Sewers

I have a shower with no ptrap that emits sewer gas, Is there a check valve made that will slide into the drain?

This is a basement shower on a concrete slab. Yes the easy way out for now as finances don't allow a bathroom remodel at this time. It does have a vent pipe, which is not clogged, I ran water down the pipe and can hear it plain as day at the shower drain.

Public Comments

1. Not that I am aware of. Are you sure that there is no trap? Maybe there is no vent and the gasses are pressuring their way through the trap. Maybe the vent is clogged by something. There is such a thing as a wet vent and it has to be plumbed correctly. But that is usually for island counters. Hopefully this is an upstairs shower or you have a basement. Otherwise you get to choose some new tile for you shower floor. [If you need work done, choose a local contractor and ask for references. Or ask friends for a reference.]
2. First, I'm assuming you're looking for "the easy way out," something that will "slide" in from the top without you having to take any of the plumbing apart. Am I right here? To that question, here's my answer: Not that I'm aware of. Though, even if there was one, I sure wouldn't trust it. To do this job the "right" way, which in my experience is better to choose the first time, you really need to do a small amount of re-plumbing. Fortunately, working with drains is the easiest part of plumbing. So if you have no experience, don't be too intimidated. If you run into trouble, you can always call for help from someone. For drains, I highly recommend working in PVC (the white plastic). If that's what you have already, great! If not, you can transition into it somewhere along the line. Usually, parts will literally just unscrew so you can screw in the new parts. That brings me to the next part, the shopping! When you go shopping it helps to bring the parts you're trying to connect, especially when you're inexperienced. Most hardware store clerks are completely used to questions coming from inexperienced users, so don't feel silly. In your case, you'll probably be bringing the drain itself and the end of the pipe you're connecting to, or one similar to the one you will be connecting to (if you really can't remove it from the house). Here is a POSSIBLE list of items you will need for a project like this. Again, I don't know what exactly you're working with here items with ?? you may not need: The P-trap (PVC) Adapter of some type Short length of drain pipe (PVC) Elbows ?? (PVC) Extra nylon compression rings ?? Channel Lock wrench / pipe wrench Pipe cutter ?? Hack saw Teflon thread tape Plumber's putty (if you remove the drain from tub) PVC primer/cement ?? That's pretty much all you should need. The nice thing is most of that stuff comes with instructions that tells you exactly how to do it! Hopefully I didn't leave anything out, but you get the idea.
3. Adding a trap is the only way. You don't want sewer gas smell in your home, yuk. Sewer gas can also be toxic and cause unconsciousness in high doses.
4. Simply cover up the drain with a rubber stopper when not in use. While in use the water going down acts as a trap.
5. OK first lets make sure we do not have a trap. Remove the strainer from the top of the shower drain and shine a flash light down the drain. If you see standing water there is a trap and if not then you are most likely correct and there is not one. Once we know for sure if the house is less then 5 years old contact the builder with this information and request them to have this issue corrected, if it older then 5 years old you will have to fix this. Now to the sewer gas. Sewer gas is methane gas and if in high enough concentration can cause nausea, skin irritation, fevers, breathing problems and in even higher concentrations can burn, do not panic your house is not going to burn down right now. You will however when able to need to install a proper trap below the shower but if I understood correctly that project will need to wait a little while. In that case while it will be inconvenient you will need to plug off the shower until it can be repaired. Go to any good supply house and tell them you need a shower drain test plug and they will give you a part that looks like a piece of rubber between two disks with a nut on it. Take this piece and insert it into the shower drain and tighten down the nut until it will not come out of the drain when you pull on it. I hope this helps and good luck.