Considered These Top 3 Causes of Stinky Drains and Smelly Water?

Nobody wants their plumbing and water to stink. Not only are the sewer odours unpleasant, the methane and bacteria they contain can be dangerous to your health.

Here are the top reasons you might be experiencing foul odours in your house.

1. The P-Trap and Venting Issues

To protect yourself from sewer gas seeping into your house, every drain in your place should have a properly vented P-trap.

A P-trap is the plumbing fixture that traps debris drained from the sink and creates a water seal in the bottom of its U-shape that allows fluid to flow into the overflow pipe but not backwards into the sink.

The trap prevents sewer gases from seeping back up the pipe into your residence.

But if for example, you have a guest bathroom that hasn’t been used for a while, the P-trap can dry out and allow the noxious odours to arise.

Or perhaps it the trap has lost its water seal because of a leak or something is siphoning the water out of the trap, such as a clump of long hair blocking water passage.

A proper vent system is crucial to the P-trap’s operation, especially since the pressure in sewer lines can fluctuate.

The vent permits air to come in and equalize the pressure, enabling sewer gases to go up the stack to the outside.

Without proper venting, water and air can be pushed through the P-trap and eventually, break the protective water seal, letting the noxious sewer smells in.

2. Bacteria Growth in the Water Heater

With its constantly moist interior, your water heater can be a source of rotten, sulfurous odours caused by bacteria growth. This can happen if your water heater hasn’t been use for a while or if your thermostat has been set too low, or perhaps by a corroded anode rod.

3. Drain and Sewer Line Problems

Drains can become blocked suddenly or slowly over time, emitting bad smells and overflowing.

Signs of impending drain blockage can be a gurgling sound when toilets or taps are used, or the shower area filling up as you use it, or toilet water that fills above its usual levels and drops under normal levels once flushed.

Leaks from rotted or cracked drain pipes, loose-fitting pipe connections, and sewer back-ups can also cause the rotten odors.

Sewer blockages can occur in the main line, in which case they are the city’s problem to deal with.

Or they can happen in the private line that runs from your residence to the main line, which means you must deal with it.

Common reasons for sewage backing up include flushing foreign objects down the toilet, such as oil and grease, cat litter, tampons and even baby diapers.