immediately opened the door, and he came back and with a card identified himself as working for British Gas, and said he had put a pipe attached to a monitor through my letter box.

He came in and thoroughly checked my flat with no evidence of gas, but his monitor came alive in my conservatory. However the smell was bad enough without technology telling us, and the man said it was a sewer smell.

I therefore emailed our management company, and they promptly arranged for a drainage man to inspect. At long last he confirmed what I always believed, my drain had not been constructed properly, and he made this report with his remedial recommendations.

I've since been told that someone from an architects company will visit to discuss what needs to be done.

I am now wondering that with so much ill health I've suffered since I've been here, how much of it was caused by constantly breathing in sewage gas?