smell from toilet

sundula

There is a sewage smell from my parents main bathroom. Has been for a while. Its more noticeable in the mornings. If you run water down the bath or sink the smell will clear.
They believed first the problem was water being siphoned from the bath trap. But the plumber came heard the 'gurgle' in the bath trap and then fit a 'dry' anti-siphon trap to the bath. This stopped the gurgle noise in the bath trap but not the smell.
They shifted focus to the toilet pan. They discovered a very very small water leak from the seal between the toilet pan and the trap which goes to the floor. Plumber came again and replaced the trap between toilet and floor and put a good deal of silicone around the trap where it meets the floor. But still the smell continues.
They called me this moring to check and although its hard to pin point i thinks the smell is orginating from the toilet area. The bath trap, sink trap and shower trap all seem to be functioning ok. The toilet pan is only about 3 years old and when the plumber replaced the trap in the floor the pan was washed clean and looks new.

They have a septic tank system but having looked at the drains/manholes there isnt any blockage or over flow.

Has anyone any ideas where the smell is coming from or what the problem could be?

RKQ

Sounds like a water trap is evapourating allowing natural odour from the sewer to enter the room.
Are all the traps in the shower, sink and bath full of water?
Is the wc bowl always full of water?
Did the leak from the wc stain the floor and joists? It might be this thats smelling.

sundula

Traps all seem fine and the floor is tiled concrete and is not stained or damp. External vent / stack is also not blocked. I am stumped on it.

gsxr1

there is usauly a vent pipe on your soil pipe system. It would either be built inside your walls, into your attic and out a tile vent.
Or be vented on the soil pipe outside on your wall. 4" Wavin soil pipe.

there maybe a blockage in the vent.

This would make the shower gaggle as water traveling down the pipe would suck air through the traps and not the vent pipe.

northdublin

i think you need an air admittance valve on the pipes that are tapping into your soil waste. when yo flush the toilet it could be creating a vacum thats suckin all the water out of the traps causing a smell.

sundula

No, all traps are fine and the vent pipe is clear. Looking at it over the weekend i think there must be a small leak/gap where the toilet waste meets the floor. The smell is very slight and it seems to build from that area. I think the toilet will have to come backup and refit and resealed to see is that solves the problem.

gsxr1

sundula . Ha ve you investigated for problem in the sewer system. These are also symptoms of a full or partial blockage on the ground.

Is there a AJ you can open outside on the ground.

RockCastle

Bought a house a couple of years ago and there was a constant smell in the en-suite off the master bedroom and for a while I couldn't figure it out the smell was very hard to track down as it built up so gradually.

Anyway the smell was coming from the shower trap I am not sure what your one is like but if it’s one the ones that you can take the grill off the in the shower tray there should another piece that fits into the waste that you can take out to clean anyway this was missing out of mine so no water seal was being created and the smells were free to come back up so bought a new waste trap took the piece out of it inserted it to mine problem solved!

Have a look!

gsxr1

RockCastle wrote: »

Bought a house a couple of years ago and there was a constant smell in the en-suite off the master bedroom and for a while I couldn't figure it out the smell was very hard to track down as it built up so gradually.

Anyway the smell was coming from the shower trap I am not sure what your one is like but if it’s one the ones that you can take the grill off the in the shower tray there should another piece that fits into the waste that you can take out to clean anyway this was missing out of mine so no water seal was being created and the smells were free to come back up so bought a new waste trap took the piece out of it inserted it to mine problem solved!

Have a look!

was going to suggest that also.. It is usually the little black ring seal on the insert that gets lost or gets loose. Causing the sewer smell

sundula

I am getting the smell from the pan connector and the back of the toilet. But it those seem to be 100% ok no obvious gaps or leaks. I wonder would extending the external vent make any difference? Its about a foot over the gutter height. (house is a bungalow)

cdixon

Let me know how you get on because i have a similar problem. I get a very bad sewage smell in toilets and the whole house when it rains after a dry spell. I have had drain company out to do camera survey etc and they have confirmed it is sewage but can't really explain what the cause is.

sundula

Still get the smell, not as bad, toilet has been up twice and refit and still no joy. If the door of the toilet is left open all the time the smell doesnt seem as bad.

As soon as i have time i am going to take up toilet again and chisel out floor, join a piece on to floor pipe and extend the drain pipe up above floor level and then refit toilet and see how that goes. Its the only thing i can think of doing. The existing pipe stops about 40mm below the floor tile level and even though the seal of the pipe from the toilet seems 100% its the only thing i can think of. The smell seems to orginate from the floor area around the pipe but as i said the seal is 100% and it is well packed with silicone. Let you know what i do.

gsxr1

cdixon wrote: »

Let me know how you get on because i have a similar problem. I get a very bad sewage smell in toilets and the whole house when it rains after a dry spell. I have had drain company out to do camera survey etc and they have confirmed it is sewage but can't really explain what the cause is.

storm and sewage should not be connected

chickenlicken

Just wondering does anyone know of a good plumber that would deal with a similar problem in an apartment main bathroom? awful smells out of the bath plughole sounds like it may be a bath trap issue. Thanks!

rusnakova

Hi guys, have you tried Toilet Friend? I've heard it works really well for many people - www.toiletfriend.ie

Hope this helps.

Esmeralda34

Hi there

I also live in an apartment, on the second floor in an old building that was probably refurbished in the late 80s or early 90s.

The smell has been building over the past 6 months (I think initially we were silently blaming one another for the bad odour from the toilet!). However, it's become much worse recently where after us returning home from work or being out all day, on opening the front door, the place stinks! It's a sewage smell. However it's not consistentbut seems to be fine some days and dreadful on others.

I've spoken to our landlord and he has said it's probably a build up of hair (down the toilet?!) and that some caustic soda should do the trick.

I haven't tried this yet, I suppose because I only spoke to him a few days ago in relation to this and haven't noticed the odour to be very bad since.

However, it's not resolved and I would greatly appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks,
Brenda