Smell from behind washing machine and under boiler

keystone

paddedjohn wrote: »

Id be more worried about the proximity of the waste pipe to the plug socket, surely that cant be right.

Yes that hardly looks like a 30cm horizontal splash safe distance is it? But that 30cm is only a guide rather than a requirement. Presumably OP has an Electrical Installation Certificate and all Part P requirements were met otherwise builders sparky wouldn't have signed it off.

Cheers

paddedjohn

keystone wrote: »

Yes that hardly looks like a 30cm horizontal splash safe distance is it? But that 30cm is only a guide rather than a requirement. Presumably OP has an Electrical Installation Certificate and all Part P requirements were met otherwise builders sparky wouldn't have signed it off.

Cheers

Was possibly signed off before the plumbing was done.

keystone

paddedjohn wrote: »

Was possibly signed off before the plumbing was done.

Pics in album do show plumbing in place before floor down and before wall finished enough for electrics to go in. You could be right but personally, from his pics, I doubt it.

Cheers

Ruski

What happened to the spigot connector for the w/m from this photo??

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/194/h1dg.jpg/

[Deleted User]

chris1012 wrote: »

Musty and a maybe a bit stagnant.

It only happens once we have used the washing machine and not all the time its as strong.
Sometimes the smell stays confined to utilities section and 3 times in the last 2 months it stank the whole ground floor...

Just a wild thought on this topic - is the washing machine new?
If it is not new is it a washer dryer?
I ask, because you say the smell only occurs after using the washer.
I once had a combined washer dryer and it smelled as you described after we had it for a year or so and was told by the maker's technician that this is a problem with washer dryers that is very difficult to cure without ditching the machine.
I am assuming that all the waste pipes have been checked for blockages already!

chris1012

Apologies for the delay in the response all.

Since my last post I had a plumber down who installed a trap behind the washing machine that made no difference.

I was left with little options to contact the builders again who came and had a look.
They advised me to find out if any of the smells were worse off when using any of the appliances (The sink, dish washers, washing machine and condenser off the boiler all connect to the same waste pipe).

We tried to limit the user of each appliance however we found no real pattern.

They have advised now that they will be coming again some point this week to break some of the tile to look under the floor boards and if they find nothing, they will simply seal up the hole in hope it sorts out the smell issue.

As this is a brand new extension should simply sealing it up be an option as that would no eliminate the smell under the flooring although it might stop it from coming into the kitchen.

At the moment we also are getting mice from that same gap and so far killed 2 using a trap (never had any mice probs in the last 3 years of having the property and only occurred from the new extension)...

The washing machine is only 4 months old from brand new and the rest of the appliances are less than 2 months old from brand new.

chris1012

Update -

I think I have identified which item out of the 3-4 appliances is causing the smell or at least for it to worsen.

During a 3 days spell, I stopped using the dish washer, washing machine and sink (which all use the same drain pipe) and simply due to the cold used the boiler for central heating.

The central heating vent pipes uses the same waste pipe as the sink, dish washer and washing machine.

During this 3 day period I decided to put the thermostat temp up more than required so it was on more consistently.

The result was the whole kitchen smelling and as the at the first instance we left the kitchen door open, the whole ground floor had the smell.
For some reason the smell also has been coming out of the downstairs bathroom which is next to the utilities section...

The moment we put the temperature down on the thermostat, the smell was confined to the utilities area only.

The builders/plumbers are hopefully coming next week but any advise in the mean time would be great?

keystone

Repipe the condensate drain then. Post #4.

Cheers

southcoastrgi

a trap below the tee for the condensate from the boiler might help, exactly what KS was trying to point out

chris1012

Another Update - Plumber visited two days back and agreed traps were missing and will add 3-4 traps under the boiler this Saturday as he thinks the current setup is sucking the water down the traps which is allowing the smells to enter.

In the bathroom he put water down the sink, shower and toilet and within a few minutes the smells had more or less gone.
So with regards to the bathroom he said he will replace the trap under the sink with a better one and if the issue is the shower, he will look to replace its trap as well.

On Tuesday evening after he had left a new smell was lingering around - smelt far more eggy rather than the other smell.
It went away when we opened the kitchen sink tap....

The only thing different they did yesterday was take out the washing machine and push it back in (don't know if that impacted anything? )