Why does my bathroom smell?

[TheWelshDragon]

I live in a small terraced house, rented. It's not in good condition, a lot of damp, but all I can afford.

The bathroom smells of drains most of the time. Its a tiny built on bathroom, very cold, with shower cubicle, hand basin and toilet. I regularly use the plunger on the shower plughole as it starts not draining well every couple of weeks, and also put bleach down after plunging.

Any ideas?

I hate artificial air freshener but have resorted to this .. sadly it only part masks the smell.

Mine gets like this. The pipes get manky because they are basically horizontal rather than sloping down (because they have a long way to go) so stuff builds up in them.

If you can afford it get someone out to blast them out and get rid of anything. That should help.

The underside of the toilet rim got very smelly in my last house. Was a bugger to get to to clean but I put a paste of bicarb up there and that did the trick.

I'd do Mr muscle sink and drain unblocker instead of bleach as bleach doesn't do much to get rid of a thick buildup of gunk in the pipes.

Thanks for the replies. I can't afford to get anyone out to look at the pipes.

You can buy a long pokey thing (I'm an expert in plumbing, as you can tell) if you wanted to have a go yourself.

Or get some of the professional drain cleaner stuff. Most hardware stores sell it. Basically sulphuric acid, so you need to be careful using it but ut should shift anything down there

This kind of thing

www.screwfix.com/p/plumbing-tools-by-rothenberger-pipe-drain-cleaning-coil/65766?tc=AL1&ds_rl=1249796&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249481&gclid=CjwKCAiA7JfSBRBrEiwA1DWSGxkR9zskfuzmpBWs9FD-6vD3V4ld8rfTSILbticiMlbYsDuZYDR1EhoCkqYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLThlaXCr9gCFY2jUQodVJgG0w

washing soda crystals into the plughole and overflow once a week.

Moisten them with a bit of hot water and leave overnight.

the next day, rinse away with hot water.

It breaks down the fat and soap residue,

I've put soap crystals down the wash basin plug and shower and run the water as hot as it will go. Will repeat tomorrow.

Thanks.

I heat water on the cooker occasionally and pour it down drains, and it does seem to help!! Depends on how hot your hot water is normally....

It could be that you have a leak in the trap pipe (not sure if this is the correct term). From my understanding this should always be filled with water to prevent gasses and sewer type smells coming up the pipe. We had a problem with awful sewer smells in one of our bathrooms and I seem to remember the plumber suggesting this might be the case. As it happened the smell was being emitted because the taps hadn't been run for a long time and the water in the trap had evaporated allowing this awful smell to manifest itself. It truely stank. All we needed to do was run the taps and the smell disappeared.

I don't t think it can be that. Our shower is used every day.

Will boiling water poured down the shower plughole damage it in some way, ie melt the pipe below or something?

the pipe will withstand it, but an acrylic bath will soften and might be damaged.

Ceramic sanitaryware may crack.

Hence my use of the word "hot" rather than "boiling"

The cleaning is done by the solution of soda crystals lying in the waste trap overnight.

Do you have a shower trap in the drain (like a plastic cup)? If you do, make sure it's full of water at all times as this helps stop the smells rising.

I don't know if there's a trap but there's usually water stood there.

Piglet what do you mean by overflow?

in baths and basins, there is almost always a hole near the top for water to escape into the waste pipe if you leave the plug in and the tap running. Showers don't usually have one as they have no plug.

They can accumulate soap, grease and hair.

Ah ok, thanks!

So far today no smell

Wash the bath mat. Just in case.

I wash it regularly, have 2 so I can swap them.

The bathroom still doesn't smell .. it usually would smell at some point during the day so hopefully the soap crystals have cleared it.