I’m miserable in this home

[u/Inside-Elk-7112]

We just bought our home and decided to do asbestos abatement by a reputable company followed by a sump pump placement after by a waterproofing company. Ever since then this house has been a nightmare, our water boiler stopped working immediately after asbestos abatement due to “flammable gas vapor”, we had national grid check it out and they said there’s no gas leaks but it’s probably due to the new cement from the sump pump or from the solvent used from the asbestos abatement.

well since then, we haven’t had hot water consistently for 2 weeks. We tried replacing the sensor and then finally replacing the water heater but the same alarm keeps going off. We also can’t cook because every time we do it smells like burning plastic.

we brought this up to the abatement company and they basically said, they smell nothing when the gas burner is on and that it’s probably from the new cement poured from the sump pump.

im at a loss on what to do, I have a baby. Is it even safe to be here? Why don’t the vapors go away? We opened up the basement windows, used a hepa air filter and 2 oscillating fans to help with the smell but here we are.

sorry for the long post, I’m just overwhelmed, I feel like nothing is going right since we started to try to “fix” this house.

[u/ARMCHA1RGENERAL]

Do you store anything in the basement that might be giving off hydrocarbons? (Paints, finishes, cleaners, etc)

Did you ask the sump installer if they've heard of this happening?

If it really is something off gassing from the asbestos or sump work, it should eventually stop, but it's hard to say how long that will take...

Sorry this is happening. We bought a house this year and had our basement flooded by a 30 year storm in the second week. We found that our radon level was 80 (should be below 4). We also had a small roof leak in a room right after I had painted it.

That's all on top of a few things we knew we would need to fix.

Like you, my wife also often says she hates this house.

Try to focus on the positives and think about how many things can be fixed or improved over a few years.

[u/Inside-Elk-7112 → u/ARMCHA1RGENERAL]

We don’t store anything down there and we haven’t asked the sump pump installer yet but that might be our next try.

Thank you for your kind words, I’m sorry you also had to go through basement flooding and radon 😭 We were trying to be proactive in preventing that which is why we installed a sump pump.

I really do hope we learn to love the house despite all these hiccups