Smelly shower in brand new bathroom!

Miss.Twizz

Hi everyone. We've just had a brand new bathroom fitted including low profile shower tray from Easy Bathrooms. It's a Peoria shower tray and was supplied with a Peoria waste.

https://www.easybathrooms.com/peoria-1200-x-800-slate-effect-shower-tray-anthracite

https://www.easybathrooms.com/peoria-shower-tray-waste

Since installation, there is a nasty smell coming from the shower. When the shower door is left shut overnight for example, it smells horrible when then opened. It's a musty slightly sewage like smell. It seems like soil pipe gasses are escaping into the shower through the waste, yuck!! I am clueless, I left it to the bathroom fitter to fit everything adequately so I have no idea what could be wrong. His preferred supplier is Easy Bathrooms so I would presume he is familiar with the products and fitting. When choosing the shower/tray, the advisor in easy bathrooms got the appropriate shower waste ordered to go with the shower tray I picked so I can't see how any of this would have been a problem. 

From a bit of Googling, it seems like what should stop soil stack smells coming out is the shower waste/trap. Presumably what is sold with the shower should be adequate? It wouldn't be for sale otherwise, would it? Again from my Googling, a valve can be fitted that I've seen but I don't know if one has been, I would have hoped the fitter would do this if that's what is required. I had him fit the bathroom because of his knowledge of fitting everything adequately when I wouldn't have a clue obviously. 

The large waste pipe for the toilet runs horizontally along my exterior wall before joining the vertical soil stack. The smaller waste pipes for the sink and shower come out and drop into this horizontal pipe before it joins the vertical soil stack. Does this sound correct? Annoyingly I can't for the life of me remember how it was before and the shower and toilet were the other way around in the old bathroom, but I do know I NEVER had a problem with smells like this prior to the bathroom being ripped out and replaced. 

It does seem that something isn't fitted correctly, or easy bathrooms shower waste isn't fit for purpose.... I would be more likely to suspect fitting issues but what do you think? 

I'm waiting to hear back from the fitter about coming out to look at it/smell it but I want to be forearmed if he tries to turn this back on me..... In case of a "I just fitted what you had" kind of argument. Who's at fault here? I purchased the parts advised by his preferred supplier and entrusted him to fit them expecting him to advise me if he foresaw any issues and suggest solutions if so... After all, I am not a plumber. 

The job is not yet fully complete as I am waiting for a final couple of finishing bits to be done so I I haven't paid a penny yet but prematurely getting worried about being asked to cough up a few thousand pounds when I've been left with a stinky brand new shower 😬 

Alter_ego

Tht doesn't seem to have a trap. Is there one after the fitting?

Miss.Twizz

Alter_ego said:

Tht doesn't seem to have a trap. Is there one after the fitting?

I honestly don't know. This is all I was advised to order and all other fittings and pipework were supplied by the bathroom fitter, so if something else was required I would have hoped he would have either told me about it or just done it? The sink for example, I ordered the actual sink, tap and waste/plug but the trap underneath was all supplied and fitted by the fitter..... I can see that's there, so if something else needed adding to the shower, I would have thought he'd have done it, as with the sink. 

Jeepers_Creepers

Miss.Twizz said:

I think that does have a built-in trap, but it doesn't help not being labelled in English...

From what I can see, the shower waste water runs into the torica caucho (man, that feels good), which sits inside the other part of what's called 'polipropileno' (I think I know what that is   ).

The bottom of the top waste sits inside the 'cup' part of the bottom section, and that forms the trap. The bottom 'cup' part holds water to make the smell-seal. When new waste water comes down the waste, it fills the bottom cup part until it overflows and pours away into the larger main part of the waste.

Pretty sure that's the idea.

So, what's going wrong? Could be a few things. If the pipe run from that waste to the outside where it joins the 4" soil pipe is too long, it can create a partial vacuum behind it as it flows away. This vacuum will 'suck' the contents of the trap away and leave the water-seal open.

Or, perhaps that all works ok, but flushing the toilet sends a similar large 'plug' of water down the 4" pipe, and it's this wot 'sucks' the shower waste dry.

That top part of the waste - it must be easy to remove, possibly just needing pulling up (or does it have a central screw?). Anyhoo, remove this and have a look inside when there is a smell - ie first thing in t'morning. How much water is sitting in that central 'cup' part? Does the bottom of the top waste part sit right in that water, nicely below the surface?

Note where the smelly level is, and then replace the top part and run the shower for 20 seconds. Allow it to drain, and then lift the top part of the waste again - what's the water level like inside now?

Now replace the top part of the waste again, and then flush the toilet. Once it's all settled, lift the top part of the waste again and check the water level in the 'cup' below.

(While you flush, keep your ear close to the shower waste - listen out for sucking glug sounds...)

bob_a_builder

Here is a diagram on another low profile shower trap - which does have a 25mm water trap  ( see cross section drawing)

https://mcalpineplumbing.com/sites/default/files/uploads/installation-instructions/l-st90cp.pdf

Maybe there is a part missing / not fitted correctly on yours

ryan7

Not much you can do about that smell unfortunately.
Keep the shower clean and regularly plunge to prevent all the crud from backing up.

Miss.Twizz

Thanks Jeepers! I'll try all that before he comes back this week. Now you've mentioned the top part and the cup though...... I do recall him taking something out of the waste saying it was restricting the flow of the water draining out!! I think it could have been that top piece! It is a very low profile tray and the water was pooling originally and draining away too slowly, obviously a problem when the lip of the shower tray is tiny. That may well explain it if that's the part that helps form a seal against soil stack gasses 🤦🏻‍♀️ My husband pulled a couple of bits of building rubble out of it that was more likely the cause of the slower draining so I'll get the fitter to put that part straight back ASAP! 🤦🏻‍♀️ That completely slipped my mind until your explanation. Thanks so much.

P.S. I did notice the diagram wasn't in English and I tried to Google translate the labels but it turns out they're not actually part labels, they're the materials the parts are made out of. Polypropylene etc so it's not a very helpful diagram 😂 

Miss.Twizz

bob_a_builder said:

Here is a diagram on another low profile shower trap - which does have a 25mm water trap  ( see cross section drawing)

https://mcalpineplumbing.com/sites/default/files/uploads/installation-instructions/l-st90cp.pdf

Maybe there is a part missing / not fitted correctly on yours

Thank you! Yes as I said above, jeepers has jogged my memory and the fitter did take something out of the top saying it was restricting the flow 😕 I'll get him to put it back ASAP! 

Miss.Twizz

ryan7 said:

Not much you can do about that smell unfortunately.
Keep the shower clean and regularly plunge to prevent all the crud from backing up.

It's brand new so I'm not willing to accept that it's anything to do with it not being clean. It's only been used a handful of times so far so there's not going to be any build up of crud yet. This was never an issue with my old shower so I don't see why the brand new one in a brand new bathroom should smell like a sewer 😷

Jeepers_Creepers

Yup - this is a new shower so should smell, well, new.

I fear this ain't going to end well... These low-profile showers look great, but the waste pipe from them still needs a decent 'fall' all the way until it gets to the outside waste. That's all fine if the installation is completely new, and the waste is given that fall and is brought out through the external wall at the appropriate level - ie low enough.

Where is can go pear-shaped is if someone is having a replacement shower fitted, and has gone from a normal few-inches-high tray to a flush or low profile type. If this affects how much fall the waste has - ie reduces it - it can make the shower slow to drain away.

I really hope the cause of your slow draining was the debris hubbie found... If it isn't - if the waste simply isn't 'falling' enough - you've got problems that will almost certainly be messy to sort.

How far has the work proceeded? Is the floor down? Would it be destructive to lift part of it up again?

And how far is the shower from the wall the waste goes out?

(I don't care what torica caucho means, I'm using it in all my conversations from now on.)

EssexExile

ryan7 said:

Not much you can do about that smell unfortunately.
Keep the shower clean and regularly plunge to prevent all the crud from backing up.

There's a lot you can do and it's all about the trap working properly and the water running away quickly enough. Get them back to sort it, obviously something isn't right. If all else fails maybe a horizontal waste trap could do the job.