bad smell from kitchen drain

[downthedrain]

Hello,

We live in a 3rd floor flat and about two months ago we started to smell something foul on and off, especially when we got home or hadn't used the water for a while, in our kitchen area. Took a while to figure out where it was coming from but it seems to be the kitchen drain, although it's also stinky around the back of the washing machine too. Our drains weren't blocked at all and after a few weeks of the smell it suddenly disappeared. I found out that the ground floor flat had had a blocked drain and had to call an emergency plumber. After that the smell had eased up in our flat but only a day afterwards so I'm not sure if this is related or not. Anyway a couple more days later and the smell started to return and it just keeps getting worse. I've tried putting drain unblocker down our drain even though it's not blocked and it did seem to help for about a day but it's hard to tell as the smell always comes and goes. I took the pipe apart under the sink and cleaned but that didn't do anything really. I also tried running the laundry machine with some vinegar and ran it a few times with no clothes in but that didn't change anything.

I also asked the people in the middle flat if they were having a bad smell and they said no. They are heavy smokers so I don't know if they'd notice it as much but it's so strong that I would think they would.

Basically I'm trying to figure out if the problem is in our flat or if it's coming from below because if I call a plumber and it's not in our flat then I've wasted my money. The ground floor is rented out by the council and the people who live there don't speak english so it's difficult for me to talk to anyone about it but should I talk to the owner of the ground floor or call a plumber for my flat?

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[migoplumber]

maybe an open end somewhere, or an empty trap. have a sniff in all of your apppliances and try to narrow it down.

shaun

 

[downthedrain]

Thanks so much for your reply, I'm completely ignorant about this stuff, when you say an empty trap what do you mean?

Thanks again

 

[stevetheplumber]

the trap or u bend as its known ,under each appliance is filled with water which acts as a seal against smells from the drains getting back to your flat
if your away for a long period these can evaporate letting smell in
other causes usually involve the design of your pipe work most coimmon fault that i see is double sinkunits with two traps going to the same waste pipeusing one trap sucks the water from the other

 

[downthedrain]

Hmmm, ours is an S shape trap with just a single sink (plus a small pipe from the draining board which joins the pipe before the bend) and I can't see any kind of vent under there. Should there be one? We've lived here for almost 2 years and this problem just started 2 months ago so what could have caused the change? Oh one more thing, our sink often makes a gurgling sound even when we haven't used it for a while, but it's always done that. Could that indicate that the plumbing isn't set up right?

Thanks again

 

[Mike Jackson]

The gurgling sound is air being drawn through the trap due to poor design or partial blockage in the pipework. This can lead to loss of trap seal. I would be inclined to replace the trap with a HepVo valve as this overcomes poor drainage design.

Mike

 

[downthedrain]

Ok, guess I'll have someone in to look at it, thanks everyone for your help!