Neighbour Sewer Odors

Steve50 · Dec 9, 2019

Hi there,

My neighbour down stairs(I live in high rise), there toilet is directly above mine. Thing is they must of done big clean of there wood floors and there toilet and bathroom to.. But the odours have come up it seems my drain pipe or sewer. Very strong , same thing happened when they did a bathroom renovation...I thought sewer pipes were sealed. Could the pipe seals be leaking between the apartments? Or something else why this is happening, that I can smell strong cleaning product odors coming into my bathroom...

centralheatking · Dec 9, 2019

Steve50 said:
Hi there,

My neighbour down stairs(I live in high rise), there toilet is directly above mine. Thing is they must of done big clean of there wood floors and there toilet and bathroom to.. But the odours have come up it seems my drain pipe or sewer. Very strong , same thing happened when they did a bathroom renovation...I thought sewer pipes were sealed. Could the pipe seals be leaking between the apartments? Or something else why this is happening, that I can smell strong cleaning product odors coming into my bathroom...

Strong smells ought not to travel through the drains because all your drains should terminate with a water trap...before each appliance, but they can dry out in warm weather and little use. It the smell is coming up due to inadequate sealing around the outside of the soil pipes then not only is it stinky but might well be a serious fire risk.
centralheatking

Steve50 · Dec 9, 2019

centralheatking said:
Strong smells ought not to travel through the drains because all your drains should terminate with a water trap...before each appliance, but they can dry out in warm weather and little use. It the smell is coming up due to inadequate sealing around the outside of the soil pipes then not only is it stinky but might well be a serious fire risk.
centralheatking

Thank you for that. Is the soil pipes , is that the pipe that is between one unit and another units pipe eg kitchen or bathroom etc

rpm · Dec 9, 2019

I`d be inclined to look under the bath (if you have one) and in the like of kitchen cupboards, infact anywhere there might be gaps in the flooring for the odours to travel.

With bath or shower waste traps there should be water to stop smells, find a thin piece of wood that goes through the holes of the covers (where the water goes out), push the wood in a few inches and it should be wet when removed.