Bad Smell In Bathroom - Connected to Neighbours property?

[Fishwalker]

Hi,

We've lived in our first home now for 6 years. A 100+ terrace with double extension at the back. When we first bought it and were looking around, we noticed a bad smell in the bathroom area but I thought it was due to the new baby having been changed recently. Then when we moved in, we noticed it coming and going at varying times of day. Eventually the people we bought the house off, (who I now have on Facebook as they are friends with friends of mine) said they had discussed it with the neighbour and that it could be something to do with their property. A few weeks later after moving in, we got a note through the door, saying our neighbour had had an issue with the drains and had had it sorted. The smell I think went after that.

Over the years it had occasionally come back a bit but now 6 years in, it's back quite badly again. It's been noticeable over the last few months and again gets stronger at certain times of day, I think when there is low pressure.

I've smelt all the drains, but can't seem to isolate the smell, it sort of drifts slightly into the landing from the bathroom too. We have a separate shower cubicle to the bath drain and checked the water drains out ok from all sanitary equipment, which it does with no gurgling afterwards. Sometimes the shower cubicle blocks a bit, with my long hair and soap, but I clean it out about once a month removing the show tray plug hole trap. That doesn't remove the smell.

I've read it can be due to the traps under the sink not having enough water in the u bend to stop drain gases coming back up, but I think that should only be if they have cracks or don't get used much. I also don't know how to check these, as we have Lino down over wooden floorboards, so I guess I'd have to pull those up to look.

The thing is also, my neighbour is a compulsive hoarder.

A few years back, some sort of environmental health crew had a few skips outside her house, taking away all manor of detritus and old, soiled mattresses etc. These seem to come out regularly and some are in her garden now. They really tidied the place up and installed new fencing in her garden and even a little patio table. But now she's let it all go to pot again.

When taking out the bins you can see into the ground back room and it is stacked with clutter to the ceiling and all the curtains are closed across windows. I hear her crying and screaming a lot and moaning in pain. We had to move out of our front bedroom because of the random screams and moans! It is really disturbing.

She had a son who lived with her and she does go out to work but she is pretty obese and looks like moving about and cleaning may be hard for her. We do say hello and I try to be polite, dispite all this.

Anyhow, I bit the bullet tonight and went round and spoke to her son who's about 20, and asked if they had noticed any smell in the bathroom because I remember there being a problem from the letter she sent us a few years back. He was very nice and said his mum was upstairs on the phone and couldn't come to speak, but that the bathroom seemed fine. He said they had an issue with the washing machine downstairs flooding all the time and soaking the floor. Their kitchen is adjoined to ours and this is next door below the bathroom.

I am wondering whether a blockage in their washing machine drain could be forcing drain gases up through the bathroom fittings and into the floor void between kitchen and bathroom and between our two terrace houses?

I said I just wanted to see if I needed to call out drain guys and hinted nicely that I'd noticed and needed it resolving really, as we are letting our place out for a few months. Her son said he understood and would try and have a look at it next week when he has some time off work but that he was moving out soon.

Any idea's on how I could further approach this delicate situation and whether there is anything I can do in my property?

 

[buck51]

I feel for you, but the only way is officialdom if you have a younge child point it out to you heath visitor, she may get it sorted for you,

If not the answer is to report problem to your local council environmental health officer and let them sort it for you

 

[HERTS P&D]

I would handle this a different way, every time I heard her scream out at night, I would call the police fearing for her safety. After that I would call the council fearing for her star of mind. The sooner her is moved the better.

Andy

 

[Jamesie]

Well firstly, the big pipe that the toilet connects to, is it external? If not and internal, does it poke throught the roof? If not you may have an air admitance valve, they can fail. Does the smell get worse when toilet is flushed?

 

[stem]

I've come across the same symptoms as you describe with two WC's. Both times the smell was coming from a poor connection between the WC pan and soil pipe allowing foul air from the sewer to escape into the room. In both cases, the smell came and went, however it was usually worse when windy (windy outside, not inside that is ). On the first occasion it was where the pan connector met the WC pan. On the second occasion a flexible pan connector wasn't sealing properly where it was pushed into the soil pipe. In both instances there wasn't any escape of water as the 'gap' was at the top.

The first one was fixed by trial, I sealed around the pan connector on the WC with silicone and that ended it. The second time I used a candle flame on a windy day to find where the foul air was entering and then replaced all of the pipe and connections between the WC and the stack. Fortunately there wasn't too much methane coming from the sewer

 

[TheVictorian]

We had a similar situation (smell wise) with our house when we first moved in. A little bit of sniffing around resulted in me raising the top of the soil stack over the gutter level which then prevented smells drifting into the house under cetain weather conditions.

 

[Fishwalker]

Hi,

Our Waste Pipe runs externally outside down to the drain. It is on the opposite side of the building to her's, as although our halls are adjacent and bathroom + front bedroom, the waste outlets face our other neighbour's property.

This neighbour of mine has an end of terrace house, whilst I am mid terrace. We both own our homes I think. I do but she has lived in her home for years, so she can't be evicted. In any case it is more of an annoyance rather than us wanting her out. I do feel a bit sorry for her and it may be that her son is her carer.

Sometimes when I have heard her screaming/groaning in the front bedroom (as if she has bad cramps or something), I have mimicked her and screamed myself, just to try and let her know I can hear her. It is so annoying not to be able to sleep in the biggest bedroom but I'm a light sleeper so no choice. I was going to try and build a fake wall in that room once, I think I wrote another thread about that.

Anyway, the smell today and since me going round seems not as noticeable. I don't know if its psychosomatic, in that I got a chip off my shoulder by going round but we'll see. Would still be good if there was any way I could check my drains and prevent any smells getting in to our bathroom.

 

[danplumb]

Any thoughts on it being nothing to do with the drains but maybe more to do with the junk shes piling up in her house, rotting food.. most hoarders usually have about 40 cats ? are your loft spaces connected or anyway smells can be transfering through walls or underfloor spaces ?

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Danplumb makes a good point there, come across this type of problem before, usually in older, connected houses. Neighbours concerned about the smell involve Environmental Health at the Council, EH will investigate, and if necessary, they will issue a notice to the property owner/tenant to clean up. Failure to comply, and the Council are able to complete the necessary works and recharge the cost to the householder/tenant.

I dropped a Roll on/roll off bin at one property that was being 'mucked out' as the EHO put it. (First load was 12 tonnes of newspaper! Chap had been delivering the free paper for years, what he didn't deliver he took home and kept. He hadn't been upstairs for a number of years due to the amount of stuff stacked on the staircase.....)

Once the place had been cleaned up, I believe the Council were forced to purchase it to ensure repairs were done to maintain the structural integrety of not only that house but also the neighbouring properties, such was the poor state of repair it had been allowed to fall into. The occupant was found a suitable place in sheltered housing, which I believe he was quite pleased about.

 

[Fishwalker]

Hi again!

Thought I'd update on this having just read the last two replies.

Over the last couple of days the smell has come back (hadn't really gone though) loads worse! The best way to describe it, is like a sort of gassy methaney smell mixed with musty fust (though I don't think it's gas gas, though now I'm wondering, what if it is, from her place?

You sometimes smell it a little coming in the front door but it's as you walk upstairs and your nose comes in line with the landing that goes straight into the bathroom at the top of the stairs. The step then drops down into the lowered bathroom. I can also smell it faintly in my bedroom at the back of the house and sort of next to the bathroom. I'm worried a bit that it may be affecting my health. I do know that our main gas pipe (yellow) runs down the hall towards the cupboard under the stairs and so will hers. I've been under our floorboards before.

My bathroom is totally clean and empty and the plugs have been checked for hair etc. We do have bare floorboards at the top of the stairs and uncarpeted stairs, due to a farmhouse type renovation we did (bare pine treads, white risers and white painted landing) and there are gaps between floorboards that could I guess let smells into the house from under the stairs, which in turn could have holes in the brick work leading to her house (it being a 110 yr old house). It was carpeted when we moved in though and the smell was there then, before the council or whoever, did the last giant muck out of her place into all the skips (disgusting).

So, as I'm in the UK, is the consensus that I should contact my environmental waste department to see what they would advice, or, should I try and speak to her again, or, should I get a plumber/drain guy to come round involving my money, to check my drains first before I go accusing?
(not that it doesn't seem quite obvious due to all the curtains being drawn and I now see mould spores on her front downstairs window and boxes stacked high in the back room.

 

[Fishwalker]

WELL! Just had a bit of a breakthrough after wrote my last post!

Decided to just ring Environmental Health, to see what my options were, after I'd tried knocking at my neighbours door and got no answer. While on the phone, I saw my neighbour leaving her house and getting into her car. I asked the lady at the council to hold on while I tried talking to her and ran out and she wound her window down.

I started by asking her if she was aware of any smell in her drains, as I'd noticed one and that I didn't know whether to call someone out, or whether it was coming from her side and that it smelt gassy and fusty. She said she did have a problem with her toilet drain (when I spoke to her son the week before, it was the washing machine drain), so drains in general. I then asked her whether she was alright, because I was concerned about her living conditions and wellbeing (what with the screams and groans) and she broke down crying a bit. I was very sympathetic and said I was happy to chat with her about anything troubling her and that she obviously needed to ask for help. She uttered that her mum was in hospital with a neurological brain condition, being operated on and it was really stressing her out.

I finally had the courage to ask her all the questions me and my other half had wondered about, like if that's who she left her house to see, as I always assumed she went out to work, but now I'm not sure re: work. Also two women who sometimes turn up and bang on her door furiously (who we thought were her work mates as she was late for work) turned out to be her sisters and so it could be that she has attempted to do something like take her life (I don't know) and they were concerned about her.

I told her I'd noticed all the stuff building up in her house over the past few months and the mattresses in the backyard and that it had really come to a head now and needed to be acted on, and she said she knew it did and she would do something and did mean to come and speak to me about it. I said as I hadn't been able to get her to answer at other times, I'd called environmental health today and she pleaded with me not to go further with that, as it would be the end of her! I asked why she thought that and that surely they could hopefully help her, as she obviously needed help. She said the cries through the walls were mostly through frustration but she does have a health condition, which I can imagine living in a house with cobwebs, all over the kitchen window and mould on them etc + the other rooms full of junk, must cause!

Anyway, I just cycled over how, if she wanted my number to chat anytime, she could have it or call any time, but I don't think she wanted to, she seemed thoroughly ashamed of herself, which was sad, as the last thing I want, is to make her feel worse about herself. I just hope that my talking to her will give her the impetuous to take action now. I said we were letting the place out for a few months soon and it needed sorting soon for that. I think she will do something now, I hope!

Meanwhile I went back to the lady at the council and relayed this to her and she has noted it down and is getting me a call back, but they were more concerned about the rubbish in her garden, as they said they can't do anything about what she has in her house re: getting it cleared out, unless it is causing a direct impact on my health or property e.g. escaping gas etc, of which it maybe gas but is affecting us in any case, so they could maybe do something. I'll have to see.

The Council website states:

Environmental nuisance

Many environmental problems that affect our health or quality of life can seem too 'low-level' to do anything about. Or they may be problems within a specific street or neighbourhood.

These problems may include local noise, smells, or even an empty house in the street which attracts trespassers.

If you are experiencing these problems, you can report them to us and we will investigate and, where necessary, take appropriate action.

Anyway, I'll monitor the situation and post back if anything else happens.

 

[HERTS P&D]

I would handle this a different way, every time I heard her scream out at night, I would call the police fearing for her safety. After that I would call the council fearing for her star of mind. The sooner her is moved the better.

Andy

That's what I said.

 

[buck51]

You should have contacted them 2 weeks ago!!!