effect of running shower unused for a year

[PanickyPunter]

hi, am planning to buy a property that's been vacant for about a year. I tried turning the shower on and brown water came out with dark specks of something in it. Only ran water for a few seconds. I visited the property again three days later and there was a really horrible smell in it that hadn't been present before. Could only think it must be due to having turned shower on earlier. Is this likely? Could it be smell of wet mould in shower head or something to do with drain or what? Can anyone advise? Thank you

 

[OwainDIYer]

Remove shower head and hose, and bin.

Run the whole installation through with lots of fresh water. If there's a loft tank carefully bale it out, use a wet&dry vac to remove sediment, scrub out with Milton and rinse, fit a proper tank lid.

Replace shower hose and head with shiny new one from Argos.

If it's an electric shower it won't run without the hose and head so run the muck through the old hose/head before binning.

Drain traps will also have evaporated, run through with lots of fresh water and some Jeyes Fluid or similar.

For really bad smells hire an industrial ozone generator and leave it running for a weekend.