Sewer Fumes, Bathroom, Help! :)

[celes247]

Hey there, thanks for reading this.

I've been renting this condo for 4 months, and the whole time there has been a intermittent sewer odor in the guest bathroom (regularly used). I only recently realized this could have health effects, and actually have been having a lot of respiratory problems since I've been here (but who knows? Flu season, too). And I have two little kids I'm thinking about here (2 and 6 years old).

Can't seem to pinpoint the smell, except that it's in that bathroom, and it's not everyday. More like every 2-3 days. It doesn't last for more than a few hours each time.

The landlord just had the toilet seam rewaxed, and I am waiting to see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't, I've been told that I'm most likely out of luck, as the next operation (a smoke test), would cost $2000, involve another condo unit too, and I'd have to convince the HOA to do it. I'm thinking I might have to call the health dept. to get any action on this (assuming the toilet seal doesn't fix things).

My main question is whether or not it's possible to have a clogged drain pipe (for example, the bath tub drain), cause this problem. I ask, because, the kitchen sinks, upon moving in, filled with sewage every evening during peak use hours. The plumber had to snake the drain to fix it. Additionally, the A/C, twice now (with a month and a half or so in between), would leak water constantly onto the floor. The A/C repairman, both times, had to snake the a/c drain to fix it. So that's why I wonder.

So, is that a possible source? The plumbers who came out today to fix the toilet seam said no, I would see liquid in the tub if so.

Thank you for reading.

 

[phishfood]

When you use the sink, or bathtub, or toilet in that bathroom, do you ever hear a strange "glugging" sound? It is possible, in certain situations, for a partially clogged drain to cause a trap to siphon.

 

[frodo]

do you regularly use all the fixtures in the bthroom?

tub,sink,terlet? as in i time a day ?

do you have access to the attic? verify, that the fart fan is not connected to a plumbing vent stack, but is duct to the outdoors

post back

 

[celes247]

Hey there,

Thank you guys for responding to my post. I very much appreciate the help.

The landlord had the toilet re-seamed. Everything seemed good for a week or so, but I decided to not use that bathroom during this time (kept door shut and lights/fan off). I checked on it daily, though, and no smell. I also made sure to flush the toilet, run the sink faucet, and run the tub faucet for a minute everyday to keep the traps nice and full. This is a regularly used bathroom normally.

Today decided to start using the bathroom again, so turned on the lights and fan (they go on together with one switch). After 2 minutes of fan running, smell came into the bathroom. Very acidic, rotten egg smell. I thought it may have been coming from the fan. I turned off the fan and shut the door. A half an hour later I came in and the smell was 50 times worse than when I had shut the fan off. It was terrible. Throat-stingingly acidic.

Emailing the landlord again today. I hope he does something. I heard about a crack in the pipes, building up in the walls, can cause the smell to leak out the fan? Or perhaps, as you said, it could be the fan's venting?

Thank you again.

PS. Not hearing any gurgling sound

 

[celes247]

Wanted to update again. Landlord is now saying he is going to send the handyman out to investigate the exhaust fan and look for dead rodents.

I would think that if it was a dead rodent the smell would last for a few days each time? This tends to last a few hours before disappearing again. What do you guys think?

 

[phishfood]

If it is indeed a sewer gas smell, it can be really difficult to find the source of. The smell only turning up when you run the fan is not surprising, as this causes a slightly lower air pressure in the bathroom, which tends to "suck in" sewer gas from wherever it is leaking from.

It can also be a dead rat or mouse, the last sewer gas leak I chased down turned out to be a dead rat under the bath tub.

 

[celes247]

Update:

After much persistence, the HOA sent out their plumbers to check out the sewer pipes. They did a smoke test, but did not find any leaks. The plumber told me the smell was likely from the dumpster outside in the parking lot (rather far away), or perhaps diesel from cars outside. I don't buy that for one second, but I wanted to know how accurate his smoke test might have been. I ask this , because he did not remove any walls, or visit the upstairs condo unit. I was told by a previous plumber that he thought it was a nail hole leak, and the only way to find it was by tearing down the walls, etc, when they do the smoke test.

One thing I did notice was that after the smoke test I could smell the fog they used in the house very strongly, but the plumber denied smelling it at all. They claimed to have used fiberoptic cameras, however, so perhaps they did a thorough job?

There's obviously an odor issue in the bathroom (intermittently smells like an oil refinery, or rotten eggs), could this still be sewer gas?


Thank you so much for your help.

 

[celes247]

Just wanted to update this one last time. The problem (according to an electrician), was that the exhaust fan was installed backwards. It was sucking in air from in between the condo units and putting it into my unit. Of course, I don't know the source of the smell, but at least it's no longer flooding my place.


Thanks all for the help.

 

[Caduceus]

Kinda makes you wonder where the exhaust fan discharges to draw so much odor, though. I've found exhaust fans connected to sewer stacks in attics and crawl spaces before.
Nice to hear your problem is gone.