Plumber

After the plumber’s visit, the situation hasn’t improved much. Let’s just say the problem has shifted. It’s true that the toilet does flush, but the smell coming from the cellar is unbearable. We’ve been airing the place out for days, but there’s a strange smell halfway down the stairs once you’re downstairs, and right at the back of the cellar it’s even worse – and now I’m wondering whether it might have something to do with the fact that we’ve also installed the gas and electricity meters on the stairs.
The floor was indeed wet, and we mopped up a lot of dirty water and also hung the rugs outside in the sun.
Because the cellar door is in the living room, it’s not exactly pleasant to walk past it and be constantly confronted with the smell. So I’m going to look for an air freshener, we used to have one plugged into the socket in the cellar. Refills have been hard to come by for months, but yesterday I saw one in a supermarket that actually had them in stock – it just costs €6! Outrageous prices.
The plumbers were nice, but you don’t get much for being nice. We’re the ones put out by this, and he could well have mentioned that the floor was completely wet, they left a smelling mess behind. Also, the drain outside hasn’t been replaced yet; it’s situated between our house and the neighbour’s, and there are gas pipes around it, so for all we know, nothing’s going to be done at all.

There’s a drain outside the kitchen door l or at least that’s what it looks like. I decided to open it up as nothing was actually flowing through it. It’s a bit odd to have one outside. Once the plastic cover was removed, there was a pot underneath. A plastic pot with no holes, and it was completely full of sand, which isn’t surprising, given that it’s outside. I emptied the pot and cleared away the sand underneath it, but I couldn’t find a proper drain. The idea behind this drain is that when the pot overflows, the water runs down the tiny gap between the pot and the outside of the drain and then flows away through a hole somewhere beneath the pot? This system might work in showers, but I find it hard to believe it would work outdoors in the garden. I also have absolutely no idea whether there’s actually a proper drainage system underneath or whether previous occupants ever installed one. I think it would be simple to level the paving a bit more, raise it slightly or slope it so that rainwater runs towards the borders or the fence rather than pooling in certain spots.

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29-6-2026}