Help! My drains stink!

1984ReturnsForReal_2

themightystu wrote: »

Thanks for helping, I'll try to get some tomorrow and then go round to the girlfriends for the weekend after I've put it down the drains. Is it something that I'm likely to find in the local supermarket?

When the Dynorod guy came out this week he just put a lot of water down there and used a long plunger type thing to agitate it all... I had kinda expected him to do more to identify the problem but he seemed confident it was just dirt... One thing he did suggest though was that I should re-cement around the grates to stop any splashes soaking into the ground around them, so thats on my DIY list too.

There is a product called DrainMaster it comes in a red bottle (they do one another colour but it hasnt got sulphuric acid in it so dont bother getting it).

There are other makes that do have it also but I dont know off hand. Don't bother getting anything that hasn't got the acid in.

Taking the pipe apart will take 10-15 mins. There will be rubber seals on it under the sink so make sure they go back right otherwise it will leak.

shebrett

A plumber friend once told me that coca cola is great for cutting through some of the smelly slime/grease that builds up on kitchen pipes. Pour a 2 lt bottle down leave it to sit for an hour or two and then rinse through with boiling water.

For maintenance of smelly drains use bicarb soda and vinegar. You pack in as much bicarb soda as you can into the hole (usually around a cup or two) and then pour white vinegar onto it (around a cup or two as well). The vinegar will react with the bicarb and bubble away, the drain is cleared when you start to see large bubbles come up and then the bicarb will suddenly "fall down" the drain, just run water down as normal to clear it away and you're done.

I have a kitchen sink that also smells due to the house being closed up for a year or two before we moved in, this worked for me. I find that bicarb soda and vinegar work great and are really cheap if you buy them from a chinese supermarket. You can clean all drains in the house this way, no need to do coke every time, it's more of a once off thing and then you regularly use vinegar and bicarb which I do a couple of times a month. It works great on soap scum in the bathroom drains.

keystone

themightystu wrote: »

This Monday I had Dynarod out to have a look at them

You wasted your dosh.

My first thought was to call the council but since the drain is on private property they don't want to know

The council is the wrong place to go for foul water drainage issues. You need the utility to which you pay your sewerage rates.

You dont know where the blockage (cos sure as eggs is eggs there is one somewhere) is. If the Dynorod man cleaned out the silt from the drainage grids (which have a water seal trap exactly like your sink and bath traps) but the smell is still there there is something amiss. Did he lift the inspection covers on any of the chambers? Did he work along the line of manholes until he hit the public sewer?

There has to be a chamber somewhere in the vicinity of your images. You have two drainage grids and a soil pipe heading underground in close proximity. They will come together at the chamber. If Dynorod didn't lift the lid then do so yourself. If its clear get someone to flush the loo with the lid off. Observe the flow. If its fast and quick then the problem lies back towards the drainage grids and I'd suspect the kitchen one having a build up of fat. What you are describing is indicative of that because you are getting the smell when you disturb it all by throwing more water at it.

My suggestion is to try 1984's cleaning approach concentrating on the kitchen one. If that doesn't solve it and the chamber is clear as above then its time to call out the boys from Thames Water (or whoever).

Oh just a thought. When you lift the lid on the chamber does it have an interceptor trap? If it has you'll see on the downsteam side the normal soil outlet where the foul water normally flows. That leads directly into a U shaped trap forming a water seal. Immediately above it there is a second pipe which should have something looking like a teapot lid in it. This is actually for rodding purposes but if the teapot lid is missing then the point of the trap is lost as the trap is bypassed and the sewer is venting directly into the chamber - perhaps thats the source of the pong.

But I digress (a little) - try cleaning the kitchen one thoroughly first - but I'd use soda.

Cheers

lesalanos

I had a smell in the house caused by a build up of gunk in the washing machine pipes. If it is worse when you are washing try washing some towels or something similar at the highest temperature to clear some of the gunk away.

Zaksmummy

I find our kitchen sink smells after I have drained water from green vegetables!!! Best thing to get rid of this smell as previous poster mentioned was bicarb and white vinegar, do it before bedtime so it has time to work then rinse it down with lots of hot water.

purplestar133

shebrett wrote: »

A plumber friend once told me that coca cola is great for cutting through some of the smelly slime/grease that builds up on kitchen pipes. Pour a 2 lt bottle down leave it to sit for an hour or two and then rinse through with boiling water.

For maintenance of smelly drains use bicarb soda and vinegar. You pack in as much bicarb soda as you can into the hole (usually around a cup or two) and then pour white vinegar onto it (around a cup or two as well). The vinegar will react with the bicarb and bubble away, the drain is cleared when you start to see large bubbles come up and then the bicarb will suddenly "fall down" the drain, just run water down as normal to clear it away and you're done.

I have a kitchen sink that also smells due to the house being closed up for a year or two before we moved in, this worked for me. I find that bicarb soda and vinegar work great and are really cheap if you buy them from a chinese supermarket. You can clean all drains in the house this way, no need to do coke every time, it's more of a once off thing and then you regularly use vinegar and bicarb which I do a couple of times a month. It works great on soap scum in the bathroom drains.

I've got a similar problem. I've bought some bicarbonate of soda, but can you use malt vinegar instead of white vinegar?