My bathroom has this nasty sewage smell all of a sudden...?
Question:We've checked under the house and there doesn't seem to be any leaks with the pipes. Does anyone have any suggestions of what this might be?
Answers:
1. Make sure all the plumbing traps are filled with water. Do this by running the tap and flushing.
2. There is a pipe that leads up to the roof from the sewage line(it is called a "stack pipe"). It is usually in the wall behind the toilet. In older places it is made of cast iron or some other pipe. It may rust out and allow sewage gas that is supposed to go out the roof to stink up the house. You may have to tear up a wall and replace the pipe with a plastic pipe. It can be checked from the roof with a plumbers sewage line camera unit.
Somone must've dropped Tha Bomb in your house. Lots of beef and cheese.
I figured it out! It is really the devil trying to crawl out of Hell from your toilet. He demands tribute and you need to hire an exorcist priest to get rid of Ole Slewfoot. These days are ruff as it is the End Times.
Do you have a septic tank? or is it public sewerage system. If its your own septic tank.This is a sign its full and needs to be pumped out.
Is it hot where you are..say hello to Sewer Gas
If you have a septic tank, it may be full or there isn't enough wafer in the pipe to keep the smell down.
If you have a floor drain, maybe the water evaporated from the trap (water in the trap prevents sewer gas from coming into the house. Same goes for sinks, if you have dual sinks, and you only use the one, maybe the water dried up from the trap there, and is letting sewer gas into your bathroom.
Venting problem. check the vent pipe on the roof. If the vent gets plugged the sewer fumes come out the drains. You can pour water down the vent. I stick a hose down mine once a year just to keep them clean. Make sure it is the vent pipe, you will have a mess if you put water down the heater vent.
maybe they are flushing the sewers tonight
Leaks are rarely the problem. It could be clogged drains that don't appear to be clogged, or backed up septic (if you're on septic). If you're on sewer, check with your neighbours to see if they've noticed any strange odors.
Quite often what happens is the trap gets full of hair waste and bacteria and that can emit a foul odor. Also, bear in mind that when you flush a toilet, it takes an average of 3 flushes after the first to actually flush all the waste away. If something got accidentally flushed down there and is caught in the plumbing, it's going to hold onto at least some of what followed.
Then there is the question of the construction of the bathroom, how old it is, etc, and ventilation. You could have wood rotting ... oh ... let's not go there ... it's too expensive and depressing to think about.
it could be that the s-bend in the pipe is empty of water. If you have a drainage hole in the middle of the floor (australian bathrooms have this - not sure where you are) try pooring a glass of water down this. It should fill up the bend, blocking the smell
ask the city to come and check the sewer. it is backing up.
keep the drains filled with water in the house. fill all of them up.
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