sewer odors in bathroom periodically
sewer odors in bathroom periodically
I have a bathroom that is usually odor-free but occasionally sewer odor creeps in. When it does, it’s usually not intense but on rare occasions it’s intense enough to smell from the next room.
Any ideas? I cannot connect it with any activity. It seems to hit randomly. Traps are good. It seems to close to the toilet connection to the pipework but there are no waste water leaks in sight.
Do I need to remove the toilet and dig up the tiles? I could hire a plumber to scope the drain, but that would likely cost more me digging up the bathroom myself. Should I look into renting a drain camera? Or would it make sense to rent an infrared camera and pour hot water in the drain?
I think the kitchen drains may be upstream from the bathroom.
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Do you have an unused shower or sink in that bathroom? Over time, the water in the p-traps will evaporate allowing septic/sewer smells to creep in.
If so, run water down the drain, cut the water, then pour a little mineral oil down the drain to prevent evaporation.
The shower goes long enough stretches without being used that the tiny trap could dry out. So it was the first thing I suspected. But the odor is closer to the toilet than the shower and I tested as well by filling the trap and the odor emerged again a couple days later.
Gotcha. Do you have any experience installing toilets? There’s a wax seal on the floor that the toilet flange seals onto. You’ll smell odors if there’s a gap in that seal.
That wax seal on the floor type of installation is how US toilets are designed. In my case the drain pipe connects behind the bowl and below the cistern so the drain pipe is visible where it attaches to the toilet. I don’t get the impression there is a problem with that seal.
That’s convenient. Are you able to open and snake from there without removing the fixture? Partial clogging of the drain would still allow the toilet to flush, but could still release odors.
The pipe is rigid and not moveable, so I would still have to remove the toilet to access the pipe directly. But I don’t quite understand your theory. It flushes fast so I doubt it’s clogged, even partially. But if a clog or buildup had an odor, it’s still on the other side of the trap.