Smelly bathroom, bath plug hole
Discussion
New build ~ 2021 vintage.
Bath sealed in with tiles.
Chunk of wall boxed off with all pipes/cistern in it.
Soil pipe in corner in main boxed off area.
Can hear gurgling etc from bath plug hole when running sink or hear lots of noise from it when flushing loo.
Smells from plug hole.
If I run bath tap for a couple of seconds, gurgling noises stop and all ok… smells stop too.
For about 18hrs.
No sign of leaks on ceiling below.
I can’t understand how a u bend could dry out in such a short time unless the u bend is literally split… but each bath drainage cycle it’s likely or u bend top up it’s dumping enough water to let smells out (not crazy amounts like a totally dry one would)
But surely even a tiny leak like that would show up?
Only access is behind a tiled-on bath panel, so a bit of a task to take a look.
It’s been seemingly ok years sooo…
I’ve previously had low profile u-bend things (like a musical reed in a pipe) that clog up as they age, so wondering if it’s that kinda setup and has failed somehow but internally so it’s not leaking externally?
Soil stack runs through ceiling to a roof tile. Was wondering if wind direction could be causing it to pump u-bend a bit and drop its level a few mm under the bend and let smells past?
Clutching at straws here as it was seemingly fine for a years till now.
Yet another new build gripe. Everything tiled in. It should be against building regs to have it inaccessible but here we are.
Bath sealed in with tiles.
Chunk of wall boxed off with all pipes/cistern in it.
Soil pipe in corner in main boxed off area.
Can hear gurgling etc from bath plug hole when running sink or hear lots of noise from it when flushing loo.
Smells from plug hole.
If I run bath tap for a couple of seconds, gurgling noises stop and all ok… smells stop too.
For about 18hrs.
No sign of leaks on ceiling below.
I can’t understand how a u bend could dry out in such a short time unless the u bend is literally split… but each bath drainage cycle it’s likely or u bend top up it’s dumping enough water to let smells out (not crazy amounts like a totally dry one would)
But surely even a tiny leak like that would show up?
Only access is behind a tiled-on bath panel, so a bit of a task to take a look.
It’s been seemingly ok years sooo…
I’ve previously had low profile u-bend things (like a musical reed in a pipe) that clog up as they age, so wondering if it’s that kinda setup and has failed somehow but internally so it’s not leaking externally?
Soil stack runs through ceiling to a roof tile. Was wondering if wind direction could be causing it to pump u-bend a bit and drop its level a few mm under the bend and let smells past?
Clutching at straws here as it was seemingly fine for a years till now.
Yet another new build gripe. Everything tiled in. It should be against building regs to have it inaccessible but here we are.
The kids use it a few times a week.
They’d had a bath the night before and it was smelly last night again.
Hmmm so a gammy clogged up I-bend could be causing some capillary draining and leaving it exposed?
Or pumping action… maybe when the loo goes its suction is draining the u-bend a bit because the air admittance (top of soil stack) is insufficient.
I’ll take a closer look at the bath panel to see how removable it is… but it looks rigid to me.
I could always remove and them silicone back for future access.
For all I know it could be some strange exotic u-bend or anti-smell system that’s gone awry, but the risk of water leaking (like a bath full at some point) and this smell being an early warning for months now has me thinking time to look more closely.
They’d had a bath the night before and it was smelly last night again.
Hmmm so a gammy clogged up I-bend could be causing some capillary draining and leaving it exposed?
Or pumping action… maybe when the loo goes its suction is draining the u-bend a bit because the air admittance (top of soil stack) is insufficient.
I’ll take a closer look at the bath panel to see how removable it is… but it looks rigid to me.
I could always remove and them silicone back for future access.
For all I know it could be some strange exotic u-bend or anti-smell system that’s gone awry, but the risk of water leaking (like a bath full at some point) and this smell being an early warning for months now has me thinking time to look more closely.
The joys of modern new builds eh.
Just as many jobs as an old house, just chasing up shoddy workmanship or plain bad design, vs an old house chasing u shoddy DIY it just plain old worn out bits.
The roof vent tile is sort of accessible so can try get into that to inspect the vent tile flow.
Given the recent failure/symptoms I’m guessing it’s been damaged/occluded/blocked up with a bird nest or rubbish or something.
Just as many jobs as an old house, just chasing up shoddy workmanship or plain bad design, vs an old house chasing u shoddy DIY it just plain old worn out bits.
The roof vent tile is sort of accessible so can try get into that to inspect the vent tile flow.
Given the recent failure/symptoms I’m guessing it’s been damaged/occluded/blocked up with a bird nest or rubbish or something.
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