Smelly house

[Chris Bathroom]

Hi all , am after a bit of advice from anyone out there, have got a customer whose house has a sewer smell, all the time. Its an internal soil stack with a internal vent with one of those one way valve things (a.v.v) do they fail? x3 wcs and various sinks ,basins etc. Could the water from trap be getting sucked out, fit anti vac traps ? many thanks to you all , new to site today. Chris

 

[Dannypipe]

Yes they fail. Anti vac traps may help. I'd test the level in the available traps (if possible) after flushing the loo. If the syphonic action of the lav is sucking the water out the traps, it will stink in there.

 

[Chris Bathroom]

ok thanks for that, have thought about putting a trap ,u bend in under the house so it would stop the whole house smelling ,what do you think?

 

[Chris Bathroom]

Could also be washing machine sink pipe work ,stale water etc, sink water going into washing machine?

 

[Bartdude]

Does the house have just the one stack? If this is the case and the stack is only vented with AAV then that could be the problem. I've always followed the rule of having the furthest soil stack from the drain to be open vented and then any other stack in the property can have an AAV fitted.

My advice would be to remove the AAV and vent the stack through the roof conventionally,not the easiest option,you may need a roofer,but you'll be doing the job right.

 

[GQuigley67]

AAV's fail like any other mechanical moving part, not a big fan of them tbh i think if they are fitted they should be acsessible i.e by an access door.

 

[sparky]

Many new builds have solvent durgo's on stub stacks boxed and plastered! Got to b better to fit a push fit aav in these installs.

 

[GQuigley67]

Many new builds have solvent durgo's on stub stacks boxed and plastered! Got to b better to fit a push fit aav in these installs.

agreed with an access hatch, they are famous for jamming open so you have a permanent vent.

 

[tamz]

Don't put a trap in the 4" under the floor. It will choke at some point. Fix the vent problem or look for an open end.

 

[Chris Bathroom]

Does the house have just the one stack? If this is the case and the stack is only vented with AAV then that could be the problem. I've always followed the rule of having the furthest soil stack from the drain to be open vented and then any other stack in the property can have an AAV fitted.

My advice would be to remove the AAV and vent the stack through the roof conventionally,not the easiest option,you may need a roofer,but you'll be doing the job right.

Yes it is the only stack, might have to core drill wall and send it outside.thanks for help.

 

[Chris Bathroom]

thanks for that, its boxed and tiled in so will have to hack away, will replace aav first and see if theres an improvement.

 

[redbrick]

Does the house have just the one stack? If this is the case and the stack is only vented with AAV then that could be the problem. I've always followed the rule of having the furthest soil stack from the drain to be open vented and then any other stack in the property can have an AAV fitted.

My advice would be to remove the AAV and vent the stack through the roof conventionally,not the easiest option,you may need a roofer,but you'll be doing the job right.

I suspect that adding a second AAV higher up on the stack may solve the problem IF the old AAV is hard to access (remove or replace) and IF there is space for a second AAV at a level somewhat higher the the faulty one. If this worked it would save a lot of work (??). DMK

 

[Rickster123]

I'm guessing this is sorted mate but welcome to the forum.

 

[stevetheplumber]

when i first started in this game we had lovely sweet smelling drainswith a draught now with durgo's they stink of mould and mildew they shouldnt be allowed if its the only vent on a run just another way of doing the job cheap to allow developers to make more money

 

[AmritPedersen]

I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong. But always thought you always needespecially at least 1 svp open to air.

Yes it is the only stack, might have to core drill wall and send it outside.thanks for help.

 

[Kimou]

Sometimes people have hair in the traps which causes adhesion of water to drain absorbing through the hair and down the waste then leaving no effective trap.

I had another one where there was a toilet overflow with a made up trap using overflow elbows and pipe out to the drain. The water in the made up trap had evaporated and let all the drain smells into the house. No one knew why until I made it overflow refilling the trap and problem solved.

 

[Mike Jackson]

If the drains are on a shared system 1 in 4 properties needs to be vented to atmosphere.

 

[Plum Bob 66]

Old thread, hope they sorted it by now !