bad smell in the toilet

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 6:39pm #1

I have an awful smell in my up-stairs ensuite bathroom.
initially the seal on the toilet had gone so got a new seal fitted. problem was the smell never seemed to go away.

On further investigation i get the smell in a cupboard down stairs directly under the mentioned room. This houses the waste pipe to the sewage system. no fluid is leaking out

Have had plumber out again and says it could be a seal in a pipe somewhere and for some reason the escaped gas is going into the upstairs en suite(how its getting in there i dont know as a new seal has been fitted.

No where else is affected and shower and sink have no smell.
I have noticed when the heat is put on the smell seems to get worse down stairs in the cupboard which is a pain now coming into the winter.

its so bad the en suite is out of bounds
any ideas, have been told a smoke test should rule out any pipe leaks and if its and animal i dread to think cus i might have to pull all the ceilings etc down and no doubt this will be very expensive job.

HELP

im invisible · 12-09-2012 6:43pm

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 6:49pm

you said it

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 6:52pm

If your getting that bad a smell, there is a seal not in place or a crack in the piping, if you have localized it to down stairs, floorboards might need to be lifted, if you have floorboards,

do you have a downstairs toilet?

if it is something dead, the smell will die down, and by the sounds of it if it is something dead it is at the worst stage.

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 7:04pm

Yes but this runs to a separate sewage pipe

the toilet and two showers and sinks run down this one.

Dont have floor boards, bison slabs so dont want to have to rip the plaster board off. just strange it only goes into the ensuite and when heat is on it gets alot worse

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 7:08pm

rexel21 wrote: »

Yes but this runs to a separate sewage pipe

the toilet and two showers and sinks run down this one.

Dont have floor boards, bison slabs so dont want to have to rip the plaster board off. just strange it only goes into the ensuite and when heat is on it gets alot worse

How long have you been getting the smell? the heat would enhance a dead species theory.

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 7:20pm

Only been in the place a month. was faint smell in the bathroom when i just moved in but has gotten progressively worse. house was empty for over a year prior to this.

Always seems to get worse down stairs when the heating is on.

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 7:25pm

would it be possible for a leak from a sewage pipe to get worse when the heating is on? Surely this would indicate a dead animal but by god does it smell. Stings the eyes and i cant enter my en suite

Joey the lips · 12-09-2012 7:27pm

That would need to be investigated. Can you not check where the soil pipe is venting and see if its outside or inside the house.

Are you sure its not comeing from the shower tray or possibly a under the sink has come loose.

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 7:33pm

Well to me it sounds like soil pipe problem, the fact you have being using the toilet system for 4 weeks, seems to have upped the smell,

if it was something dead 4 weeks should of got rid of it (smell that is), unless it was a badger or a big old bull, which in this case I doubt,

if you could get hold of a hand held gas monitor it might let you rule out methane.

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 7:36pm

Joey the lips wrote: »

That would need to be investigated. Can you not check where the soil pipe is venting and see if its outside or inside the house.

Are you sure its not comeing from the shower tray or possibly a under the sink has come loose.

Yep Joey, your right it could be both of these, it could be as simple as wrong P traps,

but it is stronger downstairs, this is why I thought methane.

rexel21 · 12-09-2012 7:37pm

No no smells/leaks coming from any of the showers or sinks. The soil pipe vents inside up to the roof space. had a sniff and its working fine.

Will get a smoke pellet at the weekend and see if that will explain anything further.

If it is a dead animal how long will i have to put up with the smell???? leave the heat on and speed the process up???

Only prob with this theory is why does the smell be so bad in only the ensuite

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 7:45pm

If it was a dead animal, 4 weeks would be enough for the maggots to take care of it unless it is something big,

if it is a dead animal which died in close proximity to the en-suite the smell would be worse there.

Bruthal · 12-09-2012 7:50pm

Have you been using the ensuite shower regularly? The water in the shower basin trap can evaporate if its not used for a while, and this then will have a nice sewage smell coming in.

3ndahalfof6 · 12-09-2012 7:59pm

for me, where the smell is the strongest I would be trying to localize it, taking up floor boards, or in your case taking some of the wall away, but you are not me and I am not you,

but I would have to investigate it is my nature, I don't like shelling out the money till I know I can not find the problem,

all the best with it rexel I hope you get it sorted.

daver123 · 12-09-2012 9:28pm

"The soil pipe vents inside up to the roof space. had a sniff and its working fine"

Are you sure that this is okay having a soil pipe venting in to the roof space, i thought the soil pipe should be vented outside above the guttering

K.Flyer · 15-09-2012 4:27pm

daver123 wrote: »

"The soil pipe vents inside up to the roof space. had a sniff and its working fine"

Are you sure that this is okay having a soil pipe venting in to the roof space, i thought the soil pipe should be vented outside above the guttering

Soil pipes can terminate in an attic space as long as a durko valve is fitted.

K.Flyer · 15-09-2012 4:38pm

rexel21 wrote: »

I have an awful smell in my up-stairs ensuite bathroom.
initially the seal on the toilet had gone so got a new seal fitted. problem was the smell never seemed to go away.

On further investigation i get the smell in a cupboard down stairs directly under the mentioned room. This houses the waste pipe to the sewage system. no fluid is leaking out

Have had plumber out again and says it could be a seal in a pipe somewhere and for some reason the escaped gas is going into the upstairs en suite(how its getting in there i dont know as a new seal has been fitted.

No where else is affected and shower and sink have no smell.
I have noticed when the heat is put on the smell seems to get worse down stairs in the cupboard which is a pain now coming into the winter.

its so bad the en suite is out of bounds
any ideas, have been told a smoke test should rule out any pipe leaks and if its and animal i dread to think cus i might have to pull all the ceilings etc down and no doubt this will be very expensive job.

HELP

Most modern houses and apartments have a collector type box taking the wash hand basin / bath / shower waste pipes connections onto the 4" internal soil stack. These usually have 3 - 4 pre drilled holes to take the waste pipes into it. They also have rubber seals to be used on the openings that are not being used.
On many occasion I have located the source of bad odours in a home to these collectors with seals missing.
Follow your bathroom waste pipes to the collecter and check that all the seals and connections are in good order.

ablelocks · 17-01-2013 1:13pm

rather than post another bad smell in the toilet thread i thought I'd post here.

Downstairs toilet, with sink. There has been a very bad smell from there since the 21st dec approx. Varies from bad to overpowering and for the last 2-3 days seems to have become a lot worse.

At first I thought it was from the toilet itself, checked septic tank it was nearly full so got that emptied and then used sulphuric acid drain cleaner to flush through the toilet in case the drain was blocked. There's a manhole outside about 8 metres from the toilet and the water is coming thru clear and fast.

I took apart the fan and light fitting to check that there was no dead animal - nothing there but it seemed to me that the smell was stronger around the light fitting.

If it's a dead rat/mouse the most likely place it can be is between the joists of the upstairs floor - the upstairs side has laminate floorboards laid on 6x4 panels, downstairs side has plasterboard panels.

so wait it out or start cutting to try and remove body? or could it still be something to do with toilet / plumbing (floor is tiled on concrete)?

corkgsxr · 17-01-2013 3:51pm

might not be the news you want but a rat smells for 6-8 weeks so your almost there

iv seem houses were theyv cut pockets all over and never found the rat. they can be anywhere

wait4me · 17-01-2013 4:19pm

ablelocks wrote: »

I took apart the fan and light fitting to check that there was no dead animal - nothing there but it seemed to me that the smell was stronger around the light fitting.

Is the smell stronger when the light is on for a while. Often these unknown smells come from the plastic/ceramic overheating/burning in the light fitting! Worth trying before cutting anything!

dpofloinn · 17-01-2013 8:38pm

''There's a manhole outside about 8 metres from the toilet and the water is coming thru clear and fast.''
Are the solids also moving with the water or are they being deposited in the pipe?

ablelocks · 17-01-2013 8:45pm

wait4me wrote: »

Is the smell stronger when the light is on for a while. Often these unknown smells come from the plastic/ceramic overheating/burning in the light fitting! Worth trying before cutting anything!

doubt it, but i will double check. this smell doesn't smell like burning.

imagine if you stored one of the zombies from the walking dead in a hotpress, with a piece of raw skunk meat to keep him active, add a box of rotten eggs and soupçon of the sweat from a boom-time brick layers boxers.

i'm expecting to get a visit from the EPA any day now.

wait4me · 17-01-2013 8:57pm

ablelocks wrote: »

this smell doesn't smell like burning.

I know - I've been there with an unaccounted for smell. Searched high and low and eventually found it to be the bloody light fitting. I hate attics ever since

and so does my skull:eek:

ablelocks · 17-01-2013 10:37pm

dpofloinn wrote: »

''There's a manhole outside about 8 metres from the toilet and the water is coming thru clear and fast.''
Are the solids also moving with the water or are they being deposited in the pipe?

hmm. didn't do a check for "solids". would have thought the half litre of sulphuric acid (not all at the same time) would have accounted for any left in the pipe.

will, ahem, store up till tomorrow.

edit: the look on my wifes face when i told her she'll have to man the manhole (:eek:) and watch out for my solids was only priceless.

dpofloinn · 17-01-2013 10:50pm

I only ask because the cause might be a problem with your vent stack rather than the toilet. If the vent is blocked or the pipe leading to it is clogged, the sewer gas has nowhere to go. More and more of it builds up inside the pipe until there is enough pressure in there to force the gas through the traps.Also a blockage in the vent pipe could result in the toilet's water level dropping as a vacuum is created when another toilet is flushed

wait4me · 23-01-2013 12:17pm

ablelocks - did you get this sorted out?

rexel21 · 31-01-2013 4:48pm

Just getting back on this but low and behold it was all coming from my sewage pureflo system. As all my venting is inside the house it simply wasn't build to deal with those potent gases. Got guy out to fit new pump and all back to normal thank god

ablelocks · 23-03-2013 5:15pm

not sorted yet - waited the 8-10 weeks to discount dead body and then waited another 2 weeks for the plumber to call - he's due next week as is the engineer.

smell still there and while it must be the sewage (i checked the light fittings and they're ok) there is little to no smell from the tank or the manhole outside?

there is no pump in our septic tank so Rexel could you give a bit more info?

There are no visible vent stacks so the the system must be internal and out thru a vent in the roof - there are 3 vents in the roof and I assume 2 of them are for the roof and 1 for the sewage? (it's a dormer so not too high). There is no drop in the water level when another toilet is flushed.

rexel21 · 25-03-2013 3:33pm

Able locks as it turns out i dont have a septic tank as such but a pureflow which is a sewage treatment system.. When i say pump its a small air pump that blows air into the tank and starts the break down as it promotes bacteria growth that in turns basically eat the poo and smell etc. This air pump is essential for the system to work properly. The system has no vent apart from the one internally. its built to get rid of any residual smell but not methane gas and toxic smells( that i was getting after the air pump failed)... these just find the easiest way out which happened to be in my en suite and downs stairs utility at the time. i was stumped and to be honest my system seems relatively new but as mentioned is heavily reliant on a small air pump.

If its a methane gas smell no vent system will keep the smell in and it if its a normal tank it will should have a vent on the tank. as saidf before pureflow dont need them and the air pump when working rules out the need for them.

At one point i got a smoke pellet in the pipe leading off the manhole to the vent in the roof and this ruled out a blockage as it was coming out the one in my roof. in the end i simply had to leave the manhole cover off outside the house and the gases just came out here until i finally got someone out to sort the air pump out.

Again not many people have the pureflow system where im from and the plumbers all wanted to rip the place to shreds.

As i though from the start. any smells usually start as far away from your house and work their way back in to say hello.

bad smell in the toilet

Comments