Unused bathroom and disgusting smell

[purpleviolet1]

We have an ensuite with a guest bedroom and the bathroom is therefore very rarely used. It has a toilet, sink, bath and shower cubicle. This was a new build property when we bought it in 2003. There is this disgusting smell in there - almost like you get abroad from an open sewage. Any suggestions?? We have tried bleaching and drain cleaners...

Water in sink/shower trap will have evaporated and you have sewage smells coming up. Best to run fresh water through weekly when not in use.

Flush loo, run water in bath shower and sink weekly to avoid.

The smell will be coming from the shower drain which empties into the soil pipe.. Run the shower for a bit, the u bend will fill up with water and the smell will go.

It's not got a septic tank does it?

Sorry for the dumb question but what's a septic tank? I'll try running the showers bath and sink and flushing regularly but is there anything I should put down first?

This article has a diagram showing how a u bend works.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_(plumbing)

No such thing as a stupid question! I'm sure you'd know if your house has a septic tank, septic systems are more common in rural areas. They basically rot the toilet waste using bacteria. Sometimes they really stink when they've had chemicals etc poured down the loo and killed all the useful bugs. Someone will probably be along to tell me that I've got it all wrong . They were common in the area I grew up and the neighbours would swap stories of feeding raw steak to the septic tank to get it going again!

For smelly shower drains I'm quite a fan of a handful of soda crystals followed up with a kettleful of boiling water. I think that was one of Kim & Aggie's standbys.

(I didn't make it clear that I agree with the other posters, it's most likely the lack of water in the traps.)

I agree with the others - water in the u bend is probably evaporating - leading to the pong

Thanks all - I always thought it was coming from the toilet rather than the bath or shower drain. I'll get started tomorrow. Maybe run the water for a good 15 mins for a few days and then pour some stuff down and then do it regularly...

P.s quite sure it's not a septic tank!

You probably only need a few litres of water if it is the U bend as you just need to fill it up.

Thanks. I'll report back!

Soda crystals and white vinegar down all the plug holes and overflow openings.

Our ensure shower is rarely used. Every so often we put a bit of bleach down ans a kettlw of boiling water

I get this in my family bathroom. Dc shower so the bath is rarely used, and as other posters have said the water in the bath u bend evaporates. The water in the u bend forms a physical barrier betwren the drains and bathroom and if it evaporates smells come up from the drains.
Running the bath cold tap for a minute sorts it. You won't need anything else.

Thanks! Not had a chance to try yet as the water tank started leaking...

Well, I could try but been distracted with other things.

You don't need to room the water for 15 minutes, the trap will only hold about 500 mls Maximum. Just turn the taps and shower on for 30 seconds.

Thanks!

I don't recommend boiling water in the pipes- I think they are less resilient than they used to be and it can damage the plastic!

Fill up the traps. Also, I got to a point where that wasn't working anymore and I put a bit of Eco toilet cleaner down the drain. Worked a treat.

Also put some loo cleaner in toilet periodically, to prevent getting a ring of limescale.

It really helped ! Thank you!