Smell in a toilet that's go me confused.

Apologies for the longish post.

Ok, I have a cottage on the farm with a downstairs loo right by the back door. The tenants contacted me complaining about a smell. There is a smell there, nasty, but not what you'd expect coming back up the drains from a klargester. It's as acrid but not the same as the smell in the manhole to the klargester just outside.

The smell comes and goes, and apparently is worst in the early hours of the morning.

All there is in the room is a basin with a u bend underneath, then the waste is piped into a drain outside, but the waste stops over the drain and there's an air gap so no real way a smell can come back that way.

The only other thing in the room is the toilet, one of the older style porcelain ones where the waste exits vertically into the floor. About an inch above floor level the toilet waste fits inside the terracotta type main drain which is sealed with cement. I thought it was the cement perishing and letting the smell up through here, but I've now totally sealed this with silicone and no difference. Toilet cistern is clean. Oldish carpet is bone dry. No sign of leaks anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
light a candle?

stink can come back up either of ubends if ubend dries out / leaks overnight. Then first water of morning will refill u bend and stop smell?

Neighbours complained of smell in en suite that they didn't use.
Told them to flush loo and run taps for couple of mins = smell disappeared.
 
Last edited:

Alicecow

Member
Location
Connacht
If the waste which stops over the drain is vertical then could it be that some smell is seeping up the pipe during the night, and with no air disturbance in the room at that time then the smell accumulates. Would it be possible to change the angle of the waste pipe, even slightly? Or change the 90 degree bend for a T piece.
I presume you have a ventilation stack as standard.
If all else fails you might have to fit an extractor fan or vent or similar.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
If the cement grouting at the join of the ceramic waste pipe needed repointing, the joints at the other below ground sections have probably also eroded away over time. Could that be sewage seeping out through the joints and causing the stink? The joints are meant to last but in fact get eaten away, presumably because urine and some water is acidic. At least, that's what's happened to some of mine. Replace with plastic Osma pipes? A quick fix might be to pour some bleach down the toilet last thing at night without flushing.
 

Ukjay

Member
Location
Wales!
Apologies for the longish post.

Ok, I have a cottage on the farm with a downstairs loo right by the back door. The tenants contacted me complaining about a smell. There is a smell there, nasty, but not what you'd expect coming back up the drains from a klargester. It's as acrid but not the same as the smell in the manhole to the klargester just outside.

The smell comes and goes, and apparently is worst in the early hours of the morning.

All there is in the room is a basin with a u bend underneath, then the waste is piped into a drain outside, but the waste stops over the drain and there's an air gap so no real way a smell can come back that way.

The only other thing in the room is the toilet, one of the older style porcelain ones where the waste exits vertically into the floor. About an inch above floor level the toilet waste fits inside the terracotta type main drain which is sealed with cement. I thought it was the cement perishing and letting the smell up through here, but I've now totally sealed this with silicone and no difference. Toilet cistern is clean. Oldish carpet is bone dry. No sign of leaks anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped.

Is there a window to this room above the external drain? If so - is it open?
 
If the waste which stops over the drain is vertical then could it be that some smell is seeping up the pipe during the night, and with no air disturbance in the room at that time then the smell accumulates. Would it be possible to change the angle of the waste pipe, even slightly? Or change the 90 degree bend for a T piece.
I presume you have a ventilation stack as standard.
If all else fails you might have to fit an extractor fan or vent or similar.
I see what you mean, but surely the water in the u bend would stop this?
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
When I was at uni an old trick on a mate was to run in their room and spray deodorant on the hard plastic/Bakelite fitting just under the bulb itself and the resulting smell a few minutes later with the heat was truly awful. It turns our there was a chemical reaction which produced amines which are the source of a putrid fishy smell.

What I'm getting at is do they use an unusual/modern chemical cleaner/smelly on any old fittings at certain times of the day?
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
You mentioned a carpet; could it be that? Our house at uni had the foulest piece of carpet you've ever seen in it; mainly as being pee'd and needing one appeared to have been completely incompatible for many of the residents living there before us. The landlord eventually changed it and we all lived happily ever after (y).
 

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As reported in Independent


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