Sewer Gas Odors

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tb1

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alberta, texas
Hi, I live in an 80 year old row house. Every since I moved in I periodically smell sewer gases coming from both toilets in the house. Last year, because of leaking pipes I hired a plumber to completely replace all the old pipes, including the waste stack, to and from the 2nd floor bathroom with plumbing grade PVC pipe. However I still smell the sewer gases. What can i do to stop this odor?
should their be a trap or something on these toilets?

Help!

Thanks.
 
There should always be a U-Trap on each hookup to the sewer. So I hope when u paid money to this plumber, you complained about this problem, and if not fixed, well call him! If he's taking your money, make him responsible for the work right.
 
The contract was to replace all the pipes. Where is the U trap located? The ceiling has not been repaired so the pipes are easy to see. They did not breakout the old cast iron fixture around the cement floor under the toilet.
 
It is nice to know that people have no idea what they are talking about.:(

If I follow Jsmith correctly, he is speaking of a building trap. That is or at least has been common practice in some areas, installing a trap in the main line outside of the building just before the sewer tie-in. It is not done here in Florida, and in fact, depending on how you interpret the code, could be against code. Because we do not install them, and we don't have an epidemic of sewer gas odors, I doubt that this is the problem.

They did not breakout the old cast iron fixture around the cement floor under the toilet.
I am wondering if there is a problem with the old cast iron flange being rotted away and allowing sewer gases to escape there. Did you have the contractor pull the toilets and check that?

Also, any toilet I have seen has a trap cast into the toilet itself, so an external trap is not required. Granted, I don't deal with 80 year old toilets on a daily basis.
 
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As long as the wax seal is installed correctly and not worn out, you should not have a sewer gas emitting from the toilet unless the bowl has dried up or the flange is broken or worn down. That is, as Phish says, unless the toilet is an old "straight shot" type of bowl, like this V

049.jpg
 
As long as the wax seal is installed correctly and not worn out, you should not have a sewer gas emitting from the toilet unless the bowl has dried up or the flange is broken or worn down. Where is the flange? They did say something was broken but the could fix it without replacing it. I wonder if that was the flange. is there any way i can check?
 
"Also, any toilet I have seen has a trap cast into the toilet itself, so an external trap is not required. Granted, I don't deal with 80 year old toilets on a daily basis. .."

It appears the toilet was replaced during the 70s or the 80s.
 
There are repair options for a broken cast iron flange. A good plumber should be able to effect a repair without danger of sewer gas leakage. The flange is located underneath the toilet, it is the "interface", if you will, between the toilet and the drain piping. There are slots that bolts fit into that attach the toilet to the flange, and a flat surface that the wax ring seals against.

If the toilets were replaced that recently, than they have a trap seal in the toilet itself.
 
I remember the plumbers telling me that something was broken but they could fix it without replacing it.
part of the contract was to replace the cast iron flange that was et into a concrete base below the toilet.
They told me it's always "a danger of cracking\damaging the concrete base. However they could use the original cast iron flange without compromising the job."

Looks like I need to call them tomorrow.
 
Plumber came out and replaced the bees wax seal he stated the previous seal was squished resulting the odor.
He also adjusted the water level in the tank maKIng it lower.

we'll see.
 
Reminds me of a job.
A co-worker installed a new toilet and the customer had a very bad odor afterwards.
This is what I found when I pulled the toilet.

work 002.jpg
 

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