Regent Park Board —
The below information came from DPW and Williamson Plumbing.
The first possible cause of a sewage odor in your bathroom is by far the easiest to fix. If your bathroom fixtures haven’t been used recently (the sink in a guest bathroom or the tub in a bathroom with a separate shower, for example), it could be that the water in the P-trap has simply evaporated, removing the barrier between your bathroom and the gases in the sewer system. If that’s the case, the solution is as simple as running some water to allow the P-trap to fill up again. If you smell the odor in a bathroom that’s being remodeled, be sure to cap any open drain pipes until your new fixtures are installed.
If there’s still a sewage odor after you’ve run plenty of water down all the drains, or if you notice a sewage smell in a bathroom that gets regular use, you might want to check for leaks in or around the P-trap. If even a small amount of water has leaked out of the bottom of the “U,” sewage gases may be able to sneak in. Another possible cause that’s kind of gross but fairly easy to resolve is a clog in the drain, since the clog itself can become smelly.
DPW was contacted and there was no evidence of any issue with the main drain line. So this seems to be a Homeowner or Condominium Association issue.
To figure out what might be causing that awful smell, it helps to have a basic understanding of how your bathroom plumbing works.
- Toilet
- Sink
- Tub
- Vent pipe to the roof
- Drain pipe to main drain