[Natacha]

We have just bought a very old town house of over 300yrs with all water and sewage into one exit pipe into the town sewer. There are no leaks and all pipes and joints can be seen as dry and clean. All water is free flowing and no blockages.

There is a VERY bad sewage smell that comes and goes several times a day in the house with the bottom of three floors being the worst.

The toilet is constructed with no breather pipe and is sealed down to the street with bathroom and kitchen water joining to this one main pipe. The u-bends to the sinks are an old shallow system but where the worst smell is the only sink has a good deep u-bend. HELP!! ANY IDEAS

 

[kenmac]

.. Could be problems with the venting,,, Bad /leaking traps...House plumbing that old.. Hard to tell.Have you had all plumbing checked/cleaned ??

 

[jomama45]

2 reasons I've seen before for odor.

- Dry (water evapped) traps in toilet, floor drain, etc...

- Old waste or vent lines buried in walls that weren't capped decent or the cap failed. This scenario is hard to find.

 

[Mr Chips]

have your vent system checked for leaks with a smoke machine

if you can't find anyone with a smoke tester, you can test by plugging the main drain to the house, and all roof vents
then go to your first floor toilet and fill the bowl with water, then wait an hour or two. if you have no leaks, (and there is water in all the traps) that toilet should remain full for a couple hours

 

[Plumber101]

Had a very simular job. Found the Vent stack rusted out/cracked about 6 ft from the top of the vent termination. Cut wall open and replace the pipe. The way we found this was to camera the vent from the top down. All cast iron drains and vents. T'was a real beach to find.

 

[loneframer]

When you flush the non vented toilet it is sucking the water out of the trap to get air behind water. Try an inline vent wth a backflow preventer, available at home depo, you may have a time with the old plumbing, but it should stop the trap from getting sucked dry.:thumbsup:

 

[Plumber101]

When you flush the non vented toilet it is sucking the water out of the trap to get air behind water. Try an inline vent wth a backflow preventer, available at home depo, you may have a time with the old plumbing, but it should stop the trap from getting sucked dry.:thumbsup:

Most toilets today also provide a water source while the tank is filling to replace water frrom the trap that was removed when flushed.

 

[loneframer]

Most toilets today also provide a water source while the tank is filling to replace water frrom the trap that was removed when flushed.

I thought it was a sink trap that was getting sucked out.:thumbsup: