shower trap smelling foul

Joined
25 Jul 2012
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Location
West Midlands
Country
United Kingdom
I have been trying to sort out a shower that was installed by our house builder in 1997. It is in an ensuite bathroom with a toilet and a sink.

I have encountered several problems this is one of them.

The shower has never drained very well although I have regularly removed hair from it.

Over the past 4 months the trap has started to smell foul. I disconnected the trap and checked it, it did not appear to be blocked. However when I reconnected it I had a leak at the connection to the shower drain. I found out the the builder had installed a bath trap so I replaced it with a McAlpine STWM-95 shower trap. I used a McAlpine flexible pipe to connect the trap to the existing 40mm waste pipe.

When I disconnected the trap the first time I noticed some liquid ran out of the waste pipe. It didn't smell very nice. I noticed that the existing 40 mm waste pipe slopes upwards. It it completely unsupported so I have put a 40mm high wooden block to level it.

The outlet from the trap is now slightly above the waste pipe.

When I flushed the toilet I noticed that that liquid in the trap oscillates up and down. The liquid in the trap has a slight odour.

The toilet flushes without problems.

Do you think there might be a problem at the junction between the shower waste pipe and the foul waste pipe that is causing sewage to flow towards the shower? This part of the pipe work is boxed in so I am reluctant to disturb it.

Do you think I might be able to solve the problem by fitting a non-return valve between the shower trap and the waste pipe?
 
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I realised that I had overdone raising the new piping from the shower trap to the waste pipe. This had caused water to be retained within the trap above its outlet. Having adjusted the gradient I seem to have a continuous fall from the shower trap to the waste pipe now. The water level in the shower trap is now lower and it isn't affected by the toilet flushing. It seems to be OK now.
 

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