Sink problem

[DannyDrama]

There's a god awful smell in my kitchen and I think it's coming from the sink, I have checked everything else and can't find anything. Problem is there's nothing to see with the sink either, not blocked or anything.

Landlord is useless, advice needed. Pooing through letterboxes/nuking from orbit has already been considered. Cheers.

 

[DannyDrama]

Have cleaned it out yeah, was nothing really in there though.

 

[DannyDrama]

Are you sure it's the sink and not the drain outside and the smell is just getting in through the sink pipework?

I can't see anything wrong with the drains outside.

 

[DannyDrama]

The water isn't leaking out is it?

No water = no airlock

Got any accessories plumbed in - dishwasher, washing machine etc?

Just had the plumber round and he seems clueless too. Unscrewed my boiler pipe, saw it had water in and proclaimed '**** knows'.

 

[DannyDrama]

Replace it and see what happens.

The water? He did, and it still stinks. Stuck with it all weekend now.

 

[DannyDrama]

So I called Thames Water this morning and they sent someone out to look at the drains, everything is clear as far as their assets go. Here's what's been done so far:

U-bend for sink checked, cleaned, all clear.

U-bend for boiler checked, cleaned, all clear.

Drains checked, all clear.

Panels under cupboards removed, back of cupboard removed, all clear.

Not sure where to go from here, have called the housing association and they say they will call me monday. Not sure what they will/can do though, any ideas would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[DannyDrama]

Do you have a dishwasher or washing machine plumbed into the sink trap? If so, it may be smells coming from that/them and not the sink/drains themselves.

The spigot for the washing/dishwasher is the 'wrong side' of the water-trap, so smells can get through if the pipes are full of smelly, goo-ee, sludgey, stuff.

I have a washing machine, yeah. There's a removable panel and the front on the bottom, the plumber said there would be a filter behind a red cover there but I looked and it's just a gap under the machine. He also said running some soda crystals through it might help but it hasn't. I put some down the sink too but no go.

 

[DannyDrama]

Could be a dead rat in there somewhere!

That was my first thought, I have a couple of snakes so at first I thought maybe I'd dropped a mouse or something but I searched for two days before discounting that. This is a one-bed flat so not many places to search.

I would for sure notice if I dropped one but imagine the embarrassment of calling someone out only for them to point out a dead rodent under the washing machine.

I sometimes get pongs out of my kitchen sink and think it's due to my washing machine. The last time I checked (dismantled trap) it was pretty clear, but the washing machine hose was caked in black sludge and smelled.

It never happened in my last house which was configured the same way. I wondered if it was the hose routed differently and dirty water wasn't being drained away fully.

Anyway, I've upped the 'maintenance washes' (boil wash, with detergent, no clothes) in the hope it prevents it.

Yeah I've put some soda crystals through it, hopefully that did it. Can't be sure yet as the smell seems to come in waves but it's worse in the evening so time will tell.

 

[DannyDrama]

The trap I was thinking, pretty rare but plastic degrading can stink something fierce.

Is that the U-bend bit under the sink? If so, it's been checked but if it's somewhere else let me know and I'll look. Sick of having to sit in the smell tbh,

 

[DannyDrama]

Been on to the the housing association and they're not interested, their suggestion? Keep a diary of it.

 

[DannyDrama]

I never even heard of a damn soil pipe dude, that's why I need someone here to help me but people have no sense of giving a ****.

Today is the last straw, if I don't get a call back in an hour I'm calling them to raise hell. How do they expect someone to sit in the smell of **** and **** for over a week? As I say it's a one-bed flat so there's not even anywhere to escape it.

 

[DannyDrama]

Checks out

I'm going to have a big party with balloons, hats and those annoying things that sound like ill geese and give out a prize to the 100th person to make that joke.

They have made me an appointment for Friday morning. No idea what for, I was infuriated by that point but I do hope it works. I still fail to see how letting a tennant sit in the smell of sewage for 2 weeks is 'not an emergency'.

If it wasn't already the cheapest (new development) place in town I'd be out of here.

 

[DannyDrama]

Because landlords are ******s and they don't care.

Yeah, housing associations are even worse.

 

[DannyDrama]

Its not an emergency.

Keep the plug in the sink and block the overflow.

If you're getting a smell from a kitchen sink then either the water in the trap (u bend) is draining away and letting the smell in or it's emanating before the water trap aka a washing machine or dish washer.

That's the thing, I've since stuck my head in the sink and it's not coming up through that. The overflow isn't connected to anything, it's just a hole to the cupboard beneath. Found that out to my cost when I first moved in. The dishwasher and sink have both had a ton of soda crystals through them, u-bends and traps have been checked.

It admittedly seems better after all the soda crystals etc but I won't know until I get home later. I have to keep the window shut because the rain got in and tripped my electric once.

 

[DannyDrama]

Well, i vote dead rat somewhere then.

I'd still remove the waste hoses from the washing machine and dishwasher and soak them in boiling water and strong bleach solution in the bath for an hour or two.

whilst thats being done i'd remove the plinths from the kitchen units and trying to find this smell.

This was my first thought too and I did all that. Took the backs of the cupboards off, the bottoms, pulled all appliances out, checked all pipes. There's nothing to find here.

 

[DannyDrama]

It's now the only plausible theory.

 

[DannyDrama]

When did you last change your underpants ?

I don't remember, it may have been early february.

The smell appears to have gone for now. My dad had the back of the washing machine off tuesday night and it smelled even worse. He put it all back together yesterday and the smell seems to have gone, he says he didn't clean the filter because he couldn't get to it so not sure what happened.

 

[DannyDrama]

He is still wearing your moms panties (they both got dressed in the dark in a hurry when your dad came home early.

And damn it do they stink.

Srsly I have no idea what happened to this smell, we didn't do anything that managed to get rid of it unless it takes the soda crystals a few days to work or something.

 

[DannyDrama]

Yeah it seems to have done, I cleaned the washing machine spotless and tightened everything up and that seems to have done it. Nice to sit in a room that doesn't smell like arse.

 

[DannyDrama]

Moving the washing machine may have dislodge some poop in the waste pipe that was stinking? It's a common issue and is often caused by the pipe being crushed or forced into a bad angle thus not allowing the filth from your cloths through the pipe in its entirety.

Yeah I hadn't thought of that, good point. Plot twist, I'm sure I smelled the same smell in the block hallway earlier, so slight it was likely placebo but I wasn't thinking of it at the time.

The machine gets moved quite often anyway, it somehow 'walks' forward a little when it's on, I have to shove it back half a foot every time.