Really strange problem RE: downstairs loo...

[skellem]

...and the person who solves it gets a bag of smarties and a noddy badge for "outstanding achievement"

The problem is a smell in the downstairs loo. Every now and again we get the most awfull smell in the loo. It smells like bad fish or worse! It doesn't happen that often, once or twice a week at the most. At first we thought it was our little girl, because she had just started using the loo by herself, and we thought she may have been missing the bowl!

It wasn't her. It now happens when she's not used the loo for ages. My wife cleans the floor and the toilet regularly and the smell keeps coming back! There are no leaks that I can see and all the plumbing is sound.

I'm really stumped, so if anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to mention them, no matter how bizzare (this is a bit of a bizzare problem!)

Ta,

Gunter.

 

[ArtfulBodger]

How exactly are you going to distribute the smarties and noddy badge?

 

[skellem]

How exactly are you going to distribute the smarties and noddy badge?

They will come in an unmarked brown package to the first person who manages to solve my problem (I'll need an address, obviously )

 

[cozzmic]

Have you checked that when the wc is flushed, is it pulling the trap on the basin allowing foul air up through it. Check all the seals round soil pipes wastes, if the wc is a close coupled type there may be a connection not closed off from the soil outlet to the top of the pan where the cistern sits
(this is for the ceramic to run in the mould when manufactured) if you have a push button flush valve the smell could come up the overflow.

 

[croydoncorgi]

Or maybe the open vent on the head of the main drain is blocked or non-existent and every now and then you get pressure and a bubble of sewer gas.....

If so, you need to investigate and fix it urgently. not only is sewer gas poisonous - it can also be explosive!

 

[ChrisR]

Have found a couple of birds' nests dropped down to the bend in the vent pipe causing this. Common problem. Solution is to get up there and put garden hose down, to flush the chicks etc down the drain- then put a wire balloon on top. If you have one already of course, its something else!

 

[big-all]

have you got any other creatures pets or children
leave kitchen paper around the bowl and sink to show moisture arround these areas
try carefully at a distance at first try sniffinng the areas around the toilet it could be the moisture from handwashing or other sources may be reactivating smells
also have you got a pubesent teenage boy who declines to wash well you know where i am going with this one smells a bit like vulcanised rubber[dont ask ]

 

[brumylad]

trap seal loss in basin or bath. Could be debris in the trap causing siphonage.