How do I get rid of a bad smell from my bathroom. I believe it is from the shower. We build a small house with a septic tank as a sewerage system. We finished building it in September 2007 and in April 2008 we having this bad smell. When we build the septic tank we did put the recommended treatment as advised into the septic tank.

Septic tanks just don't take care of themselves. You have to be careful what goes into them and unfortunately I couldn't find a comprehensive website that details this. I do believe though that you have to keep the anerobic action going in them. Once in a while I used to flush a piece of liver down my toilet to keep everything churning.

Most bad oders in bathroom drains come from rotting hair mixed with grease from the soap. Try this. Remove the two screws holding the strainer. (TIP; put the screws in the soap dish before they get lost down the drain.) Shine a light down there and with a bent coathanger fish out any hair that may be hiding down there. Then pour a 1/2 gal. of bleach down into the trap and let it set over night. Next morning flush the mess down with 2 latge pans of boiling water, (this is important). The bleach will desolve the hair and make it slippery and the boiling water will melt the grease and get the mess out of your drain.



If you have to snake the drain first remove the strainer,(TIP: put the screws in the soap dish. They will be hard to replace if they go down the drain.) Now work your snake past the trap and 6 or 7 feet beyond. When you pull the snake back it should have the hair that was clogging your shower on the auger tip. Now pour 1/4 gallon of bleach down in the trap and let it set over night. Next morning pour a pan of boiling down the shower to clear what's left and make your drain smell nice. Good luck, Tom