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Sewer Smell


Posted by Dave on October 19th, 2003 08:16 AM
In reply to Sewer Smell by Katharine Vincent on March 26th, 2003 09:12 AM [Go to top of thread]

First thing to do is to locate exactly where the smell is coming from. The floor drain in the laundry is a likely culprit. Most floor drains are required to be "primed" by a source of water otherwise known as a trap primer. If the P trap is not being primed, the water in hte trap dries up and sewer gases escape into the space. Hence one of the purposes of a Ptrap - to act as a water barrier between space and sewer gases. Drain in laundry is in case the appliances overflow - so water wont flow into rest of house. Code requires each fixture to be vented. If a leak exists in any fixture's vent, this could be the problem. Vents should be located in walls and in floors and must slope 1/8" per foot adjacent to each fixture.

Sounds to me like the laundry drain, shower, and bathroom are on the same brance from the main sewer line. If any one of those fixtures are not properly vented, this could cause the problem. In order for sewer gas to be smelled, however, you have to have a lack of water in a p-trap, causing the gas in the pipe to enter freely into your house. Do you have a crawlspace? Should be an easy fix for a licensed plumber. Check out crawlspace first yourself though.

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