Sewers
Sewer Gas Smell coming from roughed in plumbing?
We own a house where the previous owners started the plumbing for their wet bar. We had a plumber come and cap off the pipe that was supposed to be used for the bar sink. We noticed a strange smell coming from the area of the exposed pipe. We went a cut up our basement rug and subfloor to find that there were four other pipes. Currently, one of the holes in that area has a backflow valve (with a ping pong ball to stop the water from coming up the pipe) The other pipe is open and just to the right of the one hole. We dumped water down into the pipe and the hole and it appears to have stopped the smell, but the water has not run down at all. Is this normal?
Public Comments
- Yes...it's normal...The pipe is suppose to have a " P-Trap" to hold water, sealing sewer gass off in the pipe....if it hasn't gone down, it is working properly...good thing you did that....just keep water in it until the work is done.
- what you did is exactly what a "trap" IS SUPPOSE TO DO IS TO TRAP SEWER GAS FROM COMING BACK UP THE PIPE If that water dries up you will have the problem again, is best to cap that pipe, making sure that it is not a vent, which is a whole new issue
- I would guess that the reason the water hasn't gone down is it has filled a p-trap. The purpose for this trap is to stop gasses, but the water will dry up and the smell will return.
- I would cap those pipes as well. The reason pipes have the trap under the sink is so it holds water. The water keeps the smell out like a plug. If you wait - the smell will come back. If you lose that water that won't go down, the smell will come back.
