Plumbing advice, please

[MrsMuddle]

I thought there was a DIY topic, but I can't find it, so apologies if this is in the wrong place.

Out shower unit is slow to drain, and there's a foul, rotten egg smell coming up from the plughole. I've been to B&Q and bought various bits and pieces, in an effort to avoid calling out a proper plumber.

One of the things I bought is a flexible rod that goes down the pipe and pokes blockages away. Underneath the shower tray, there is a tray filled with water (I mean, under floor level - visible through the plug hole). My question is, how do you know what direction the outlet-type pipe goes in, so that I can stick the rod in it?

I don't think I'm explaining this very well. I'm on my third glass of wine. But if anyone can help, I'd be very grateful.

OK, I know it's really boring for a Friday night, but does anyone know...?

I am assuming you've tried something like a drain cleaner. I bought one that was like little granules with flecks of metal in it. You poured some down the plug hole and left it for a while. It's self heating and melts away any blockage. (Got it from Tesco)

Perhaps before you start prodding and poking with a rod!

Yes, tried drain cleaner. I think there's definitely something stuck. My hair, probably. I have got caustic soda, and if the prodder doesn't work, I'll use that tomorrow.

Thanks for answering. It was the dullest question I've ever asked here.

I've used a few hair-melting type things. Bathroom plughole unblocker things. God knows what they do to the dolphins, but I've only used them a couple of times.

Pulling out that tangle of foul -smelling matted hair will be one of the most satisfying things you will ever do.

mrsmaidamess, depsite gagging as I did it, I did find it satisfying to pull out the big clump of hair and black slime!!

The smell is still there, though.

Have you tried plunging it? Pouring soda crystals, vinegar and boiling water down it?

Tried everything. It drains fine now, but smell is spreading. Looks like we may have a cracked sewage pipe under our house. It's a victorian house and the pipes are still clay. Last time we had a blockage it was because tree roots hag grown through the slighly porous pipes and blocked it.

Ho hum - that'll be another few hundred pounds down the drain. Literally!

Okay, it's probably not the blockage causing the problem. Showers have a trap which holds a small amount of water, the object being to stop water returning from the waste pipe. If the water table is high in your area (ie if you've had flooding after the snow) you may have sewerage returning from your stench pipe - urgh!

Does it smell sweet (not nice sweet, nasty sweet like dead things?)

It smells like those rotten egg stink bombs you used to be able to buy. Like sulphur. I live in Glasgow. It rains constantly. I have webbed feet.

Do you think I could leave it for a few days and see if it goes away?

bump

MrsMuddle - I am over here from the other drain thread after following your link.

The smell is something rotten - no doubt about that. I suspect that the source of the smell is sewage as others say. Rotting faces produce SO2 and H2S which smells of rotten eggs. Possibly the main outfall pipe from your loo is partly blocked and the sewage is therefore slightly backing up the shower outlet pipe which is usually drained into the loo outfall pipe for convenience.

If this shower and loo is on the ground floor the fall will be very shallow and blockages or very slow partial drainage is very common. We have exactly the same problem in our house. Absolutley stinks in the bathroom when it blocks up. I have to go outside and lift up the manhole cover and dig out the drain with a spade and then jet it out with a garden hose. Babywipes are major problem in blocking slow flowing shallow fall outfall pipes - such as those that flow under bathroom floors installed under stairs or in the centre of a house a long way from outside walls and drains.

If you had broken sewer pipes under the house the whole house would smell when it rained. I have had that in another house. Found the open sewer was leaking and overflowing under the dining room floor.

The only other thing I can think of is that the water running out of your shower tray is leaking through (perhaps where the pipe joins on) and forming a pool of stagnant dirty water under the shower tray that is creating a smell.

To work out which way the drain goes... walk outside and see where the soil stack is.... it will be in a direct line ( unless the plumber was a numpty)

Pooling might be caused by the drop to the soil stack being too shallow, the trap being blocked. If it is a persistant proble you may have to have the drop gradient increased ( fairly straight forward if your bathroom is on 2nd floor) or a waste pump put on your shower (cost about £250 -500 + VAT and labour)

The pooled water will have stopped the smell coming to the surface (think how a S bend on a bog keeps the smell out), so when you unblocked it then the gas of the rotting stuff (normally hair and grease) in the pipe escaped. Give it a few days, if it is still bad try thick bleach.

Thanks both of you. The main bathroom is on the ground floor, so I suspect there is some sort of blockage.

Ani, don't know about the plumber being a numpty, but there is a new-ish (before we lived here) extension, and I suspect the builder could have been a numpty. We have a long, wide drive, covered in layers and layers of stones, and there's not a manhole cover to be seen. When we had a kitchen blockage, we had to pay loads extra for dynorod to actually locate the drain cover!

I have convinced myself that the smell's not so bad, but I think I am just getting used to it.

Yuk, yuk, yuk.