bathroom smell

[manxcat]

Have recently had a new bathroom put in and noticed stale smell especially in the morning after being shut up all night.On checking the shower waste(the lift out filter type i notice that the outlet to drain hole is above the water level in the waste casing.What is to prevent the smell from the soil pipe coming back into the shower? Should the installer have fitted a trap as well.
Any advice appreciated

 

[Richard C]

Not entirely sure what you mean by the outlet to the drain hole & your post seems to contain conflicting info about weather or not you have a trap. If your plumber really hasn’t fitted a waste trap between the shower & the soil stack then he ain’t no plumber.

New or refurbished bathrooms are also supposed to comply with current Building Regulations, if what your saying is correct I wonder where else this tradesman may have breached regulations; any chance of posting some photos of the bathroom waste connections so we can see exactly what’s been done?

 

[manxcat]

Hi ritchard

There is no trap as i know them.The shower tray has a circular pocket underneath with the drain outlet hole about 25m.m from the bottom.Into this fits the removeable basket which has outlet holes around its circumference at the top.Into this fits a tube with a stainless top which one pulls out to get at the basket for cleaning.I explained this set up to a plumber over the phone and he told me that this was the trap but I cant see it as any smell can come back through the hole in the pocket up around the basket out through the cicumferential holes past the stainless top into the shower.Am I missing something or are my plumbers incompetent?Assuming that a trap is required I dont want to lift the shower tray so I presume that it will be ok to fit a trap into the drainline where it runs along the exterior wall of the house into the soil pipe.

 

[mogget]

A photo might help here

 

[heytesto]

Sounds like a top access shower trap to me:
http://www.mcalpineplumbing.com/productmenu.asp
(click waste traps, shower traps about 2/3 down)

May be it's not assembled properly or incorrect choice of seal depth has been chosen resulting in loss of water seal ??

75mm minimum seal on traps connected to a soil stack. Most shower traps supplied are only 50mm.

 

[heytesto]

Just read the OP again, and of course when you remove the lift out tube the water level will be below the outlet !! The tube when reassembled provides the seal.

Are you sure this is the source of the smells??

 

[Richard C]

Are you sure this is the source of the smells??

It may be the way in which the “plumber” has connected the sink/wc/shower wastes to the soil stack is causing one or more of the traps to siphon, it’s impossible to tell from here without photos of how it’s all been installed or at least a diagram.

 

[manxcat]

Have finally worked out that this is a top access trap as suggested.Now see that the water has to go down the central tube and then the basket fills until it overflows to the drain outlet and this space is always full of water so gases cannot get back>.Since the trap has been cleaned out with flash the smell has not come back.Understand that 70m.m water height required if connected direct to the soil stack.How do you measure this-is it the distance from the basket bottom to the lower edge of the circumferential outlet holes at its top,which is 60 mm in my case.

 

[seco services]

the min you can have on a shower is 50mm