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Brooksie

Can anyone help please!

Recently fiished installing a bathroom suit in the upstaires of a house but the customer says she can smell a poo type smell when lying in the bath. Unfortunately I can't smell the problem but her son says he too can smell it!

I used a flexi poo discharge pipe for the first time to link the toilet to the 110 mm discharge connection sticking out of the floor.

The toilet is a low level one with concealed cistern (which was a pig to fit) in a vanity type cabinet.

The bath has a compact trap (19 mm seal), the sink has a standard 32 mm p trap and the WC''s trap is built in

The main discharge pipe runs below the floor boards and the sink and bath wastes discharge vertically into this 110 mm pipe as it runs off to the main soil stack the far end of the neighbouring en-suit. There is very little fall on this pipe.

Is there a way of testing the system for air leakage from above the floorboards?
Are flexi poo pipes renound for splitting or malfuncyioning?
Is there a way of further sealing up where the 110 mm flexi joint meets the rigid 110 mm pipe connection.

Help and advise would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Brooksie
 
The most likely cause of a smell like this would be a loss of water in one of the traps ( bath or basin ), flexi wc connectors aren't ideal but they are generally sound. The way I'm reading it your bath/basin wastes are going into the horizontal run from the wc, it may be that when you flush the loo the rush of water is sucking the water from one of the traps which will then let foul air into the room. This may not be the exact scenario but its fairly likely your losing the water seal, flush the loo and visually check to see if the water is being sucked out of the traps. BTW i'm assuming this smell wasn't there before you did the work. Also assuming she hasn't s**t in the bath !
 
Brooksie, I couldn't tell from your post whether the S+V pipe is normally vented or whether there is a Durgo valve fitted. I mention this only because I went to house once with a similar problem you describe, and the installer had put a Durgo valve on top of the S+V in the bathroom boxed in with the vanity unit. It was stuck open allowing smells into the room, it's worth a look.
 
Most likely cause is the bath trap. Shallow bath traps shouldn't be used to connect to a soil stack. You need a trap with a 3" seal or equivalent. The smell is probably coming from the overflow on the bath. Fitting a HepVO valve and right angled adaptor will sort this out. As HTB said it could also be an AAV sticking but your bath waste doesn't comply with Part H of the building regulations.

Mike
 
I've never thought of fitting a Hep VO (or fanny trap as some call them, look in the end and you'll see why) to a bath outlet. I use them most commonly under low level (disabled access) shower trays, but thinking about it, there have been times when it would have been damn useful to put one under a bath when a joist stops you getting a "u" trap in. Thanks for the tip. (Shame they're about ÂŁ15 a pop, but very useful)
 
It turns out the smell was coming from a gap between the foul side and the fresh water bathroom side of the back to wall wc pan.

During the manufacturing process a channel is made between the supply water side and foul side which is manually plugged up with clay before firing at 1100 degrees C. In the case of these 2 pans the plugging did not seal the 2 sides and conceqently foul air was getting into the pan and hence making the bathroom smell.

I did check all traps and changed the bath traps for 76 mm ones to conform to Part H

Thanks to all for their advise and sugestions. Checking that the customer had not number 2'ed in the bath (as suggested by NickH) did required a degree of sensitive questioning techniques on my side!!

Claygate the sanitary ware importers provided a good service. Within 48 hours they sent a technical rep to the property in Hampshire from their base in Kent who confirmed my diagnosis, stated that there was at present no UK requirement to pressure test WC pans, offered some resonable advise and brought 2 replacement pans with him.

Air leakage between foul and fresh sides of a pan is not something I've ever come across before but something that I will be testing for before installing future loos.

Thanks again
Brooksie the wiser
 
Now, that's what I call good detective work. Well done for being so determined to find it, a rarefault, I hope.
Terry.
 
How did you test this was the case Brooksie? I think I may have the same issue.

It turns out the smell was coming from a gap between the foul side and the fresh water bathroom side of the back to wall wc pan.

During the manufacturing process a channel is made between the supply water side and foul side which is manually plugged up with clay before firing at 1100 degrees C. In the case of these 2 pans the plugging did not seal the 2 sides and conceqently foul air was getting into the pan and hence making the bathroom smell.

I did check all traps and changed the bath traps for 76 mm ones to conform to Part H

Thanks to all for their advise and sugestions. Checking that the customer had not number 2'ed in the bath (as suggested by NickH) did required a degree of sensitive questioning techniques on my side!!

Claygate the sanitary ware importers provided a good service. Within 48 hours they sent a technical rep to the property in Hampshire from their base in Kent who confirmed my diagnosis, stated that there was at present no UK requirement to pressure test WC pans, offered some resonable advise and brought 2 replacement pans with him.

Air leakage between foul and fresh sides of a pan is not something I've ever come across before but something that I will be testing for before installing future loos.

Thanks again
Brooksie the wiser
 
I have done this so far, as well as have my eyes water from the most disgusting smell.

The new cistern has an overflow that somehow exits water not via the pan but somehow behind the water trap of the loo, then on into the soil stack. It also takes the same pipe as the flush water so I am guessing it is a pipe inside a pipe. So does this mean there is a direct route to soil stack. I was expecting to see the overflow water go direct into the bowl to be honest not just hearing it fall into the waste pipe behind the water trap!

Any thoughts.
 
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