We moved into a new home recently, and we have been having issues that our shower drain smells sulphurous. This only seems to happen in the evening. We shower in the morning, use the facilities throughout the day, and there is no smell.
But when we come upstairs in the evening to brush our teeth and go to bed around 11:30pm - when we get up there, there is often a smell. Sometimes we’ve come up and there is no smell, but within a few minutes it really smells.
Each time we do different things. We’ve tried using our other shower in the morning. Sometimes there is no smell, we flush the toilet and a smell comes, other times the smell comes even if we’ve just run the sink. There seems to be no pattern other than the time.
I can’t see under the shower without dismantling tiles which I don’t want to do if I can avoid it. I’ve put unblocking chemicals down, plus bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, and the problem persists.
The *only* thing I can think is that the heating tends to go off at that time (our boiler has some issues so we are using it semi-manually).
Any clues? Anyone had this happen before?
We’re in an end of terrace Victorian era house that had some renovation work in the past 10-15 years.
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
You have a trap seal loss on the shower waste. It is likely that It is not seated correctly. There are many types of shower drain so it is hard for us to talk you through a dismantle and replace sequence to ensure a seal. Any decent plumber / bathroom installer would be able to fix this quickly and easily.
Hi. Most likely the siphon has not been fitted, what do I mean by the siphon? there are some models of shower drains that have a piece of plastic that is closed on one side but could also be open, depending on the model and is used to act as a siphon and to prevent the odors of the drain pipes from emerging. Surely those who have mounted the drain of the shower did not put this piece and without it you can smell the odors of the pipes. When you use the shower the odors will surely disappear for a while but after the pipes are empty without water and dry the smell returns. Look at this link, the piece in the photo with green color and the piece that probably no longer exists. Regards. https://www.ebay.it/itm/BONOMINI-Piletta-plates-shower-with-hole-60-mm-FRANCESINO-Exhaust-40-mm/284224568159?hash=item422d1abb5f:g:S5EAAOSwHWJgU8mx
Often water stops a smell entering from the waste pipes back into the bathroom. So for example water that sits in the toilet u bend, water in the bottle trap of your sink or water within your shower waste trap act as a barrier preventing smells.
So the smell is usually due to one of these running dry. This can often be either due to lack of use (do you often use your other bathroom?) a break down in a seal or crack in the shower or bottle trap, which allows water to escape down the waste rather then stay in the trap.
Normally a simple fix, just a case of investigation to find the cause
