Sorry it's long -- want to give all the background. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This is frustrating the crap out of us.
Summary: sewer smell coming from the shower drain after we use it, goes away after an hour or two; inspection of the plumbing and the vent by plumbers show no issue; the smell remains.
2020 we bought a 100 year old house. Renovated everything, including all new plumbing. PVC everything.
For three and a half years everything was fine.
A couple months ago we noticed a bad smell when we'd take a shower. Smelled to us like sewer gas. That plus some slow draining made us think it was a clog.
We had a plumber come out and get it cleaned out. They removed a ton of gunk and put in some kind of "enzyme treatment." Started draining fine and the smell went away. But only for a little bit.
Within a week the smell was coming back.
We tried some home remedies. Baking soda and vinegar. Bleach. Didn't help.
So we called the same plumbers back out to investigate further.
They went under the house and inspected the plumbing. They said all is well underneath. They said the next step was to inspect the vent, but they didn't have the equipment for it. We made another appointment for them to come back out.
After this visit we stopped using the shower in question. Had some scheduling trouble so it was over a week before they could come back.
They showed up and ran the water for a solid five to ten minutes. Of course now there's no smell. But they went ahead and inspected the vent anyway. They went into the attic, cut into the vent, and ran the camera down. They said there's no problems they could see with the camera.
At this point they said they were at the end of what they could do. They said the next thing would be to get a smoke test (but they don't do that).
I went back to using the shower since the smell was gone (and I was hoping the problem had magically healed itself).
First shower (a few hours after the plumbers ran the water): no problem.
Second shower (the next morning): the smell was back.
I got down on my hands and knees and put my nose to the drain.
1000% this is where the smell is coming from.
I emailed the original plumbers and told them my observations. Was very nice and made it clear I wasn't mad; just confused by the situation. I asked if they had any further advice. They said that it could be a bad tile job that caused water to get between the tile and the pan of the shower.
So here's where I am:
1. The smoke test doesn't make sense to me since it is clear that the smell is coming from the drain (when the guy recommended that, we couldn't reproduce the smell so not throwing stones on that). My understanding of a smoke test is that it's good for finding the source of a smell when you don't know where it's coming from. Not the case here.
2. The thing about the tile doesn't make sense to me either. Seems that if that was the issue it would smell like mildew, not sewer. That said, visually it looks like the tile isn't sealed properly. Grout is crumbling in spots. And the tile subcontractor sucked, so if he screwed it up it wouldn't surprise me.
Feels like this should be relatively straightforward. We know where the smell is coming from and when it happens... not sure if the plumbers could've missed something or what.
Summary: sewer smell coming from the shower drain after we use it, goes away after an hour or two; inspection of the plumbing and the vent by plumbers show no issue; the smell remains.
2020 we bought a 100 year old house. Renovated everything, including all new plumbing. PVC everything.
For three and a half years everything was fine.
A couple months ago we noticed a bad smell when we'd take a shower. Smelled to us like sewer gas. That plus some slow draining made us think it was a clog.
We had a plumber come out and get it cleaned out. They removed a ton of gunk and put in some kind of "enzyme treatment." Started draining fine and the smell went away. But only for a little bit.
Within a week the smell was coming back.
We tried some home remedies. Baking soda and vinegar. Bleach. Didn't help.
So we called the same plumbers back out to investigate further.
They went under the house and inspected the plumbing. They said all is well underneath. They said the next step was to inspect the vent, but they didn't have the equipment for it. We made another appointment for them to come back out.
After this visit we stopped using the shower in question. Had some scheduling trouble so it was over a week before they could come back.
They showed up and ran the water for a solid five to ten minutes. Of course now there's no smell. But they went ahead and inspected the vent anyway. They went into the attic, cut into the vent, and ran the camera down. They said there's no problems they could see with the camera.
At this point they said they were at the end of what they could do. They said the next thing would be to get a smoke test (but they don't do that).
I went back to using the shower since the smell was gone (and I was hoping the problem had magically healed itself).
First shower (a few hours after the plumbers ran the water): no problem.
Second shower (the next morning): the smell was back.
I got down on my hands and knees and put my nose to the drain.
1000% this is where the smell is coming from.
I emailed the original plumbers and told them my observations. Was very nice and made it clear I wasn't mad; just confused by the situation. I asked if they had any further advice. They said that it could be a bad tile job that caused water to get between the tile and the pan of the shower.
So here's where I am:
1. The smoke test doesn't make sense to me since it is clear that the smell is coming from the drain (when the guy recommended that, we couldn't reproduce the smell so not throwing stones on that). My understanding of a smoke test is that it's good for finding the source of a smell when you don't know where it's coming from. Not the case here.
2. The thing about the tile doesn't make sense to me either. Seems that if that was the issue it would smell like mildew, not sewer. That said, visually it looks like the tile isn't sealed properly. Grout is crumbling in spots. And the tile subcontractor sucked, so if he screwed it up it wouldn't surprise me.
Feels like this should be relatively straightforward. We know where the smell is coming from and when it happens... not sure if the plumbers could've missed something or what.
