Really vile smell in new house

[Nc58985]

We moved into a new house yesterday and at the end of the day noticed a really vile fishy smell in the downstairs toilet (one sink, one toilet, fan, no window).

Called an emergency electrician out as we were worried it was an electrical fault / burning wires etc. but he checked out all the electrics in the bathroom and ground floor and said it was all fine and no burning.

Any ideas what could be causing the smell?!

We chucked soda crystals down the plugs last week when we got the keys. But maybe it is a drainage issue.

Help!

Another tip to say check the vent pipe for the toilet, and pipes generally. If the vent has a crack towards the outside of the house, even if it doesn't look like a bad one, it can have odd effects on the gas and make unpleasant smells. Had this in a downstairs bathroom, we taped up a crack but the toilet can smell of either sulphur or weed. I was sure that it was weed smoking from a window opposite the loo window but would go outside when it was really strong inside, and find no similar smell outside. Sometimes it made me feel quite ill, especially if putting bleach down (not only because it was nasty, I think the bleach reacted). So worth fixing any pipe cracks.

@Ormally Thanks for the advice! I’ll check this out too.

Old light fittings can give off a very fishy odour, is the smell there all the time or only when the light is on?

Dodgy electrics can give off a fishy smell.

There's not an easy way to check short of sticking a pipe-cleaner down and seeing if it comes up dry, or undoing the u-bend/p-bend. But just run some water into each of them and the u-bend will fill up immediately - you might even be able to hear it doing so.

Pour a full tub of Caustic Soda (Amazon doesn't sell it, you can only get it from Hardware stores or B&Q/Homebase) into a bucket of water (whilst wearing rubber gloves with extractor fan ON!) and mix with something that you don't use for food. Pour down drains & toilet and leave for min 30 mins and then run tap & flush toilet.
The water in the bucket will get hot even if you use cold water - perfectly normal. Try not to breathe it in!

This is what plumbers will often try first. If this doesn't work then I'm guessing it either isn't a drainage issue or if it is, then it's a major drainage issue. It is good for your pipes to have a flush out with caustic soda every now & then anyway! So won't be a waste of time even if it doesn't solve the issue

*stir with something you don't use for food, I meant!

I believe it could be the paint on the walls. It's not an uncommon problem.

Is it smelling at different times? I had a problem with the downstairs toilet smelling of sewerage after a shower upstairs, found that there wasnt a vent on the soil pipe and the smells were coming back into the house.
Also, be very careful with caustic soda, it's nasty stuff, don't just throw it down there. I had a congealed lump eat through our toilet bend.

I know you’ve had the electrics checked @Nc58985 but this happened to me too. I pinned it down to the light fitting. When the electrician came out he said he’d never heard of it being an issue before - but certainly, that is what it was!

He changed the light fitting and all was ok.

@ThePumpkinPatch Thanks for the tip!

@jalopy The walls don’t look like they’ve been painted for years although we did just fill in holes with a poly filler thing and sand them down. Although we did that in every room in the house and no other rooms smell bad

@SirYawnsAlot Im not actually sure. I’ve been avoiding going in and currently have a strong Reed diffuser in there to mask the smell. I’ll have to take a look at whether it does come and go - I’d never thought to do that.

@LastThingINeed22 Part of me still thinks surely electric is the easiest answer. I guess we could pay another electrician to come out. Im still inwardly sobbing at how expensive the night time emergency electrician visit was when we first clocked the smell and worried that an electrical fire was imminent! Glad you got yours sorted out!

No need for the electrician to come out again, if you sniff the fitting that the bulb is in once it has been on for a while and has therefore warmed up you'll soon know ( or have one thing eliminated lol). New fitting just unscrews and is easily replaced xx