If your bathroom has a smell reminiscent of sewage, it may be coming from the toilet.
Usually, you can solve a stinky toilet with a quick scrub, some pee-pee flushes and maybe some air freshener. But, sometimes, enough is enough – a smell won’t budge, regardless of how many times you scrub your bathroom.
For instance, a sewer gas smell coming from your toilet can be a sign of a serious plumbing issue.
There are a number of potential culprits that can make a bathroom smell like a sewer. Some of the more common reasons for a sewer gas smell in the bathroom are an incorrectly installed or cut vent pipe, a broken or loose seal or a septic blockage.
#1 Vent Pipe Cut or Installed Incorrectly
A septic smell inside (wall) or inside the bathroom near the toilet can arise from an inaccurately cut vent pipe (or it was not fitted properly).
The vent pipe balances the air pressure in your plumbing system by allowing air to enter. Vent pipes also direct odors out of your home, so they don’t leak into your home or bathroom. But occasionally contractors will install vent pipes incorrectly, allowing them to push odors into your bathroom.
Solution: A professional plumber can resolve any issues with a vent pipe. If the existing pipe was installed incorrectly, an experienced plumber can easily identify the issue and properly install a new pipe.
Sometimes, vent pipes develop small cracks that can let odors leak through and into your house. A plumber will use a smoke machine to fill the pipe to check for any cracks. Once the smoke starts to escape, they’ll follow it to the point of the leak, and fix the pipe.
#2 Broken or Loose Seal
If your toilet smells like sewer, there could be a broken or loose seal.
The toilet connects to the drain with two seals. If these seals are loose, broken or improperly installed, they may let sewer gases seep into your bathroom. Since the seal is broken, one cue to a problem is that the toilet bowl wouldn’t fill up as it normally would.
For example, a neglected clear-water leak can fill a basement with a noxious bouquet even if the seal is intact and leaking only sewage. Water will sometimes accumulate in cracks in and around your toilet, attracting bacteria. The odor of decay is caused by the growth of bacterium.
A toilet sometimes leaks from the wax ring, which seals the bottom of the toilet drain and prevents water from leaking. When the toilet is not bolted properly, the wax ring gets damaged and the sewage starts leaking out, causing very bad smell.
Your toilet could be broken, cracked or otherwise damaged, too. It could be like it cracked around the bolts that connected to the floor or from using a drain snake too aggressively, for instance. Even tiny cracks can allow sewer gas to enter your bathroom.
How to remedy the problem: For a broken or loose seal, you can usually remedy the problem with a fresh application of caulk. Use caulk on the seals of your toilet, as well as on the bolt holes that anchor the toilet to the ground.
Check whether your toilet bowl wobbles or feels loose – if it does, it may have broken the wax ring. To fix it, reset the toilet with a new toilet ring.
If your toilet in fact seems to be broken, you’ll want to call a professional plumbing company to do the repair.
#3 Septic Blockage
Septic blockage can occur when some things are flushed down the toilet. Even if a product is labeled “flushable,” like baby wipes, it can still block your septic system, which can in turn lead to odor.
How to solve: Use your toilet only for waste and toilet paper, and any other item is kept out of the drain. Plunge already flushed wipes and other muck back up for removal. A snake can extract items that have traveled deeper into the pipe.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve done all the troubleshooting above and still have not found a solution to your toilet smell, it’s time to call in the professionals. Call Day & Night Plumbing in Albuquerque, NM at 505-974-5797 today and let us help you solve your plumbing problem.
