Hi.

We are grasping for ideas of what may be causing a foul smell in our walk in shower. The smell resembles sweat and stinky laundry. It is isolated to only this one shower. None of the other sinks or showers have this odor. Our home is only 6 months old and the shower is very clean. The smell appeared about 4 months ago. The smell lingers and clings to the walls and floor of the shower. We have removed all soap, towels, etc. We've had a plumber out to check the vent pipes and he opened the valve on the wall and it smells clean inside. The plumber said that the smell does not smell like sewer gas. If you smell the drain directly it also smells clean. I've used baking soda, bleach, boiling water, and vinegar and nothing seemed to stop the smell. We even cleaned and resealed all of the tile. It comes and goes throughout the day and seems to be worse when we're using a lot of water in other parts of the house. The shower has a 5 x 10 foot copper drip pan filled with concrete and then sealed with a black material that was painted on and the tile is laid directly on top. The tile is travertine. Any ideas? :eek:

sealed with a black material that was painted on and the tile is laid directly on top. The tile is travertine. Any ideas?

I'm assuming the walls are also tile. Did those wall get a vapor barrier on the studs before the cement board. If not I strongly feel behind the side shower walls moisture is happening there. This can create that musty non sewer smell. You can clean it because its trapped behind the shower.

It seems you had exhausted most all possibilities here. The only other thoughts is does that shower drain work right and the trap doesn't bubble when the drain from elsewhere needs to vent.

Was the tile sealed after the initial installation so grout doesn't suck in water and get in behind the tile wall?

I'm betting the wall behind the shower is your problem from moisture getting through grout Or there wasn't a vapor barrier installed in initial prep for tile
Wallboard Hot showers can create a sweating behind the walls and with no vapor barrier it gets into the studs etc

Signed 21 Boat

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Thanks for responding! The black stuff that was painted on (they called it sealer and I'm assuming it is vapor barrier?) was painted on all of the walls as well as the floor. The other side of both of the shower wall do not smell at all. Any other ideas?

Jaz,

Could you explain your theory of the water saturating the shower base a little more? Does it sound as if the tile was not properly laid? Right now we're following a few leads and one of them is the floor. We noticed a few holes in the grout (pin head size) and there are a few areas where the black mesh backing of the tile sheet are coming through the grout. Any ideas on how to investigate the floor further? There is a crawl space under the house and there is no sign of moisture under the shower. The drip pan is filled with concrete and the concrete is covered with a black painted on sealant. We are also considering a possible chemical reaction with the travertine tile/ sealant/ etc. We have not ruled out the possibllity of it being plumbing related. Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks, Donna