Smell from capped toilet

Savvy_Sue

This is actually at the office rather than at home, but we moved the staff toilet (not personally you understand) and had the old stack capped off and boxed in.

Only it's very whiffy at times, and not at all nice for the person nearest.

We get a similar whiff downstairs where there's a shower room, and another capped off toilet which was done some years ago. That's concreted over, and the whiff comes into the passage where there's a couple of inspection hatches.

We have had a plumber in, and had the water company out to the drains in the street, but neither has been able to resolve the situation. I wasn't involved in talking to them so I don't know exactly what they said, and last attempt was some time ago.

But there's talk of swapping desks so in case I end up in the smelly one I'd quite like to know what we should try, what I should ask, or whether we have to live with it! :eek:

I don't really speak plumbing so if using technical terms I would be most grateful if you'd explain what you mean.

Many thanks! And apologies if there's an old thread with suggestions, couldn't find one with a search but wasn't sure how to describe the problem!

If it helps, the new staff toilet has no external walls, whereas the whiffy capped toilet is under a window overlooking the street, on the same side of the building as the shower room and previously capped toilet. There is no smell in the new toilet, nor in the downstairs (internal) toilets.

chalkysoil

I'll be interested in any replies - we had a toilet with a pipe out the roof vent but when we had an upstairs put on our bungalow the builder capped the pipe which is now about 3' high and boxed in. Some mornings the smell is horrible. I complained at the time but the builder and architect said they couldn't smell anything (!)
I chuck gallons of bleach down it as I assume it's picking up a whiff from the sewer pipe but it comes back after a day or so.

Savvy_Sue

chalkysoil wrote: »

I complained at the time but the builder and architect said they couldn't smell anything (!)

:rotfl: It's a shame you can't bottle it, isn't it? Ours is absolutely fine most of the time, but when it's bad, it's REALLY bad. Usually OK in the mornings but gets going in the afternoons.

brig001

I didn't think you could just cap them off. I though you had to fit one of these: http://www.screwfix.com/prods/78150/Plumbing/Soil-Vent/FloPlast-Push-Fit-Air-Admittance-Valve-Grey-AF110?cm_re=SEARCHPROMO-_-AIR%20ADMITTANCE-_-78150 Ours failed a few weeks ago - very smelly, so swapped it for this one - no problem since.

chalkysoil

Brig001 - that's probably the sort of thing they fitted, I didn't see it go on and it's boxed in now. As another new toilet they fitted upstairs leaked and it turned out they hadn't put any silicone on the water seal to the pipe, I've wondered if they fitted it wrong. The pipe and toilet downstairs are quite old probably 1960 and I also wondered if the push fit thingy is metric and the pipe imperial. When it says solvent connection, is that glue/silicone or something supplied with it?
I'm thinking that I should rip all the boxing in wood apart and have a look. Maybe it's not pushed down enough? I suppose there's some sort of rubber lung as well as the rubber that clutches the pipe? When yours failed which bit was it that failed, could you tell? Thanks very much for enlightening me on what the thing is behind the boxing in. I just thought, if the boxing in is airtight, would the Push Fit Air Admittance Valve suffocate itself?

Savvy_Sue

chalkysoil wrote: »

I just thought, if the boxing in is airtight, would the Push Fit Air Admittance Valve suffocate itself?

I am :rotfl: at the idea of a Valve suffocating itself, but I think I understand your concerns - is this something which needs an air supply to work properly?

clearly our boxing in isn't airtight - if it was, we wouldn't be getting the smells! Would we?

No idea what was fitted, but I think next time I have a friendly plumber in the building I shall have to ask if they think an alternative something or other would be helpful. It shouldn't be a metric / imperial disagreement in our case, the loo we moved was a relatively recent addition to the building.

vaio

An Air Admittance Valves is one way and only lets air in if the sewer pressure is below atmospheric, if you are getting smells it's because the sewer pressure is above atmospheric, this needs venting somehow.

Its basic stuff and any plumber should be able to sort it out

brig001

chalkysoil, you would have to check the pipe size, it will push fit into 110mm (or probably an imperial equivalent), but for 82mm (3 1/4"), you would have to glue it - glue not supplied.

This explains how they work http://diydata.com/plumbing/air_admittance_valve/air_admittance_valve.php I couldn't tell that mine had failed by looking, but I could by smelling!!

HTH,
Bri.

chalkysoil

Thank you so much, that article is brilliant. I don't understand it all yet but will ponder on it. I'm thinking faulty seal to old pipe, too tight boxing in ( I carefully sealed with mastic any gap between the wood and the walls) so air inrush can't happen. Or just buy a new one -maybe the one the plumber fitted was faulty.
I've definately got to rip the boxing in apart. Husband isn't too motivated (yet!) I think he has no sense of smell..

Prunus_2

In our previous house the upstairs bath and toilet were in the same room, without a vent pipe. The smell drove us mad. However, we discovered that this could be remedied to a huge degree by making sure the cold water bath tap was allowed to run for about 30 seconds every day. We tended to use the downstairs shower most days, the bath only occasionally - thus, the drain from the bath became too dry. So long as the drain was moistened every day, no stench! I'm not a plumber, so I'd be interested to learn from anyone who might be able to explain the phenomenon.

Savvy_Sue

Right, so having read that most helpful article, I'm thinking that one possibility is that the capped pipe is still connected to the new loo, but the basin in there is at a higher level.

The capped pipe is under a desk, so if it IS that problem, it's not going to be easy to rectify. I'll have to look at the pipes running down the back wall to see if I think a new one was fitted.