You walk into your bathroom and noticed the smell of sewage coming from somewhere, but you don’t know where. You look around and the bathroom is sparkling clean, can you be imagining things? You walk over to the sink and lean down, but you don’t smell anything.
You then look to the toilet, shower, and tub to try and identify the source of the offensive odor, but no luck. Next, you squeeze some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet and give it a good cleaning, even though you cleaned the bathroom the day before.
While the fragrance in the toilet bowl cleaner masks the smell for a few minutes, it starts to sneak back. Now the smell is unmistakable and no amount of running the fan, spraying an air freshener or scrubbing will get rid of it. So, why does your bathroom smell like a sewer?
What’s causing the foul odor?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a definitive answer because there can be a number of causes and without being there, it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of the foul odor.
Aside from the odor being unpleasant, the methane in sewer gas is not only flammable in large quantities, but it’s not good to breathe it in either.
The good news is that once you identify the cause of the bad smell, it shouldn’t be too difficult or expensive to correct. Essentially, if there’s a sewage smell in your bathroom, it means that something in the plumbing system isn’t working right. If you’re lucky, it’ll be a quick fix.
Possible culprits:
- The water in the P-trap (sink, tub, or shower) has evaporated
- A leak in or around the P-trap
- Clogged Drain
- Broken seal (toilet)
- Blocked roof vent
- Improperly installed a vent pipe
- Cracked vent pipe
- Time to call a Kansas City plumber!
If you’re not sure of the exact cause of the sewage smell in your bathroom, then contact A-1 Sewer & Septic Service Inc. to schedule a service call with one of our friendly, experienced plumbers!
