smell emanating from bathroom - Page 2

Hi 

I've had no further troubles specifically with the bathroom since moving in. I put disinfectant down the loo and kept flushing and luckily it seems to have solved the problem. I'm still living between here and the UK and there's always a stuffy smell when I return, the house usually unoccupied for a while but I've got good neighbours here.

Good luck I hope you don't need to do a renovation.

Julie

Make sure the traps of the bath, shower and sinks are all full. Put lots of bleach down. Chances are things have dried out. Your Aircon may have a condensation trap which again may have dried out. Use air freshners and persevere. Is quite common in properties that lie idle.

The handyman is being economical with the truth.

Was this aimed at my comment? Care to expand?

I agree with everything you said. I was commenting on an earlier response which quoted that the home did not have traps fitted.

I did not see your name until just now when I read your question. I did not mean you at all. Sorry if it looked like I was referring to you.

Hi Julie,

I had exactly the same thing last year when my villa was empty for 2 months. The smell seemed to come up from the shower area. I had a plumber check it and there didn't seem anything wrong.  I started to use the shower (which is downstairs) rather than the bathroom upstairs and the smell disappeared after about 4 or 5 days.  I also poured bleach down it every evening.  Hope yours is smelling better now!

Paula

I have had an intermittent problem with a smell coming from my top floor toilet.  I traced it mainly to the shower drain.  I initially put down bicarb of soda and vinegar to clean out the pipe and it worked.  This year though I could not get rid of the smell despite using it and then bleach which left  strong bleach smell for days as well as the underlying sewer smell.  I eventually unscrewed the shower drain cover only to find that the silicone seal around the trap was worn and disintigrating.  I resealed it with silicone and it solved my problem.  I have also taken the advice of others who recommended putting fresh silicone around the base of the toilets as it appears that the smell can eminate from there too.  Since then I have had no real issues with the odour although I do run the water regularly when I return to the property after being empty for a number of months.  As for the cockroaches I have just returned to Spain to inspect my property after the gota fria and have found  a cockroach infestation on my terraces and in my basement. I have been constantly cleaning up droppings and several cockroach egg cases.  I have noted a few on previous occasions but not to the extent  they are now, being a lot worse, and I am having real difficulties in trying to eradicate them.  I have also noticed along walkways on many of the streets cockroach droppings  so it looks like there is a more widespread problem with them in the Playa Flamenca area.

An update to the post I made about black marks on a shower screen, which appeared overnight... The update is also relevant to these posts.

It may come as no surprise that the plumbing arrangements here in Spain are very different to the UK. The way the waste is plumb is that in most cases the shower waste is connected via a T joint (90 deg joint) rather than a 45deg joint (think slip road on to the motorway). This creates an issue in that the shower waste (often applies to the bidet and washbasins also) get some backwash of debris as it passes down the main soil stack.

I physically witnessed this and saw the water gurgle slightly over the plug area of the shower drain.

My response to this, for the unused outlets (showers and bidets mainly), is to remove the drain cover (typically chrome plug arrangement) and seal the underside with clear parcel tape, before replacing it back.

This stops the smells, the backwash and ultimately keep the air free from the bacteria that it must have been spewing out!

Obviously goes without saying that you need to remember to remove the tape if you are going to use the shower or bidet etc.

So, in addition to the u-bend drying out... hence why the smell often goes if you run water, I have found that sealing up this outlet really helps.

The plug hole assembly usually has one fixing screw in the centre and I sued parcel tape but I would think cling film or any other plastic would do the job equally as well.

Not ideal of course, but it is an aid to remedy the problem 

Hope it helps!

Hi, If and when you leave your property I have been told to cover you toilet with cling film to slow the evaporation of the water in the bowl and put all the plugs in the sinks and baths. hope this helps anybody.