I am at my wits end. Since remediating our condo, I have become increasingly sensitive to high heat cooking and washing dishes to the point I can no longer do those things. My husband works an extremely stressful job, about 50 hours a week, so is obviously not home a lot. My biggest jobs as the stay at home mom are making homecooked meals, dishes are the biggest constant part of cleaning.
Backstory: We live in ground floor condo, 800 sq feet built in the mid 90s. We are the 2^(nd) owners and everything is original. We knew most things would need to be upgraded. The cabinets were so old, handles were broken, etc. The windows were so old and even had small holes and cracks in them, which resulted in them always being full of moisture. Husband decided to have windows professionally replaced, and decided to just renovate the whole condo.
When the flooring in main bathroom was pulled up for removal, it was discovered to be covered in sewage, water, and mold. It had oozed out all the way to the hall. The wax ring, assuming there was one, was completely gone, the flange had totally rusted. There was never a smell, just the toilet slowly struggled to flush everything on the first flush.
In the living room area, there were tons and tons of pink slime and some mold, underneath was what appeared to be a sealed off, old floor drain. It had been covered in more concrete.
Kitchen cabinets all removed, laminate floor pulled up. Kitchen sink was also removed, and capped off for approximately 5 months, when my husband and friend reconnected pipes to the new sink.
Near the wall that the kitchen borders with the bathroom where the toilet flange rusted and flooded, where approximately 40 foundation cracks, some small, some large.
None of the cracks were sealed. The foundation is concrete slab.
Husband and friend are very DIY people who are thoughtful in their approach, however they are not professionals.
Summary of current plumbing and drain issues: Over the past year since pipes were reconnected to the new sink with attached garbage disposal, it has never drained right. New first opened, black mold would be present growing on dishes each morning, even though the dishes were done daily. Sink drained slow, even with disposal. This got increasingly worse to where the sink struggled to drain, and as soon as it would, it would regritate water and filth back up.
I tried using green gobbler main line unclogger on both the kitchen sink and main toilet. I also for about 3 months would daily flush all drains with vinegar, baking soda, and hot water. In the sinks I would also plug the drain and fill them to capacity before pulling the plug, hoping to create enough pressure to help the sinks drain.
Despite this, the kitchen sink drains worse and slower.
Soon after, the main toilet that had been working normally since my husband put a new wax ring on, starting making running noises. At first it would come and go and sounded distant and faint, as if in the wall. This started December 2025.
As time went by, it grew louder and the running sound became constant. The toilet began to feel loose, like rocking very noticeably.
A rotting egg smell started coming from all drains, and all drain slowly and gurgle.
My busy exhausted husband finally fixed the running water constantly main toilet in April 2026. But he has not fixed the loose toilet.
As soon as he fixed the running toilet, I began having intently more terrible reactions to doing dishes and cooking. About 2 weeks ago I got another bout of shortness of breath, but I never recovered unlike all the other times. Each time I did the dishes and cooking has made it worse.
Aside from my suspicion the plumbing issues are causing my health problems, new other pluming issues emerged.
* both toilets bubble when flushed
*the main toilet that had the rusted flange and sewage flooded has constant black mold growing back, it grows back within days. It comes out of the little drain holes where water comes out to refill toilet AND especially in the tank.
* water levels fluctuate
*the main toilet when flushed sounds like it struggles to flush, it sounds as if it tries to flush too fast and fails, though no visible sewage or toilet paper come back up.
*when the bathtub is being filled, the toilet levels will rise as water slowly trickles in.
*It stinks under all sinks especially the kitchen sink, like a chemical smell. It is so bad that just opening the kitchen sink makes me extremely dizzy, but it’s in all sinks under the cabinets.
*it stinks also of a chemical smell that comes and goes with cooking and water usage. It also smells like our pet dog has pooped, but has not.
*other chemicals create interactions to SOMETHING coming from our plumbing. My husband used rubbing alcohol to clean in the main bathroom, then spent a couple hours high heat cooking his work meals. It made the house smell intensely musty, and severe sparks happened that whole night anytime anything was plugged in.
* the oven is about 3 feet parallel to kitchen sink.
*when the HVAC runs it smells like mild chemical smells, it makes me feel sick and cold. The HVAC is right next to main bathroom.
Especially at night, the pipes make lots of sounds. Sounds like banging, like someone has turned a faucet on then off, some nights it happens a little, others a lot.
finally, our foundation is sinking, I believe. My husband had to reinstall new cabinets in the wall because the cabinets started falling down. He has also had to fix and adjust the front door and a bedroom door on same side of house when both became unable to shut.
It literally feels like a few inches of slope difference. Like the house is sinking/leaning to one side.
To conclude, my husband does not believe sewer gas is a real possibility.
My husband wants me to prove to him that any of this is real, as in really creating a problem like sewer gas leaking into our home.
My questions are:
Does the under sink set up look good?
I suspect the main toilet and kitchen sink pipes/vent are conncted. How can I determine if this is the case?
if a pipe or vent is damage in the walls, how can that be determined?
How can I determine if this is a bigger issue such as a main line clog or damage or because my husband’s DIY plumbing is not effective at sealing out gases? In other words, will this pattern of the main toilet failing and allowing in sewage and gas continue?
Could the HVAC be sucking sewer gas into itself and dispersing it through the home?
If so, how can I have the HVAC vents checked or anything else related? (THE HVAC also failed late last year and had to be replaced after renovations.
My husband thinks the previous owners messed up the toilet wax ring and didn’t install one, and that the pipes are just old.
But because this is continuing to happen to the same main toilet having consistent issues, I am wondering if it’s actually a main line or major plumbing issue. If so I would like to have a professional prove it so it can be addressed instead of new wax rings, valves, and other toilet fixes continuing if they are just band aids.
My goal is to get the right professional in and I would like to be able to direct them to look at the right things. Should I call a drain or plumbing professional?
I have ordered a gas leak detector by forencics detector. Any tips on using it? From what I looked up it seems it will be easy to operate.
I will include pictures once approved.
besides my health issues which are the worst, husband has more frequent headaches, worse sleep, sensitive to sound and light, stomach issues. Our child has developed terrible chronic allergies even when her room is clean, and new emotional regulation issues, stomach issues.
thank you, from a desperate mother wanting to get her life back, and worried about the health of everyone in the house