Smelly bathroom

[Ronty]

No i didnt block the toilet!!! All i can smell is disgusting sewery smell coming from my bathrom. There appears to be no blockages as the drainage seems to go down fine. I need some advice? Please as this smell is becoming unbearable. I did buy some strong liquid that unblocks drains to see if it helps but no joy so far. Its definitely coming from the toilet
Any ideas? Would be much appreciated

 

[keyplayer]

Not a macerator is it?

 

[peter anderson]

Is your bathroom on the ground floor? is there an internal drain? Is there the normal amount of water left in the toilet after you flush it? Are there any drips on the floor under the soilpipe out of the toilet? You could buy a long wire thing called an auger from a diy store or plumbers merchants for about a fiver and stick it through the pan into the soilpipe and see if anything blocks you. It should go in all the way as far as it will go.

 

[Ronty]

thanks for your reply keyplayer
what you mean by a macerator? do u mean what type of flushing system do i have?
thanks

 

[Ronty]

peter

well my bathroom is upstairs. the soil pipe runs under the floorboards through another room before it hits the outside wall. the original bathroom was made smaller to make an extra room. my current bathroom has no window which makes the smell harder to get rid of. there are no signs of drips or anything suspicious. your tip sounds like a good idea. the smell got better for a period today but has become unbearable over the past hour or so. i can even smell it from downstairs the same thing happened last night and first thing this morning.

thanks

 

[keyplayer]

A macerator is one of those electric toilets. If you've got a standard size soil pipe, can you see or get access to the vent end? (IT should be above the height of your gutter) If you got a birds nest in that you could be getting methane build up in the pipe coming back up the toilet ubend. Also, it sounds as if the original soil pipe has been lengthened. Does it still have sufficient drop in the pipe before it reaches the out side wall?

 

[peter anderson]

If there is water remaining in the toilet after it is flushed I don't understand how the smell would be coming up through the toilet. I'm wondering if there is a crack in the pipe somewhere (under the floorboards maybe) or whether the toilet isn't firmly secured onto the soilpipe.

 

[AdamW]

Peter's suspicions might be correct, however it is best to eliminate the easy (and less grimy) options first of all

What about the bath trap? If it is a "low profile" type (i.e. the seal isn't deep) then perhaps this could cause a problem?

You haven't confirmed whether or not you have a macerator: this is a device which munches up (macerates) all the solid waste and pumps it through a 40mm waste pipe instead of a 4 inch toilet waste pipe. It is usually installed directly behind the toilet pan and you can hear it munching away when you flush. Trade names include "saniflo", and they are often used when installing a toilet some distance from the soil stack (and are usually more trouble than they are worth in my experience!).

 

[Ronty]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys
No i don't have a macerator. I will check for cracks in the piping. I shall use your tips to investigate later on
Thanks

 

[weargas]

have a look to see that some bright spark hasn't run the toiler o/f pipe into the soil stack.