Smell from shower drain

csswiift

Hi all,

I live in a basement flat in Edinburgh, since April this year. Our main bathroom is a wet room and there’s always been a sewage smell coming from the shower drain.

Any ideas how to solve this? I’ve attached a picture of the drain to help.

Thank you 

Emmia

Any babies / young children in the building/in properties sharing the same drains? You might have a case of the drains being partially blocked with nappies or wet wipes leading to slow drainage and a backup of aromas...

Do you know where your drains exit? Can you lift the manhole cover to see if waste water is flowing as it should.

oldernonethewiser

Friend had a similar issue and the problem was a partially collapsed main drainage pipe which was causing water to back up/drain very slowly.  Found this out by getting company in who put a camera down the drain for a look-see.

greenbee

Have you lifted out the trap and cleaned out all the hair and gunk?

twopenny

Indeed. First try a bit of water in the trap. If the water has evaporated you do get a smell. Happens to me and I'm in a bungalow, own drainage. 
It used to happen on a small boat I travelled on in the tropics. The trap becomes empty easily.

Have you removed the center swivel tube thats in the middle of the drain and cleaned it.
That gets gunky from the stuff in shower gels, shampoos etc. They all have oils and sticky stuff in that clings to surfaces.

Bicarbonate of soda (household) tipped in and add white vinegar will clean and deodorise if left a while. See YouTube etc.

Helpfulideas

Buy 1 gallon of white vinegar from Chinese supermarket. 

Postik

Bicarbonate of soda is wonderful at getting rid of odours.  As someone else mentioned, remov the whole trap (the round swivel-ly bit) because if you haven't it's probably gunked up.

I have myself used bicarbonate of soda and vinegar at the same time for cleaning, and whilst the fizz is somewhat satisfying I've been reading that bicarb is an alkaline and vinegar is an acid, so after a few seconds they effectively cancel each other out and become mostly water.  So it might be best to use them at different times.

grumbler

Smell means that the water trap under the shower doesn't work.
Is the shower used regularly so that the water in the trap doesn't dry? 
If it's not empty, can you hear any bubbling sound sometimes when the shower isn't in use? If so, this means that there is some blockage in main sewage pipe downstream and the air is pushed through the trap by the sewage flowing down from upper flats. Showers are known to have shallow traps, so very little pressure is needed for this.