We have a detached house that we renovated 3 year ago. It had all new plumbing and drains fitted.
The side of the house (where the tall black 'air vent' pipe is) is about 3 metres from the boundary fence, which is bordered by our neighbour's tall ash trees (small leaves - relevant!).
About 2 months ago, I noticed a rotten smell coming form the kitchen drain. It's a 1.5 bowl sink and sits next to the dishwasher. The smell came very specifically from the half sink and smelt like something decomposing - food I guess. When I thought about it, there was also a sulphur smell coming from this general area when the downstairs toilet was flushed (irrespective of what was flushed, but only occurring first thing in the morning).
At the same time, I noticed a 'roar' when the ensuite toilet was flushed upstairs first thing in the morning. This roar was new and there was a two or three second delay between flushing the toilet and the roar, which appeared to come from the garage below (where all the main pipework enters and leaves the house). There was also an odd noise when the water was run in the main kitchen sink (hot or cold) and the kitchen sink is bubbling when the bath upstairs is drained.
I mentioned all of these things to my husband, who took off the u-bend for the small sink and cleaned it without any improvement in the smell.
I called a plumber who came recommended. I mentioned everything I've told you here and he said he thought that the problem was the dishwasher and it's trap. He didn't take any pipes off, look or listen to anything or seem to take seriously any of the other noises or smells, none of which I feel can be linked to the dishwasher.
He recommended we call a dishwasher service guy. When I rang him, he said it was very unlikely to be the dishwasher because 'it's a Bosch' and 'they don't have problems with traps.'
We called Dynorod to look at the drains. They took off the manhole cover on the driveway and said they could see nothing wrong. They were unable to camera the drains because they couldn't remove the other drain cover at the side of the house - this is being fixed next week to allow them access.
So we have all of these weird problems. The sulphur smell in the kitchen was pretty intense this morning (sent the kids running from the room!).
I think it's something to do with the air vent on the side of the house. I wonder if it's blocked by leaves. The problem came on at the same time that the trees were losing their leaves this autumn, and could be a build up of leaves in the air vent after three consecutive autumns since the pipe was fitted. This pipe is fixed to our side extension, which means it's much closer to the trees than it would have been before the extension was built.
Am I anywhere close to being correct about what is causing this? I feel I'm the only person who is putting 2+2 together.
Thank you!
The side of the house (where the tall black 'air vent' pipe is) is about 3 metres from the boundary fence, which is bordered by our neighbour's tall ash trees (small leaves - relevant!).
About 2 months ago, I noticed a rotten smell coming form the kitchen drain. It's a 1.5 bowl sink and sits next to the dishwasher. The smell came very specifically from the half sink and smelt like something decomposing - food I guess. When I thought about it, there was also a sulphur smell coming from this general area when the downstairs toilet was flushed (irrespective of what was flushed, but only occurring first thing in the morning).
At the same time, I noticed a 'roar' when the ensuite toilet was flushed upstairs first thing in the morning. This roar was new and there was a two or three second delay between flushing the toilet and the roar, which appeared to come from the garage below (where all the main pipework enters and leaves the house). There was also an odd noise when the water was run in the main kitchen sink (hot or cold) and the kitchen sink is bubbling when the bath upstairs is drained.
I mentioned all of these things to my husband, who took off the u-bend for the small sink and cleaned it without any improvement in the smell.
I called a plumber who came recommended. I mentioned everything I've told you here and he said he thought that the problem was the dishwasher and it's trap. He didn't take any pipes off, look or listen to anything or seem to take seriously any of the other noises or smells, none of which I feel can be linked to the dishwasher.
He recommended we call a dishwasher service guy. When I rang him, he said it was very unlikely to be the dishwasher because 'it's a Bosch' and 'they don't have problems with traps.'
We called Dynorod to look at the drains. They took off the manhole cover on the driveway and said they could see nothing wrong. They were unable to camera the drains because they couldn't remove the other drain cover at the side of the house - this is being fixed next week to allow them access.
So we have all of these weird problems. The sulphur smell in the kitchen was pretty intense this morning (sent the kids running from the room!).
I think it's something to do with the air vent on the side of the house. I wonder if it's blocked by leaves. The problem came on at the same time that the trees were losing their leaves this autumn, and could be a build up of leaves in the air vent after three consecutive autumns since the pipe was fitted. This pipe is fixed to our side extension, which means it's much closer to the trees than it would have been before the extension was built.
Am I anywhere close to being correct about what is causing this? I feel I'm the only person who is putting 2+2 together.
Thank you!
