HELP!! What has happened to my bath

suebea_2

Help desperately needed!!!

We woke up this morning to a sickening smell of rotten eggs coming from our upstairs bathroom and on investigating saw our bath was covered in brown stains which looked like something had been spilt or sprayed on the bath and ran down to the base and down the plug. Almost like somebody filled the bath with muddy water then pulled the plug but its also on the tiled side of the top :eek:

This bath is rarely used as it was in the house when we bought it (house was built in the 50's but not sure if bath original) and as yet haven't had the funds to replace it so we use the shower downstairs.

The marks are flat to the enamel and when i tried to wipe then scrape at a bit it did not move i have tried cleaning it to no avail and so have filled the bath with cold water and bleach to see if that will work.

Any ideas as to what could have caused this as the only suggestion my husband can come up with is that we have a dirty ghost !!!!!!

Thanks in advance

Norma_Desmond

How weird! Could it have been some sort of sewage 'blow' - although that would surely have just wiped off no matter how nasty?
Hopefully an 'expert' will be along soon!

muskoka

Just an idea. If it is the original bath, could it have been re-enamelled at some stage & now the re-enamelling is coming off for some reason? Hence the original stained bath colour coming through??? (Dosent account for the smell though....)

Norma_Desmond

muskoka wrote: »

Just an idea. If it is the original bath, could it have been re-enamelled at some stage & now the re-enamelling is coming off for some reason? Hence the original stained bath colour coming through???

Wouldn't explain the terrible smell though....

suebea_2

Norma_Desmond wrote: »

How weird! Could it have been some sort of sewage 'blow' - although that would surely have just wiped off no matter how nasty?
Hopefully an 'expert' will be along soon!

We thought of that but the waste pipe empties into a box on top of the down pipe

IM

Sounds like a job for CSI...

Any chance of posting some photos?

Jonesya

The fact that you don't use the bath very often could have resulted in the water in the waste trap drying out and with no water seal you could get sewage/eggs smells coming out through the plug hole.

Where the brown marks came from I don't know, has the bath got some form of grating over the plug hole - eg. could it have been a rodent come up through the pipe?

PasturesNew

Did the brown marks suddenly appear overnight? Or is this a bathroom you've not even been into for 6 months or more (I had a house like that, too many rooms, I didn't go in them all)

suebea_2

Hi all thanks for the replys

IM - you really wouldn't want photos it doesn't look nice

Jonesya - The bath doesn't drain directly into the sewer it goes through a trough first so any smells from the sewer would get vented there i think and eww to the rodents but the same thing applies

Pastures new - Yes it happened over night the bath is not used often but it has a toilet ect in which is used daily.

Have spoken with my son who is at work and he noticed the smell at about 2 am but only noticed the smell was much worse and the state of the bath when he went to brush his teeth at about 7am.

Its a complete mystery ????

Little_Vics

hubby is a plumber - rotton eggs is a sulpher smell so drains are certainly involved. He says try a strong Mr Muscle or cream cleaner - bleach won't touch it. You might also want flush a lot of hot water down the drain - just fill the bath up and pull the plug. Hope that helps. LV x

basmic

If I were you, get a bottle of bleach, fill the bath up with the hottest water you can get from the tap, and mix the entire bottle of bleach in.

Let it sit for a bit, then pull the plug. As you pull the plug, ask somebody to check what comes out at the trough - ie: lumps, dead rat, or something.

With any luck, the force of the bath full of water will force any blockages away.

Afterwards, if you want to play it safe, pour a kettle of scalding water down, wait 30 seconds and pour some caustic soda down the plughole, and leave it for 10 minutes - and flush with another kettle of scalding water.

That's how I'd clean the pipework out, anyway - good luck to cleaning the bath. :eek: