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My experiences in this area
I was going to start a new thread on the subject of bathroom odors but I found this and hope it's okay that I post my own experiences.
First incident with unexplained bad smells in the bathroom was a job I was on. At some time in the past a regular fiberglass bathtub had been removed and a tile shower enclosure fitted. The shower enclosure drain and water service was in a wall that served as a partition separating the commode area from the larger bathroom. The owner complained that after use the shower often smelled of sewer. I quickly determined that the shower floor tile was sodden and many of the tiles were loose or detached. After debating price the owner consented to tear out the shower tiles. After I pulled up the floor tiles I noted that the shower drain was connected to the pre-existing bathtub drain via a flexible coupling and a section of 1-1/2" PVC cemented into the shower pan with just the top of the pipe showing through the surface of the concrete. Again price was debated and excavation of the shower pan began. Long story short it turned out that there were TWO p-traps, one near the surface in the region of the shower drain and another below the shower pan that had served the tub. In effect the prior 'plumber' had created a pump that was pulling toilet waste up into the two p-traps with the resulting smell and poor drainage from the shower which explained the perpetually wet tile and thinset/grout failure. I dug everything out, installed a new 2" drain and p-trap.
Second incident was at our house. We went out to visit the kids and we all took a week trip to Ocean City Maryland back in August.
Attachment 483329
On our return we noted a sewer smell in the house so my first thought was dry traps. Filling them cleared the smell from the kitchen and guest bathrooms and the sink area of the master bath. The commode/shower area however still smelled badly - filling the traps there had little effect. I pulled the commode and the seal was fine. I also vacuumed out and scoped the shower drain and didn't find a problem. Next I went on the roof and snaked the vents, again no problem everything was clear. We cleaned all of the surfaces but the smell persisted but seemed to be getting slowly better. Time went on and my wife told me that the bathroom combination light / vent fan wasn't working. I checked it out and found that one light bulb (it has three) was out so I replaced it assuming that she was complaining of the burnt bulb. A couple of weeks later she again told me that the vent light wasn't working and that it was the fan that was out. I got up there today and found that I couldn't turn the blower so I pulled it down and this is what I found.
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Cotton rats are very common in our area and this one obviously made a bad decision. I also made a liberal application of bait blocks around the attic, can't have the little buggers chewing the wires.
Attachment 483331
Welcome to Texas.
