Smells from time to time, vent question

Hi we live in a house which is only around 2 years old, in our bedroom eaves we have a vent curved pipe see attached photo.

From time to time we get some smells usually after having a long shower/bath I guess. Doesn't occur always, sometimes I guess if it's not rained for a while or then if it's been raining a lot. Hard to pinpoint.

We are aware of an air admittance valve - eg http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-af110g-push-fit-air-admittance-valve-grey/78150?kpid=KINASEKPID

Should we fit one of these ?

I read they should only be used with vertical pipe only and ours is slightly curved as you can see from photo?

Not sure why one of these wasn't fitted as standard, but house passed all building controls so maybe building control insists on not having one of this air admittance valves.

I don't know hopefully someone can shed some light on if this would go towards solving the problem or creating a new problem and if it's ok to use in terms of building control etc of course. Thanks guys

You should have no openings on your sanitary system like that. That should only terminate to open air.

CT-18 said:

You should have no openings on your sanitary system like that. That should only terminate to open air.

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This type of this is extremely normal at times and it's often common to vent into eave space. Would you suggest the air admittance valve as a solution. I'm unsure why one wasn't fitted. It's often the case I believe with new houses due to building controls but also maybe due to maximising the drying out, venting process likewise.

The sewer is located away from the house and we have a holding tank with pump which is working to pump into the main sewer system. Thanks for your advise, we don't have any smells anywhere else in the house and it only seems to occur after we take bath or long shower (and not always), We don't have any blockages - maybe it's a water level issue ?

It would be a legal vent as the house is only a couple of years old and passed all buildings inspections

Then i guess its good in your area. Would not fly in my hood. Thank god, that is garbage.

Well if the house is only a couple years old and it passed all building inspections. Then I don't see what the problem is if the vent is "legal" because it passed the inspection....

then you have nothing to worry about no need to fix anything especially a gaping hole in your plumbing system

Why is there carpet and OSB board in the eves?

Thanks, there is OSB board as its wooden frame house, carpet as chap decided to carpet throughout. Think we are getting off track a little here. Issue is the smell that occurs from time to time as above, any ideas?

If I were to go up in my attic and cut open one of my vent pipes and stick my nose in it you know what I would smell?

I would smell a foul disgusting odor. The reason why I don't smell that odor is because there's not a hole in my vent pipe my vent goes out my roof not into the eve of my house

If that is a vent pipe the only way to properly fix the odor you smell if you have the vent terminate properly. Not into your bedroom eve

There isn't a plumbing code in the world that would allow that to happen. Your builder, plumber, rough inspector, and finish inspector all screwed the pooch and let you down. You should have never been issued an occupancy permit. It has to go through the roof. If you don't want to do that, have fun being sick all the time in your new mouldy house. Call the general contractor and point it out. If he's got a decent company, he will honour the work that you paid him for

Thanks this is in the UK, house is timber frame and carpet in eves as carpenter laid throughout house, again can be very normal. Everything here all normal to be honest for the UK.

I'm trying to get my bearings from your picture.... is the carpet the bottom / floor in the pic or is it a wall?

plumb_bob_square_pants said:

I'm trying to get my bearings from your picture.... is the carpet the bottom / floor in the pic or is it a wall?

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That makes more sense. Sorry.. crook in my neck, doctor says don't agitate it.

Mrdog said:

Thanks this is in the UK, house is timber frame and carpet in eves as carpenter laid throughout house, again can be very normal. Everything here all normal to be honest for the UK.

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This is what we refer to as eaves in America, that's why the carpet and OSB board threw me off.

This is a good representation of the eave space> http://www.doineedplanningpermission.co.uk/faqs/eaves.gif

You really need to to vent that to the roof/open air, I don't care where in the world your house is located. I realize its in an eave, which itself is vented, but there is still obviously some vapors being trapped. Call the contractor and tell them the issue and ask politely if they will fix it.

Whether that is allowed by code or not, it is not safe to have your sewer gases venting in to an occupied closed space like that. Generally the vent needs to go out the roof or even out a wall and around the eaves/soffit so that it goes at least a foot (something like 30.48cm) above the roof. Additionally, it must not be within something like 3ft of a window or opening that would allow the sewer gases to come back in to the house. (I can't remember the exact rules right now so I could be wrong about the numbers)

Sewer gases contain methane which can make you very sick and even kill you. It can be poisoning you even when you can't smell it. It isn't something to mess around with and you should get it vented out of the house asap and for the meantime, make sure people aren't spending a lot of time in the room with the open vent like that.

I had an opening to a sewer pipe in my house (shower had no P-trap) and it made people in my house very sick and contributed to my father's early death at the age of 61.

Please get this fixed before something bad happens.

Are you sure it has something to do with the sewer. maybe it's some kind of air intake and not a vent.
if you listen at the opening can you hear water running in it when you use the water?