Help with a bad smell!

shamac

Posted on old style but told you guys might have the solution!

I have a little downstairs loo and sink leading from the hall. This room is super clean, tiled wall and floors, regularly bleached and cleaned but it still smells dreadful all the time.

Someone has said this might be coming from the sink? Have had a good sniff at the drain and at the loo but can't tell where it is coming from. Husband has resealed back of the loo recently so not that.

Read somewhere that a low water level can cause bad smells, it doesn't look low but guess its hard to tell exactly how much water should be in there.???

Please give me some ideas, it is really unpleasant especially when you can smell it in the dining room!

Thanks!

katejo

shamac wrote: »

Posted on old style but told you guys might have the solution!

I have a little downstairs loo and sink leading from the hall. This room is super clean, tiled wall and floors, regularly bleached and cleaned but it still smells dreadful all the time.

Someone has said this might be coming from the sink? Have had a good sniff at the drain and at the loo but can't tell where it is coming from. Husband has resealed back of the loo recently so not that.

Read somewhere that a low water level can cause bad smells, it doesn't look low but guess its hard to tell exactly how much water should be in there.???

Please give me some ideas, it is really unpleasant especially when you can smell it in the dining room!

Thanks!

Is there an unseen blockage in the pipes? Have you tried something like Mr Muscle for blocked drains/pipes?

loracan1

Is there a u-bend under the sink?

Mr_Ted

It can sometimes be a soap and mould build up in the sink overflow, try giving that an extra large dose of cleaning agent?

If its coming from the drainage pipes due to an open or poor seal on a joint and you cant find it yourself then a smoke test on the drains by a good plumber will locate it!

This entails the use of a small smoke bomb being place in the manhole where the outlets go to, blocking the outlet to that the chamber and pipes fill with smoke and hopefully the smoke will show inside the property where the seal is poor???

keystone

First check that the pan connector is properly sealed on the spigot of the loo pan. Is that OK?

Next is this downstairs loo a conversion of an understairs space or was it there from when the house was built.

If its the former I bet you have one of these:



(or similar) as your pan connector with the basin waste plumbed into the boss.

If so you are probably suffering from syphonage - when the loo is flushed the vacuum behind the effluent sucks the water out of the basin trap which then does not do what it's supposed to do - keep the nasty niffs out!

If so throw away the existing basin trap and fit an anti-vac trap. Problem solved.

Now I suppose you are going to tell me that you have one those foul, disgusting, temperamental, inventions of the devil Saniflo things. If so thats the first place to look.

Cheers

carefullycautious

If it is a urine smell try biological washing powder which will break down the enzymes.

We had a smell from our sink which was due to the pipe being fitted lower than the pipe to outside wall so water and gunk were lying. Once refitted properly it solved problem

shamac

Thanks everyone, it isn't a conversion is original to the house and loo and sink are seperate, no joining pipework that I can see. Have flushed out sink waste with soda crystals but will do so again, didn't make any difference last time. it doesnt smell like a blocked sink, it smells like sewage.

shamac

Can i put washing powder down the loo?

keystone

shamac wrote: »

................... it smells like sewage..........

= syphonage if the pan connector is on properly. Fit an anti-vac trap.

Cheers

shamac

Keystone, can you tell me what the spigot thing is you mentioned? what does it look like.

keystone

The pipe shaped part at the back of the loo whereby the contents of the pan are transferred to the drain via the pan connector.



Cheers