Odd smell in bathroom ...

Always difficult to write about smells ... I wonder if we'll ever be able to "snap" a smell, like a picture, or audio ?#

This is in our cloakroom - one toilet and a washbasin.

Anyway, noticed smell a few weeks ago. It's not a "wet" damp smell. Nor is it a "foul" damp smell. It's not chokingly fetid, or retch-inducing, not is it a musty smell.

I immediately investigated, and discovered a tiny leak from the concealed cistern feed. I duly removed, replaced the fibre washer, reconnected and that's that. Bone dry.

The water had made a little pool on the concrete floor. It was a small patch about 4" in diameter. I duly lifted the vinlay, and left it all open with door and window open for a week, which seemed to clear it. Put it all together. However, since then, every so often, we catch a whiff of the same smell. It's maddening, as it comes and goes. I've double checked every part of the floor and can't seem to find it. The basin u-bend is OK. The floor is bone dry. The pan to soil-pipe connection is solid and intact (I changed it back in Feb for a combined waste and soil pipe).

Sometimes, you go into the room, no smell, and it hits you a few seconds later.

Nothing obvious outside the window.

It's only this room ... nowhere else in the house.

Can anyone suggest anything ? Please. We have scrubbed the walls and floor with bleach. All we could smell for a few days was bleach, and then the smell crept back. Same for spirit vinegar.

Reply to
Jethro
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No. It's a concrete floor. No bath, just a toilet with concealed cistern, which I have unboxed, so nowhere for a dead rodent to hide.

Reply to
Jethro

Do you live in the south of England?

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Midlands ... ST water if that's significant ...

Reply to
Jethro

Id guess the concrete is still damp a little.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well, that shoots me down in flames. I was going to suggest something about the south always stinking - foiled again! Is the smell still there without the vinlay? Or, try blasting bleach down the overflow hole in the wash hand basin.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Narrr.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Wow. Serious advice and not a piss take. Do you need a lie down now?

Reply to
ARWadsworth

I'd have a good check of the drains, we had similar in an outside (Portakabin style) classroom.

Turned out that the drain pipe taking the waste from the centre of the building to the drain didn't have enough of a fall, coupled with the low water quantity of todays cisterns meant stuff simply wasn't getting flushed properly. Easy fix was to make people flush twice, until we got a decent cistern with a higher flush quantity of water .. it wasn't feasible to re-arrange the drainage.

Reply to
Paul - xxx

And why would you want to do *that*, pray tell.

Reply to
Tim Streater

windows & door been open all the time .. surely it would have dried out by now ? Besides, kneeling down to smell it doesn't get the smell ...

Reply to
Jethro

Hmmm, well the cistern has been there since 2004. And the soil pipe goes direct to the outside (the cloakroom is on an external wall). I'll treble check there is water in the basin trap ...

Reply to
Jethro

We've bleached everything. Cistern, toilet (under the rim) and the basin and overflow. I'll lift the vinlay again this weekend (the toilet is bolted through the vinlay) and see what's happening..

Reply to
Jethro

quoted text -

Dead bird just outside the window?

Reply to
Mark

Where is the soil pipe? A mate of mine had a internal soil pipe with an air admittance valve in the bathroom which did smell from time to time.

Do you have a full-size trap on the sink? The compact ones can be a problem.

Reply to
Mark

In the Midlands, years ago the actual mains water smelled foisty for a period (Severn-Trent water). Check if the smell appears when the cold tap is run.

rusty

Reply to
therustyone

I have my moments.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

Because it does.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

It will be the floor covering, people tend to piss on it. Adam is always doing this.

Reply to
Mr Pounder

That did cross my mind, but the bathroom doesn't have the smell ... although could it be *standing* water ?

Reply to
Jethro

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