Weird Smell in Bathroom
mcshoff
10 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Cat urine smell in bathroom - But no cat...
Comments (12)When cat urine has permeated into anything remotely porous, it’s going to be an expensive problem where everything has to be ripped out and replaced - it might be cheaper to burn the house down and start fresh with a new build (I’m only half joking here when I say burn the house down to save money! But dog pee smell is easier to remedy than cat pee, so if I had to choose one to deal with I’d pick the dog pee 100%). Is there an exhaust fan in that bathroom? Like @kelli w, I’m wondering if it’s some kind of mold or bacterial growth. If your bathroom has no ventilation, things like mold/bacteria are definitely going to proliferate on any surface with the right combination of conditions that allow them to do so. Since it’s less costly to go without cleaning the shower and see if the smell worsens; if it does you have a starting point from which to plan a course of actions, which should definitely include putting in an exhaust fan if there’s not one in there already, but it’s only able to help things if it’s actually used during showers and run for a good while afterwards so it can do it’s job completely....See MoreSewer gas smell in bathroom
Comments (33)The house was built in 1967 and hasn’t seen any major plumbing changes while I’ve lived here. So the house is mostly copper and cast iron. We had a similar situation in our previous house which was built in the 1950s and had copper pipes. I'd been telling my husband for years that I could smell something like sewer in the house and he thought I was crazy. Then a few years ago we had a plumbing problem with the kitchen sink (which shares a wall with the bathroom) which meant opening the wall and found that the copper pipes had corroded quite badly. I suspect you may have the same situation, and the new septic system installation may just be coincidental....See MoreMystery burnt/cigarette smoke smell in bathroom
Comments (87)The smell is coming from some type of mold or fungus growing in your PVC pipes. I have this problem in the kitchen of one of my beach condos. Every couple of years I have to replace the disposal, and the pipes under the sink. The smell is SOOOO strong, and nothing will get rid of it. It took years to figure out the cause. I have soaked the PVC pipes in about everything, and it will not go away. But it is seasonal, flares up worst in the fall. Smells exactly like stale cigarettes. Will permeate everything, blankets, soft surfaces, everything stinks. The smell will penetrate black garb bags, thick ones, even 2 or 3 over each other (I wrapped the pipes to buy the same ones and it stunk up my car, even triple wrapped). I have no idea what type of mold this is, or fungus, but it's bad, and it's like the fungus smell is actively spewing from the sink. It will stink up the entire place. I'm not sure how to really solve the problem for good. So I solve it periodically by replacing the PVC pipes under the sink and the disposal. Then gone. When it comes back, initially it smells vaguely organic like rotting cucumbers for a day or so, then like cigarettes, stale cigarettes. I hope that helps. I wish a biologist would find this blog and ask for a sample. I'd love to know what I'm dealing with. I'm happy to donate an old disposal for testing when it happens again. I've smelled this smell in nature too in swampy areas, but it's MUCH stronger when contained inside....See MoreStrange smell coming from basement bathroom
Comments (10)It may be your vent, or could be your sink drain. I found out my problem/cure from googling problem. We had recently replaced the sink stopper and faucet in bathroom. Shortly afterwards noticed sewer smell occasionally, few times a day. Yes, sewer smell is a skunky smell most times. My googling efforts said to check the overflow of the bathroom sink to see if clogged. I checked by using a funnel and pouring water into it to see if water drains. Sure enough it was clogged. When installing drain stopper we got excess plumbers putty into the hole that drains into the pipe. We are amateurs at home improvement and something usually goes wrong/not smoothly. After some fiddling with something to clean out putty and water drained properly no longer had sewer gas. It was explained on the Google info the clogged overflow sometimes causes some weird suction when toilet is flushed causing sewer gas to come up... Good luck....See MoreDreamingoftheUP
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