Bad smell

[PIP1]

Hi,

Any ideas please regarding an unpleasant smell, reminscent of rotten cabbage, that has begun to intermittently appear in my living room. My house and the adjoining one have downstairs bathrooms, and I'm pretty sure that next door's bathroom adjoins my living room. The smell only seems to become apparent when next door are using their shower (we can hear the hum of the shower). There does not appear to be any correlation between next door flushing their toilet and the appearance of the smell, or of any bathroom usage at all in my house.

The smell fades fairly quickly once the apparent shower use has ceased, and does seem to be most intense low down on the adjoining wall.

Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks

Phil

[Phil L]

Are your downstairs floors suspended? (are they made of floorboards and joists?)

I have seen drains leak undernath such floors many times, even raw sewage and surprisingly, it doesn't smell too bad...until hot/warm water arrives on the scene, then it stinks to high heavens.

You may have to investigate under the floor for signs of leaks, although their drains should be under their floor and not yours, the 'leakage' may be running through and they may not be getting any of the smell.

If you have concrete/solid floors, then it's anyone's guess as to where the leak is and in either case, it could get messy (in more ways than one) when it comes to repairing it.

[Owain]

Looks like it's their shower then.

Cracked drainpipe in the floor void?

Owain

[Jon]

[e-mail] declared for all the world to hear...

I think it could be next doors shower.

[Peter Taylor]

Can they smell it next door too?