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Question:

bathroom sink, smell coming form the drain?

i smell a bad smell form the drain of my sink... i believe the contractor who installed it forgot to block off one of the pipes or something. suggestions on what might be the cause of the bad smell?

Answer:

i have that problem before. it is caused by bacteria that has formed a biofilm on the pipes. what i did to get rid of the smell is to pour half a gallon of vinegar in there and add some baking soda. leave it overnight and then wash it away.
There are no pipes to forget to block off in the sink the air vent could have had a plug in it could have caused an vent to be plugged but other then this, there is just another way the vent could be blocked, Running a garden hose down the roof vent and the turning it on periodically may solve the problem.
There is probably a fault in the hydraulics design of the drain system which is causing the water seal in the trap to be lost - usually when the lavatory is flushed (which is almost certainly on the same drain run). This allows sewer smellls to enter the house. You might need to look into fitting an air admittance valve (dervo) which would easily cure this - but you would be better getting someone to look at it for you if you do not know what yu are about. If it was me I would have the contractor back to sort it.
Hi Most bad smells on English fitted sinks emanate from the overflow system, also if you have two sink bowls the plumbing under the sinks for the combined waste outlets can be fitted incorrectly by the contractor ie sweep tee's fitted the wrong way round in should sweep in the direction of the water flow to the drain, most importantly there must be no back fall in the pipework it must have a fall towards the drain, also if you have the dish washer plumbed into the same drain pipework that can cause odour problems, You need a skilled plumber to cast is eyes on it and the problem should be easy for him to spot, you can bill the contractor. I against trade practise always bung of the overflow connection on my kitchen sinks they do not do the job they were meant for they are almost impossible to keep free of germs and smells its a total waste of time and tend to leak when the sink bowl is full you must always keep the water level below the overflow out let, if ever you left the tap running you would perhaps gain about two minutes before the water overflows the sink. After all that do you mean the outside drain gully? if you do the gully needs to be cleaned , that requires long arms and rubber gloves if the smells persist you have a drain problem , ie a dig up job, if the contractor did some underground work get him back to have a look.The bathroom sink smells usually come back through the overflow the same as the kitchen sink, you need to keep the trap under the sink spotless needs to been cleaned every few months the overflow itself is a source of smells and you need to squirt a cleaning fluid into the overflow out let, weekly cheers Bob a job

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