so, the plumber came through this morning.

the source of the odour was coming from a line that goes to the weeping tiles rather than the cleanout, and i got conflicting statements as to whether this is connected to the sanitary. windsor is an old city, and what i learned in the last basement i was in is that most of the houses in the city have single lines rather than separate ones. i can call the city to ask if the issue becomes important, and it might be if we have to talk this out in court, but right now it's a secondary one.

so, the hole in the floor that i thought was a cleanout actually isn't a cleanout, but just a hole in the floor that goes to the drainage underneath the house, which goes to the sewer. the lines may or may not be unified on the way to the main. but, the water running through this drain comes from under the house, rather than from inside of it. the hole itself seems to exist solely to allow the heating system to drain.

if this is all actually true, which i'm not sure about, then that would seem to uphold my second hypothesis, which is that the gas is entering the unit via a heat pump in conjunction with a broken p-trap, rather than solely due to a dried p-trap or a broken stack. and, that was the hypothesis that i'd settled on for a while, now, due to the fact that the heating seems to be the dominant mitigating factor.

the plumber seemed more willing to think about the idea than the property owner, but neither of these people know anything at all about physics, and their opinion about whether i'm right or not is essentially worthless. they can scoff at me if they want, but that's just typical dumb jock anti-intellectualism. if you're a smart person, you know this feeling - when the dumb jock doesn't know how dumb he actually he is, and laughs at you when you say something intelligent. if they were more intelligent, they'd acknowledge their ignorance of thermodynamics, as i've been able to acknowledge my ignorance about plumbing systems. and, as a consequence of acknowledging my ignorance, i'm slowly learning about what i don't know as more evidence comes in, and they aren't, they're just scoffing, and languishing in their own backwardsness and stupidity.

the plumber seemed to argue that the cap just wasn't on tight enough, and to that end i would certainly not disagree with him. that hole clearly needs to be plugged, as a starting step, if not an ending one. i mentioned at the start of this that we might get to a point where we deduce there isn't an actual answer, and that's more or less what he said - his analysis was that if the line was installed correctly, then simply tightening up the line should solve the issue. meaning that if the line wasn't installed correctly then he'll need to tear the whole floor up...

i actually think that the truth is probably that the line wasn't installed correctly. but, you have to try to block the hole before you tear the floor up, even if you know it won't work.

so, i haven't heard a next step, yet. it's raining here today and all night, so i'm just going to sit and wait for a response. but, i'm expecting him to come in and plug up the hole, and i'm not expecting it to actually solve the problem.

now that i realize where the line is draining from, i also think there's likely some seepage. i've mentioned repeatedly that it seems like the smell is coming from directly under me, and that would make sense if the gas is coming up through the drainage system. i asked if a broken line under the floor could cause a smell and he said the water drains forwards, but that didn't answer the question about the gas. he just kept saying that what i'm describing shouldn't happen....if it's installed correctly.

i'm skeptical, but i have to let the process play out. and, we'll see if plugging the hole actually fixes the problem or not. don't get me wrong: i certainly hopes it does. i just don't think it will.

and, i recorded the entire thing, so he'd better actually do it.