Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 May 26, 2009 9:28 pm hi folks everynow and then theres an sewege like smell from the bathroom and im pretty sure its coming from the drainpipe in the middle of the bathroom... any ideas what is causing this? do i need a plumber..? Thanks in advance. Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 2May 26, 2009 9:56 pm Do you use this bathroom much? I ask as we had this problem in our last house and it was because we didnt use the bathroom and the drains used to dry out. Solution was to run some water through bath and shower once a week and it went away. Try this first if it doesnt work then you may have another problem Know where your going in life............... you may already be there Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 3May 27, 2009 11:29 am As the poster before said, the smell is most likely coming from a floor waste where the water seal has evaporated. In the bottom of all traps and floor wastes theres a water seal, which stops odours entering the room. If the drains havent been used for a while, the water evaporates and allows odours to enter the bathroom. just run some water down the basin, shower bath etc. If the smell persists you may have a broken pipe (unlikely) or a venting issue where the educt vent is blocked by a birdsnest etc, which causes the traps to syphon allowing odours to enter the bathroom. Or perhaps an open drainage pipe under the bath. Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 5May 27, 2009 7:24 pm oh bugger... the bathroom is the mainbedrooms ensuite.. so needless to say.. it gets regular use Guess i should be calling a plumber.. Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 6May 28, 2009 5:29 pm We had a smell permeating through the bathroom and after some time found the rubber seal between the back of the toilet and the floor had perished and had a little crack in it, letting in sewage smell. I had the seal replaced and the smell was gone! Hope this helps! Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 7May 28, 2009 6:58 pm Or could you have a blockage of some sort (like hair etc)? Try using a drain unblocker thingy (tech term ) like Draino and see whether that helps. Or what happened to us in our last home was that DD had dropped a hair comb into the drain itself so it was clogging up. Bought a $2 reach and grab tool from The Reject Shop and pulled up all the accumulated gunk - problem solved. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 8May 31, 2009 3:25 pm We've had that same problem in two houses, the one we demolished and the one we are currently living in. It's a distinct smell that gets worse. The one we demolished we had a plumber out at least once a year for three years because the blockage was right at the end of the block. Turns out when we were building it was caused by tree roots so South East Water was called out and they had to fix the problem. We should have called them three years earlier. In this particular case the water used to rise in the toilet and stay high. The last time the sewerage leaked into the gully trap. Recently we had the same problem in the rental and the smell actually came up the bathroom pipes as well. Putting plugs in the sink kept the smell at bay whilst we sorted the issue out. The water also rose in the gully trap. By coincidence South East Water walked up our driveway (they were looking for the next door neighbour) as they wanted to check their gully trap. Told them we had the same problem. About an hour later problem gone, they had fixed it from the street. So if you are getting a smell that is getting stronger then I'm guessing you will need a plumber to at least work out what the problem is. Gully traps seem to be good for working out the problem but don't think they have them in new houses anymore, I know ours doesn't. Hope it's not caused by your "pumpkinbum" Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 9Aug 16, 2009 11:48 am You just need to fill a bucket with water & pour down the floor waste. It simply due to stale water sitting in the pipe. If you look down you will probably see water sitting there. I know as I have to do it in my toilet & laundry at times. Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 10Aug 16, 2009 12:07 pm Since the bathroom is well used, I would be looking to see if you have a vent inline. the vent should extend past the roof line. onc_artisan Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 11Aug 25, 2009 10:09 pm Interesting to read this as I have the same problem. First we had a blocked waste pipe - toilet was filling up and bath, sinks etc were very slow to empty. Got the plumber in who cleared the blockage. But 24 hours later a foul smell began to accumulate in the bathroom. It just got stronger and stronger and within a day it was putrid. Tipped water down the floor drain, ran all the taps etc etc. No effect. Plumber came back and thought it may be the seal around the base of the toilet, so he glooped silicon around that. No effect. Smell is still awful. Making things even worse is that this is an interior bathroom - no exterior window !!! (Old house, odd rennovation at the back). I'll be calling the plumber first thing tomorrow. But here's the odd thing: I blocked up every hole: the bathplug, sink, shower, floor waste etc and the smell is STILL really bad. That makes me think there must be a broken pipe directly under the floor somewhere. But isn't it coincidental that this happened after getting the blockage cleared ? Now I've got the horrors that this is going to turn into some huge "dig up the pipes" job Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. - Dale Carnegie Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 13Aug 26, 2009 11:13 am Cabinfever But here's the odd thing: I blocked up every hole: the bathplug, sink, shower, floor waste etc and the smell is STILL really bad. That makes me think there must be a broken pipe directly under the floor somewhere. But isn't it coincidental that this happened after getting the blockage cleared ? Now I've got the horrors that this is going to turn into some huge "dig up the pipes" job I'm with you on this. Too much coincidence Have a look under the house and see what is there. Maybe a broken pipe Re: bathroom drainpipe smell? 14Aug 26, 2009 8:49 pm Update: The plumber came back today. He checked the air vent pipe thingy - clear. He went under the house and said everything was good. In fact he said that he'd rarely seen a house so dry after all the rain we've had lately. Then he looked at the floor waste pipe. I remarked how the water level in there seemed so much lower than it had been. I'd already poured umpteen bucketloads of water down there, so this wasn't a case of the low water level due to the classic drop syndrome. Instead what we now think is that the pipes had been partially clogged for so long that the water level in the entire drain system had been artificially high. That would explain why I remembered the water level in the floor waste being much higher. Now that the blockage is gone, the default water level has dropped back to what it should be, uncovering areas of piping that had been underwater and collecting scunge for a long time. These are now drying out and hence the stink. That certainly explains the gradual onset of the smell and the fact that no pipes are broken. not so great at explaining why the smell lingered when all the pipes were covered. Anyway they're getting a good dose of bicarb and vinegar tonight, and a big bleach attack tomorrow. Hope fully that will be the end of it. One other funny thing. The smell now reminds me of cheap motels: disinfectant and and musty pipe smell. makes me wonder about the hygine of hotel piping.... Anyway, a long story, but perhaps useful sometime in the future for someone going nuts with a similar problem. Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. - Dale Carnegie Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6035 Hi Geoff Install Puddle Flange prior to any screed. Puddle flange needs to be flush with the surface so you may need to grind away the surface to achieve this. Also as… 2 8328 Hello It is good to have a planned bathroom reno to suit your budget and design, living for 10 years I think you need a bathtub 4 10352 |