We have a new home of about 2 months (new septic etc.. also) and we were caught in that tropical storm mess yesterday which dropped about 2 inches of rain on our newly, still strawed yard. Yesterday and last night in the master bathroom only we are getting a very bad (like raw sewage) smell from the shower or toilet area. Their is no backup into either or any sign of it but it smells really bad. When we woke this morning either we had become immune or the smell is no longer that strong. Any idea what's going on here.
In a nearby neighborhood here, that meant the municipality had not installed sewer pipes correctly. Lots of factors were involved, including the fact that they ran the storm sewers into the same lines as the home systems. Big rains or overly fast snow thaws resulted in lots of very smelly basements. The town had to dig up a couple of miles of pipe and start from scratch. You might want to start documenting these things, and yelling at the appropriate people. An evaluation from a plumber might be a good idea, too.
Regardless whether a septic system or sewer connection, I would have thought the traps in the drains would prevent fumes from entering the home. Ensuring that the traps are full of water is the first thing I would check.
On Fri 08 Jul 2005 12:48:20p, Bryan Martin wrote in alt.home.repair:
Yeah, as usual, Doug Kanter is giving advice, without even having a clue.
If gas odor is coming up from a shower drain, that means either there is a problem with the traps, eg there not being one, or else there is a problem with the vent system for the drains.
Just a WAG, without being able to eyeball your place, but is perhaps the bathroom in question on a "slab floor" and maybe all that rain is pushing something up out of the ground around a toilet flange or a shower drain not properly sealed to the slab? That might let a little foul smelling ground water come up around it and out from under the toilet base or from under the tub.
When our house was built for us 20 years ago, the basement guest room bath had a big hole in the slab hidden under its tub, and we had a problem with ground water coming up through it. The builder had it done over right fort us, but wasn't very happy about that as the subcontractor who did the original job had disappeared by the time the leak started a couple of months after we moved in.
If the toilet bowl has water in it at a normal level, it's pretty hard to see how any kind of gasses could be getting up through that, but the shower drain might be improperly trapped.
Things which "go away by themselves" usually come back by themselves. If it happens again, try putting one of those floppy rubber disk stoppers over the shower drain to see what that does. If it stops the smell, I'd suggest you contact a professional. If the words "new home" in your OP mean "just built", I'd hope you'd have some leverage with the builder, but you might need to try and get some assistance from the local board of health/plumbing inspector as sewage gasses are not something very healthy to live with.
While picking the brain of the guys installing my sister's septic system, I was told that sometimes, during hurricanes or strong storms, the drastic change in air pressure will sometimes either suck or blow the water from the traps (don't remember which).
Since the smell seems to be going away, this may be the case.
You can tell for sure whether it's the smell going away, or your getting used to it, by leaving the house for a couple hours, then returning, and taking a whiff. If it's less, (and this time you know what to smell for) then it's certainly going away, and you probably have nothing to worry about. As you use your shower and toilet, the water in the traps will get replaced.
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