Bathroom smelling after using washing machine

[Sue66]

A young girl called me to her small ground floor flat to investigate a really bad sewage smell coming from her bathroom after she uses the washing machine which is in a cupboard next to the bathroom. She said the washing machine and bathroom have been there since she moved in 3 years ago and this smell has just started. I advised her that there could be muck in her waste pipes and maybe it's pulling the water out the traps when it's emptying and to stick some drain cleaner down the plug holes. She tried this and the smell stopped after she uses the washing machine which was great.

However now she is saying that after she is using the dishwasher in the kitchen the smell has reappeared in the bathroom.

Any ideas?

Problem is that it's one of these new bathrooms that's all tiled and you can't get to any of the pipes anywhere without smashing it apart.

I have to go back there and try some stronger cleaner but am I off the beaten track?

 

[Deleted member 96286]

I had a job with similar issues. Every so often there was a foul drainage smell in the bathroom. The kitchen with fitted appliances was next door. After much investigation and getting nowhere, I told my customer that the only way to find out the problem was to remove some of the floor tiles in the bathroom, lift a section of the floor and also the tiled bath panel. It turned out to be the pipe from the washing machine next door had come away and wasn't connected to anything. Every time the washing machine was used, the drainage water was running under the floor and not going to the drain. Most of it soaked away into the founds, but every now and then it built up into a sewage puddle and then the smells happened.
Basically if your customer wants the problem solved, then a proper survey is required, and suspected areas exposed even if they are tiled. Tiles are easier to replace in the long run than rotten joists and floors.
I hate that drain cleaning crap. It damages the environment and as a keen trout angler, our waterways have more than enough to contend with.

 

[rpm]

Dishwasher machine cleaner? Or disconnect the outlet hose from the trap and go in there to clean the pipe to the drain.

 

[Sue66]

Ok thanks guys

 

[skoronesa]

Either a vent is plugged or the drain is partially clogged. My money is on the drain being clogged so sewer gas gets forced out another trap.

Can you run a snake down the washer drain line?