Nobody wants to have unpleasant smells wafting through their home. If you keep a clean house, but then start to notice foul odors coming from the drains, you’ll want to have the problem taken care of immediately. This is a smart idea, since not only will this eliminate the smells, it can also prevent huge issues from developing within your home’s drainage system or the sewer lines.
There are a number of potential causes for bad-smelling drains. Below are the 3 most common, in order of severity of the underlying trouble.
ONE: Dried p-Trap
The p-trap is the professional plumbing term for the curved pipe under a drain. The purpose of this curve shape is to trap an amount of water that serves to block sewage gas from drifting up the pipe and out the drain. If there’s a sink in your house that doesn’t receive frequent use (such as a laundry room sink, or the bathroom attached to a guest room), the water in the p-trap might evaporate, leaving no barrier to the sewer gas. Try running water down the drain for a minute to restore the p-trap. This may stop the bad odors.
TWO: Organic build-up
This is a common issue for kitchen drains, which handle large amounts of food waste. A build-up of fat, oil, grease, and other organic waste inside drainpipes can start to smell awful when it rots. To solve this, call our plumbers for thorough drain cleaning.
THREE: A broken/blocked sewer line
Is more than one drain in your house sending out terrible odors? Then it’s likely that the trouble lies deeper down in your plumbing system, possibly in the sewer line. A blocked sewer line will start to push sewer gas back up through the drains. The sewer line could also be broken. Repairing a sewer line is a large task, but you need to have professional plumbers do it as soon as possible, since the consequences for your plumbing and your entire house are substantial.
Ken Neyer Plumbing, Inc. offers drain cleaning and sewer lines services in Cincinnati, OH and the surrounding areas. We’re available 24 hours a day for emergencies.