€ 3000 toilet smell - still there !!

J

jimboh

Guest
Anybody help.
Have a problem for last two years.Smell comes up from ground floor floorboards right in the middle of the house.Sulphur smell.Happens infrqequently, with no set pattern.

We had Dyno rod out .They ran a camera though and rodded waste pipes.Said that old pipes to front of house where effected by old roots of old tree.We got rid of this tree base but problem persisted.

Got local contractor in, who isolated waste pipe from ground floor toilet. Ran new pipe under floorboards, into main waste at rear of house.He replaced WC, he reckoned that old toilet may have been leaking gases in through Collar and waste pipe from front.

€3000 later and smell still comes and goes

Help !!!!!!

JIMBOH :confused:
 
I don't understand - is the smell coming from the toilet or somewhere else under the floorboards? Surely the U bend in a toilet should help suppress any smells from the sewage system?
 
Is there any chance that it's the water itself, I know our tap water stinks of sulphur (it's well water), so much so that you can't drink it. Is it possible that the water feeding into the toilet is the same?
 
Somewhere else under the floorboards.When you walk into the small toilet room you smell nothing.

Somebody said sulphur smell in water. We live in South Dublin, water tastes and smells perfect.


JIMBOH
 
I know I might be dealing with plenty of cowboys but indians ?????
 
Is there a soil vent pipe outside the house? If the toilet is feeding into the start of the sewage line, e.g. the highest point of it, and there is no soil vent pipe outside the house then the gasses from the septic tank or the mains will possibly rise to the highest point and come out through the toilet itself. A soil vent is just an ordinary 4" pipe rising up the side of the house with a ventilated 'hat' on top.
 
Thanks Baldyman

There is a soil vent pipe outside the house.The isolated toilet is feeding into the base of it, as the toilet is on ground floor.There is a fall of 18" over 20 ft and When you open inspection trap you cannot smell sewer gas in pipe, it smells fine,but you can still get it inside the house.

JIMBOH
 
jimboh, have you lifted a section of floor board to see if the ground is wet or damp? Also is there any history of old service pipes running around or under the property? Roughly how old is the house? Was the house built on a "greenfield" or were there previously buildings on the site before your house?
 
Its could all be simpler than you realise.
If the smell is getting back up the toilet or shower or what ever then the smell is by passing the watter that is supposed to lie in the u bends.

If the smell comes and goes then it must concide with something . At a guess I'd say it concides with a breeze from outside. It will blow the smell back up outside the plastic sewage pipe but inside the 'tunnel' in which lies.
Looks for tiny gaps where your toilet is connecting with the floor next time the it's smelly. See if you can feel any breeze at all then seal it well it and see what happens from then on in.
 
Sometimes the u bends can be sucked dry from suction and need a vent above them to prevent this. If theres no or low water in them the smell can get past. Thats something to consider.
 
We had a smell coming from our bathroom for the past year (new house) and like you it would come and go. Only the main bathroom was affected and having gotten the plumber back 3 times he eventually figured it out!
Basically we don't use the bath/shower in the main bathroom (use the en suite) therefore the bad smell is coming up from the water outlet in the bath. We started running water every couple of days and keeping the plug int he bath. Its definatley resolved it.

Hope that helps
 
Hi, we had a very similar problem. Every time the shower used, a smell of solphur, or worse. It would go through whole house. On private well so "shocked" (disinfected) well and pipes. No joy. Solution was simple. Previous owner thought he could do DIY!! He connected electric shower in the bathroom. Problem was, it wired dangerously. My daughter broke off pull-chord switch by accident and when I opened housing, Bingo, there was the smell. Solphur/urine smell. Plastic burning through. Worth checking wiring if you have a shower, VERY dangerous. New unit installed and have had no bad smells since then. Hope of use to you.
 
I had a similar problem myself and the solution was the same as RjDav's. but we also called the gas co and their guy said that it could sometimes be dead rats or mice under the floor as yours is a raised floor it might be worth checking out.
 
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