What died in the toilet?

Tim76 · 04-02-2015 10:52am #1

Hey guys,

Plumbing query for anyone that might be able to advise.

Moved into a ground floor apartment in September which had been unoccupied for over a year. After a number of weeks a fairly bad smell started coming from the bedroom en-suite.

I tried bleach down all drains (shower/sink/toilet) but no joy. I tried sealing around the toilet and the connection with the discharge pipe again no joy. Tried unblocking the sink, shower & toilet, no joy. The smell might go for a while but kept coming back.

I had a plumber in there last week and he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, he said that as long as there was enough water in the traps then a smell shouldn’t be coming back up the drains, (of course while he was there it was one of the times when the smell wasn’t around!). I have been conscious of keeping the traps filled up and I rarely use the en-suite toilet itself but the dodgy smell just keeps on coming.

PS: the apartments were built during the tiger and I’d say every corner was cut. There is a good chance that the shower/sink/toilet are all going out on the one pipe, I don’t know if these should be separate.

anthonyos · 04-02-2015 7:43pm

Could be an open ended waste pipe or a poorly fitted rubber bung

K.Flyer · 04-02-2015 8:23pm

Its quite possible that the smell is from the shower trap.
A lot of the shower traps are missing the inner sleeve which prevents the smells coming back through the trap. Have a look and see if its missing.
Another problem I came across was the extractor fan connected to the internal soil / vent stack. When the wind blew a certain direction it pushed the gases out through the extractor fan. Have a look at that as well.

Tim76 · 05-02-2015 9:10am

Thanks guys. Will check those items out.

wait4me · 05-02-2015 2:47pm

Just a thought. Are you sure that its a water problem? Have you checked the light fitting? Some fittings when they get hot emit a pretty horrible smell - you'd think that there was a decaying dead rat or mouse. And as it involves the fitting getting warm/hot the smell isn't always there. As I said, just a though....

Tim76 · 30-11-2017 3:05pm

Problem is ongoing but looks like (or smells like) it only appears in the colder winter months.

K.Flyer · 30-11-2017 8:58pm

Tim76 wrote: »

Problem is ongoing but looks like (or smells like) it only appears in the colder winter months.

When the heating is on?

Tim76 · 01-12-2017 9:23am

K.Flyer wrote: »

When the heating is on?

Don't think so, i've come home on a couple of occasions to an empty house and i've been greeted by the smell if the bathroom door has been left open.

Will check next time if there's any difference when the heating is on.

Why do u think the heating might have an effect?

ted1 · 01-12-2017 10:12am

Is there shower or bath ? If it’s a bath there may be a rodent decomposing under it. Pop off the side and look

Speedwell · 01-12-2017 10:16am

When we moved into this house in mid-2014, we soon noticed a bad smell pervading the ground floor. We subsequently discovered that the builder had used accordion pipe (the stuff used to exhaust portable dryers) as the waste pipe for the toilet. This house has been continuously occupied for over ten years. The landlord was as mystified and disgusted as we were.

carlaboi · 01-12-2017 3:22pm

Buy a new toilet seat and clean the toilet inside and out with bleach. Moved into an apartment a few years ago and had a similar problem. Bought a new seat for the toilet and hey presto problem solved. PS use gloves!

Tim76 · 04-12-2017 12:37pm

carlaboi wrote: »

Buy a new toilet seat and clean the toilet inside and out with bleach. Moved into an apartment a few years ago and had a similar problem. Bought a new seat for the toilet and hey presto problem solved. PS use gloves!

Replaced it when i moved in

Tim76 · 04-12-2017 12:39pm

ted1 wrote: »

Is there shower or bath ? If it’s a bath there may be a rodent decomposing under it. Pop off the side and look

Nice. Have a shower though. The smell also seems to be worse in cold weather, I would imagine it would be constant with a decomposing corpse.

Tim76 · 04-12-2017 12:40pm

Speedwell wrote: »

When we moved into this house in mid-2014, we soon noticed a bad smell pervading the ground floor. We subsequently discovered that the builder had used accordion pipe (the stuff used to exhaust portable dryers) as the waste pipe for the toilet. This house has been continuously occupied for over ten years. The landlord was as mystified and disgusted as we were.

Irish builders never cease to amaze me.

What died in the toilet?

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