Hi we've been having some very unpleasant smell in the house recently and my husband found out it's from the root of the pipe that's connected to our toilet.

He went downstairs under the house to look for the root of the pipe and found that there was a lot of feces and liquid and toilet tissues that leaked out of the pipe. (Sorry too much information.) He took a few photos and we wonder what we can do about it.

It seems that there is an 'deliberate' opening on the pipe which is covered by a piece of cement cover. The stuff seems to have leaked from the space between the opening and the cement cover.

We have no knowledge about plumbing but we just want to know if there's anything we can learn and do by ourselves as we know it might cost us a lot of money to hire someone to do it.

Please see the photos:

The big picture:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eVUM4IfBSb4/SiB6x_xbl6I/AAAAAAAAGc8/xQdS9x3blqY/s320/028big+picture-767533.jpg

The pipe and the cement covering:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eVUM4IfBSb4/SiB6yC7OsEI/AAAAAAAAGdE/zEQdpb1DfVM/s320/029+pipe+and+cement+cover-768285.jpg

Can anyone give us some advice please? Thanks very much in advance!

The concrete plug is covering Clean Out opening. Clean out is there so plumber can insert snake for the purpose of cleaning main sewer line. The plug should completely sealed the opening so no liquid or sewer gas escapes. I see the water line on the exterior of the pipe telling me that you had some major back up and sewer overflow.

First, I would have your main sewer cleaned. Call Sewer Cleaning company to service it. Than, have that opening properly sealed. Do it as soon as possible since open sewer is great health hazard to you and other occupants of your house.

The concrete plug is covering Clean Out opening. Clean out is there so plumber can insert snake for the purpose of cleaning main sewer line. The plug should completely sealed the opening so no liquid or sewer gas escapes. I see the water line on the exterior of the pipe telling me that you had some major back up and sewer overflow.

First, I would have your main sewer cleaned. Call Sewer Cleaning company to service it. Than, have that opening properly sealed. Do it as soon as possible since open sewer is great health hazard to you and other occupants of your house.


Thanks for your answer. It gave us directions and my husband cleaned the sewer and he's going to find a new plug to replace the damaged one. It seems that it's the root of a tree that created a blockage in the pipe.

Buy a bag of plasterer's LIME and spread it over the wet area. It will dry it up quickly and eliminate the sewer odor as well.