Plumbing and draining shenanigans!

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Aberdeen
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We have a detached house that we renovated 3 year ago. It had all new plumbing and drains fitted.

The side of the house (where the tall black 'air vent' pipe is) is about 3 metres from the boundary fence, which is bordered by our neighbour's tall ash trees (small leaves - relevant!).

About 2 months ago, I noticed a rotten smell coming form the kitchen drain. It's a 1.5 bowl sink and sits next to the dishwasher. The smell came very specifically from the half sink and smelt like something decomposing - food I guess. When I thought about it, there was also a sulphur smell coming from this general area when the downstairs toilet was flushed (irrespective of what was flushed, but only occurring first thing in the morning).

At the same time, I noticed a 'roar' when the ensuite toilet was flushed upstairs first thing in the morning. This roar was new and there was a two or three second delay between flushing the toilet and the roar, which appeared to come from the garage below (where all the main pipework enters and leaves the house). There was also an odd noise when the water was run in the main kitchen sink (hot or cold) and the kitchen sink is bubbling when the bath upstairs is drained.

I mentioned all of these things to my husband, who took off the u-bend for the small sink and cleaned it without any improvement in the smell.

I called a plumber who came recommended. I mentioned everything I've told you here and he said he thought that the problem was the dishwasher and it's trap. He didn't take any pipes off, look or listen to anything or seem to take seriously any of the other noises or smells, none of which I feel can be linked to the dishwasher.

He recommended we call a dishwasher service guy. When I rang him, he said it was very unlikely to be the dishwasher because 'it's a Bosch' and 'they don't have problems with traps.'

We called Dynorod to look at the drains. They took off the manhole cover on the driveway and said they could see nothing wrong. They were unable to camera the drains because they couldn't remove the other drain cover at the side of the house - this is being fixed next week to allow them access.

So we have all of these weird problems. The sulphur smell in the kitchen was pretty intense this morning (sent the kids running from the room!).

I think it's something to do with the air vent on the side of the house. I wonder if it's blocked by leaves. The problem came on at the same time that the trees were losing their leaves this autumn, and could be a build up of leaves in the air vent after three consecutive autumns since the pipe was fitted. This pipe is fixed to our side extension, which means it's much closer to the trees than it would have been before the extension was built.

Am I anywhere close to being correct about what is causing this? I feel I'm the only person who is putting 2+2 together.

Thank you!
 
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Is the vent pipe actually a vent (i.e. open to atmosphere) or is it terminated with an Air Admittance Valve? Symptoms described do indicate a possible blockage in the drains, so whereby one appliance is discharged, the water cannot escape as intended along the drains, and instead is displacing air trapped behind the blockage.

Can you get someone to flush the upstairs WC and then watch to see if the flush appears in the manhole you can see, (assuming this is downstream).
 
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Possibly some kind of blockage. Read up on here ref. blockages and smells.

You have kids, & they are notorious for putting objects down the WC pan - just saying.

The d/w & the w/m drain hoses should rise to clip to the under surface of the work top if they discharge into the sink trap nozzles.

Do you have a clean-out cap or rodding eye on the soil pipe system?

Are all the other fixtures, and your external gullies draining correctly?

Are you saying that you've had an extension built, and a new (plastic) soil stack installed somewhere? Pics of the exterior would help?
 
thanks for your replies -I'll read the thread you linked to.

Yes, we built a side extension. The ensuite toilet links directly to the soil stack running down the side of the house (the extension wall) because it's right next to it.

Our main bathroom has it's own soil stack which drops down through the garage (more or less on the side of the 'old' part of the house).

The downstairs WC effluent leaves from a horizontal pipe that goes out to the front of the house, under the driveway (I saw them lay it!).

Dpn't know the answers to your soil pipe questions. External gullies appear to drain correctly, though lots of leaves around where they terminate, due to the time of year and neighbour's trees. We have an industrial leaf blower to keep them in check but obviously don't get them all.

Could post pic of the exterior tomorrow when it's light.
 
Ah - I've read that thread before when looking on google for answers.

From sniffing, the problem emanates from the cupboard under the sink rather than either of the plug holes or any appliance. The plug hole smell before Christmas may be a red herring, it was what started the whole thing off but it seemed to respond to being dumped with soda crystals.

We also have no problem when appliances are running so it doesn't seem linked to the DW or WM.

\Just been into the garage to look what pipes run from behind the kitchen cupboard - there's just the plastic waste from the sink exiting the kitchen wall, through the breeze block into the garage towards the soil stack.

What sort of professional would I call for this issue? If they camera the drains, will they see a blockage in the vent up the side of the house?
 

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