We live in an unincorporated rural area east of Dallas. We have lateral lines for septic, and a totally separate piping system for our laundry room which uses a french drain. Slab foundation. Laundry room shares a wall with a bathroom. Problem: extremely concentrated sewage gas smell fills the laundry room. Any clues about what we should do? Thanks! Renee

Hi Renee,
Is the smell coming from the laundry drain? Is the drain trapped? Does it smell worse when something's flushed or drained? Regards, tom

Hi Tom
Thanks for responding.

I tried to smell the odor right where the washer drain hose goes through the wall. It actually didn't smell any different than it did throughout the whole room. The whole room smells VERY strong. There is only one drain opening in the entire laundry room and it's this one.

The odor is constant, regardless of flushing, water use or not. Our bathroom, which shares the wall, only has a slight odor compared to the laundry room.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by "is the drain trapped?" If you mean the drain hose that the washer drains out of, I guess it's not trapped, because our washing machine is draining just fine.

A bit more information for you: We have had this smell before in the same location, in much less concentration and it went away... about two or three times in the last six months.

Thanks for considering this with me!

Renee

I had the same problem when I moved into my home.. I did notice that the builder used one of those"in wall" drain/water spigot things (sorry). I crawled under into crawl space and realize the drain line came straight down and went into master drain line, not trapped. The sewer gases were backing up through un-trapped line into my laundry room. What I did to test the situatin was I wrapped a sock around the drain from the washer to create a barrier around the hose, and low and behold the odor stopped. I know this isn't a proper solution, but until I either fix this or have the home builder do it.. it gives me odor free laundry room... try it

Leftwing,

By sealing off the hose to a unvented and untrapped stand pipe you directed the sewer gas up the hose into your washer. With the lid closed that helps contain it but you stilol need to trap and vent the standpipe. Regards, Tomn