Awful Plumming problem!

denty1

We are at out wits end with a horrid issue that has now turned into something much worse. Okay so for a few weeks now there's a sewage type stink coming from various places across 3 bathrooms/toilets. This is triggered in various ways. The main one being the use of the shower or the sink in the shower room. 99% of the time the smell seems to be coming from the bathroom which is close to the shower room. I thought for a long time the smell was coming from the actual toilet from the bathroom due to it not being used much so i started flushing it on a regular bases. Sometimes the smell stays away for a long time then out of the blue it comes back.

Last night i finally located the place where the smell comes from and its the bathroom plug hole!

The latest issue is when my partner had a shower last night by luck i walked into the dinning room only to find the toilet was over flowing with water, it was all water from the shower as you could smell the soapy products and the water was coloured white. Along with this the smell is back with fury from the bathroom upstairs. The toilet when flushed downstairs fills to the top and slowly drains over the course of 1 or 2 mins suggesting some kind of blockage. when the sink or the shower is on, the toilet downstairs fills up really quickly. The bathroom sink when on, does not seem to cause the same problem.

We are broke and cannot afford a big pluming bill so any advise on a diy fix would be greatly appreciated.


Just to add nothing has happened in the last few days to suggest that a blockage might of been caused. I've tried some casustic soda tonight without any results and i've tried putting clingfilm over the toilet and pushing the air through and no help at all.

martinthebandit

Somewhere their will be a soil pipe and it will have an air vent at the top of it, check that it's not blocked, sounds like the most likely cause to me from the info you have given.

Mr.Generous

martinthebandit wrote: »

Somewhere their will be a soil pipe and it will have an air vent at the top of it, check that it's not blocked, sounds like the most likely cause to me from the info you have given.

or an air admittance valve but yes well worth checking. That or the soil stack is blocked.

denty1

Hi there Martin,


Thanks for replying. Can i just confirm is that the large main pipe that runs down the outside of the house? the one that drains all the water from the loo?

Dean000000

Is there a trap installed?

denty1

Hi Dean,


I'm really not sure what that is?

martinthebandit

denty1 wrote: »

Hi there Martin,


Thanks for replying. Can i just confirm is that the large main pipe that runs down the outside of the house? the one that drains all the water from the loo?

Yep, that's the one, as long as the toilet in question feeds into it.

There will possibly be something stopping the air getting in (and smells getting out) at the top.

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Soil%20vent%20pipe

Robby1988

My blind diagnosis here is that the waste pipes from your bath/shower/sink are plumbed into the soil stack (the big thick pipe from the loo) & there is a blockage probably in your drains outside, so the water from the shower is backing up to the downstairs toilet because it can't drain quickly enough.

A blockage shouldn't be an expensive issue to fix. It's literally just a case of jetting water through it, bread & butter job for a drainage firm.

J_B

Do you know where your drains run?
The waste goes down the external soil pipe ... but then where?
Are there any man-holes on your property?
Maybe you could lift them and check for blockages?
Do we assume that you are on mains sewerage?


Good luck.

denty1

Thanks guys, I'm going to check all this tomorrow morning and i'll report back and let you know what i find, thanks again for all the help!

Ectophile

Something to bear in mind is that if the blockage is in a drain that is shared with your neighbours, then it's probably your local water company who has to unblock or fix it.


If you don't share a drain with the neighbours - if you are the only one on the pipe to the main sewer, then it's your problem. Anything before the point where your pipes join a shared drain is also your problem.