Sewage smells in bedrooms HELP!

kookookaty

Hi
I live in a 3 storey victorian terrace and we recently have been getting intimittent smells of poo in the two bedrooms on the middle floor. The smell comes and goes but tends to be worse in the evenings. We did recently have a blocked toilet on the groundfloor caused by a blocked drainage pipe which we managed to unblock through the man hole cover using rods. We also have a bathroom on the top floor of the house - so are wondering whether any sewage is backed up in the pipes and if they run under our floorboards. We've lifted up some floor boards but can't seem to pin point the smell. We also have gas fires in the two bedrooms which are never used and wondered if they could cause a poo smell or even the old radiators. It's been going on for a couple of months so don't think it can be dead rodents although we did have mice a year ago....Please can anyone offer any suggestions or tell me who might be able to help me as we're going insane?
Thanks a million.
Katy

torbrex

You would be better off asking this question on the In My Home board

gordikin

This is the SITE feedback resource bar.

brig001

Do you have internal soil stacks? If so it could be the air admittance valves sticking.
HTH, Brian.

themacster

From memory dead rodents don't smell of poo.

Have you tried to pinpoint the smell? When you get the smell, check all basins/baths/showers in case a trap is not sealing - could be being sucked out if there is a blockage in a vent pipe. Could be a leaking soil or waste pipe. Are the toilets flushing ok? Any possibility its to do with the house next door as you're in a terrace - maybe they've got a cracked or leaking soil/vent pipe?

googler

Can we assume that there are no sanitary fittings in these bedrooms?

Given the position of toilets, basins and baths in the house, and relating these to the soil stacks should tell you where all the pipework is, and whether or not it runs under the floors (or above the ceiling) of the rooms concerned.

In a quiet house, have someone stand or sit in one of the rooms concerned, and you run various basins, baths or WCs to send water out through the pipes - the someone listens for any indication that pipework is adjacent to the room, and monitors odours. Start with low flow (basin only), move to higher (bath only, then bath and basin) then add flushing the toilet(s) whilst the basin and bath are both draining

anotherbaldrick

I would also plump for a faulty air admittence valve . These valves are often fitted when a bathroom is on a long unvented leg from the vertical stack. It would probably be housed in a duct casing or pipe boxing adjacent to the fitting it was serving. If there are bathrooms on the middle floor look there , if not consider the smells might be rising in the duct from the ground floor .
The air admittance valve has a plastic lifting flap valve inside and these can stick open and allow a puff of foul air from the soil pipe system to escape into the room particularly when a WC has been flushed.

keystone

I'd only suspect a dodgy AAV if I knew for certain that one was installed TBH.

OP - presumably (actually you must) have an open vent on your stack sticking up above the roof? Does the top floor loo soil pipe go directly out of the wall and into that stack?

Cheers

diable

Does your partner eat cabbage or Brussels sprouts?

anotherbaldrick

keystone wrote: »

I'd only suspect a dodgy AAV if I knew for certain that one was installed TBH.

OP - presumably (actually you must) have an open vent on your stack sticking up above the roof? Does the top floor loo soil pipe go directly out of the wall and into that stack?

Cheers

Would you not inspect to see if a AAV was present ?
The smell is not on the top floor but the floor below
(middle floor) how would the plumbing on the floor above be relevent ?

keystone

Yes but I wouldn't automatically assume that there is one without knowing whether or not there was. You appear to have done that.

The plumbing on the upper floor is totally relevant. OP says the bathroom is on the top floor not the middle floor. Any AAV has to be above the flood level of the highest point so why would there be one on the middle floor? You may only install AAVs if the soil system is already vented to atmosphere. An AAV may NOT replace an open vent. So my question is designed to get the OP to tell us how the soil system is actually configured which is the only starting point from which to give advice.

Cheers