I just bought a house with updated plumbing. When the bathroom toilet is flushed a gurgling sound comes out of the drain the the bathroom sink followed by sewage ordor. What can I do to fix this problem?
Mike
Mike, You have a vent problem. Or lack there of. Is the sink in the same bathroom? Is it a new bathroom? I am assuming it is. It sounds to me like there is not a vent for that bathroom so the toilet is using the sink as its vent. If possible you should contact the plumber that did the work and get them to fix it, but it is likely that the plumber was the homeowner or a handy type man, not a plumber. There are other possibilities, but more information is needed.
This is definitely due to inadequate venting. If it's a single story house, look to see if there is a vent thru the roof above the affected bath group. If there is a vent, check to see if there is an obstruction. It is possible an animal went in there got stuck and died. Or, someone could have intentionally clogged the vent. People do weird things. Once I went on a service call to a house with drainage problems an found a tenant had stuffed potatoes into the drains & vents because he was mad at the landlord. Since you just bought this place, who knows what happened prior to you buying it.
You can run a garden hose into the vent to see if it flows thru or backs up. If there is no vent, some method of venting would be required to solve the problem. If there is no way to add a proper vent, the last resort would be install an in-line, or so called "mechanical", vent to the drainage system. These are prohibited by code in most states but sometimes there is no other alternative when correct venting is not possible.
More info would help in giving more advice.
IDale, I inspected the house in early June. at that time the plumbing drained slow. The realtor told me he had a plumber come in and they roto-rotered the drains. Now the drains are operating well, except for the gurgling noise in the bathroom sink. I believe the plumbing was updatged in the 70s. The exposed copper plumbing in the basement appears to by professionally done.
Mike
Please see prfvious reply to Dale. When I inspected the house originally no noise was emitted by the sink drain when the toilet was flushed. After cleaning the drains to imnprove outflow the noise appeared.
Please ask more questions and I'll answer them.
Mike
Now the drains have been cleared the water is flowing freely (probably faster than before) so if there is inadequate venting upstream of the toilet, a vacuum is being created behind the mass of water moving down the pipe. This vacuum is sucking the water out of the "u" bend in the sink (i.e. the gurggling noise) and then you get the smell of drains due to there being no water in the "u" bend of the sink.
As has been previously mentioned, you have inadequate venting in the stack pipe upstream of the toilet.
The reason you didn't get this before was because the drains were partially blocked the water did not drain so fast and so did not create such a big vacuum.
Hope this helps.
Paul.
Updated Plumbing, the realter said so...Check the slope, if it looks like a 45 degree angle get it done right. That also removes the Trap Seal allowing Gas in. Is it a P Trap or a S Trap ? S Traps removes the Seal. 1/4'' slope is all you need and check how far is the P is from the Wall. If it goes into the floor its an S Trap. Where is your Vent in distance from the Trap ? Do you have a Vent ? Is it the proper size ? Is the Tub with a Shower, if so is it a 2" Trap ? I like to make things easy.....Never trust a Realter sue him for payment, its the Law. Small Claims then put a lean on his property. But, in 1970 they often had good Plumpers....
Your reply makes a lot sense. I hope it isn't going to cost big bucks to get it fixed.
Mike
original P Trap was leaking and they left the empty P Trap box for the replacement P Trap in the trash. 1 1/4" inlet 1/1/4" outlet 20 gauge brass tubing, professional grade. It also appears they replaced the sink drain pipe going to the sink P Trap and pipe going into the wall. Maybe they gopt the slope wrong on the pipe going to the wall? The P trap is about six inches from the wall. The bathtub has a shower. I don't know where the vent is. Where should it be? I don't have a ladder that'll go to the roof. Just moved in. First time home owner
.Dale, the basement bathroom is directly below the bathroom w/ the gurgling problem. I looked for a vent stack,, but could only see a vent stack coming out of the house right above the left side of the kitchen (bathrooms are on the right side of the house), which is in the rear of the house. Remembered my neighbor is a 84 y/o plumber who goes to work every day. He's a friendly guy who has lived in his house for 50-60 years. When they rotor routered the drains could they have somehow clogged the vent? The previous owner of the home had warranties with the maintenance company that did the plumbing work. Tomorrow I'm going too try to get in touch with them.
I want to thank everybody for their help and direction, especially Dale, Pmartin and Paul W. I didn't have time to respond to pmartin this evening. Will reply tomorrow.
Mike
Mike,
You're welcome,
I'm in the UK and the codes are different over here, but I'm glad my explaination of what may be happening helped.
Make sure you let us know how you get on.
Cheers,
Paul.
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