there is a smell in my bathroom

[gymboywalton]

and it's driving me insane
it smells just like damp towel-you know when they go all musty?
however there are not damp towels or flannels in the bathroom

the room is clean, i have even taken the seal off the shower screen and cleaned it all in case there was grot trapped

it seems to be getting worse and when i walk in the house, it's the first thing i smell

any ideas please to help me solve the mystery?

please?

The plug holes/shower drain. Put some disinfectant or bleach (if you use it) down. Clean out the shower drain. I can't think what else it could be.

Hate to say it but we had a similar smell and it turned out the toilet pan was slowly leaking. It had been leaking for months and was gradually soaking the floor (which was covered by tiles so not noticed). It wasn't until I was vacuuming one day and the Hoover actually lifted a tile off the floor that the problem was revealed.

We had something similar and it was the sink.
I put a bit of thin bleach down it and let the hot tap run for a minute.

Clean it!

What's the flooring? Can you lift it to check for a leak underneath? I'd be worried about floorboards getting wet and rotting.

Are you sure it's the bathroom? You say it's the first thing you smell when you enter the house, presumably you don't enter your house through the bathroom. Could it be emanating from anywhere else?

Def the bathroom

Have put drain foamed down both sink and bath tonight so fingers crossed it helps. Bathroom floor is vinyl but all sealed round loo, walls etc so can't see where water could get under.

Bathroom is clean!

Our bath stinks if it isn't used for a few days - grunge in the plug trap thingy I think. It usually goes if I pour a bit of bleach down and leave it overnight.

Drove me mad for ages though as it came and went - I was convinced it was under the lino or behind the bath panel and came very close to ripping the bathroom apart!

MDF really stinks if it gets wet. Try to have a peek at the floor.

I had a similar experience to the one up the thread, it was a slow leak from under the bath, smelt just like damp towels, took ages for us to work out where it was coming from and ages to fix.

Is your sink pedestal boxed in?

I had the same issue once and eventually found a flannel behind the pedestal. It had somehow been tucked in around the pipes. As soon as I threw out the flannel (way too rank to even boil wash) and cleaned round with bleach water the smell disappeared.

Fingers crossed it is something as easily resolvable as that rather than a leak under floor. I had one of them too at one point. No evidence of it in the bathroom, not even a smell. It was the increasing stain on the ceiling of the kitchen, beneath the bathroom, that indicated that all was not well!

take off the bath panels and have a look for leaks/dead mice.

disassemble the bath and sink P traps and give them a good clean.

you see-taking off the bath panel sounds like an easy move but it's a wooden one which is sealed to the floor and walls etc so taking it off is a HUGE deal

smell certainly better since did foaming stuff but still there

taking off bath panels is rarely easy...

you really do need to tackle it though, and find a better way of securing it. Not good to have no access to plumbing.

We had this. DH took the trap off the sink. The stink was vile and full of hairs and muck. No mount of bleach will get rid of it- perhaps try this?

well-doing the foamr thing seems to have worked because the smell has gone! thank good ness!
i would have no idea how to remove a trap-what IS a trap??