Smelly drains in bathrooms

[quality25]

Can anybody recommend a good drain expert.. We have had an ongoing problem with smelly drains in 2 bathrooms. Not sure if it's a drain problem or a lack of u bends/traps.

[Geoff1131]

Hi The flexible extendable waste pipe fittings used over here are frequently put it without forming a u bend trap in the line. So letting smells from the drains come straight into the room. It is an easy job to form a trap yourself, although if the pipes are of any age you might need to put new ones in as they may be brittle. The other problem is traps where the water in them has evaporated, just putting a little water in each trap should cure this. Worse case scenario is that the w/c could have been fitted directly to the drain without a proper seal. This is more common with pans that have the outlet under the main part of the pan.

[sophie]

We had exactly the same for a while and the answer was exactly as described by Geoff131. A U bend trap had not been formed. We had it changed at very little cost (although on reflection we could have done it ourselves) and pongs stopped almost immediately.

[carrierbag]

There is always Dial-A-Rod.

[Deniz1]

I used to pour hot water down mine and it soon stopped. did it every few weeks

[mrsgee]

Just run water every week to freshen it.

[sammydavis]

We too had this problem and despite having the floor of the shower dug up and a trap put in (which are shallower than in those in UK, ) we still have this problem to an extent. But short of digging the whole lot up again the only thing we can do is to run some water into the shower when this smell occurs. It does sort it but what a nuisance!

[snd1966]

sometimes shower / bathrooms come with a wet room drain in the floor, if this does not get topped up with water it can cause an awful pong plus some pits do not have a venting pipe which again causes gases to enter the house

[Keithcaley]

...some pits do not have a venting pipe which again causes gases to enter the house

...or the venting pipe (stench pipe ) stops short of the eaves, instead of being extended well above the eaves - the idea being that any smells are carried over the roof of the house by the wind, rather than being allowed to waft back in through the bathroom window!

I agree about forming a proper U bend under sinks (and secure its shape with a plastic tie-wrap or similar) - but as has been stated, a lot of shower, bath, or wet room drains only have a very shallow U bend (and of course, you can't get at these, 'cos they're in the floor!) so in hot weather the water evaporates, and in very windy weather the fast air flow across the top of the stench pipe pulls the water out of the U bend, allowing smells from the septic tank to percolate back into the house. Putting a cup full of water down each plughole/drain hole once a week takes care of that in our house...

[Soner]

I did all of the above but still had smells coming through. I eventually put sealant around the base of the toilet which did the trick.

[thornaby]

This seems to be a very common problem. I have removed two shower trays neither of which hat the trap connected to the drain. Had an ongoing smell problem in the main bathroom. The plastic pipe on the sink did have a bend in it but the rubber grommet that the pipe pushes into on the drain on the wall was very worn. Easy to replace and very cheap. The main cause the smell was the toilet pan connector. Our expert builders done everthing wrong that it was possible to do and used tubes of silicon sealant to try and seal it. New bits fitted properly, no silicon and no smell!

[Thomas]

Just put a small plastic bag like a sandwich bag with water in it over the top will sort out problem

Cheep easy fixed in 2 mins