Hello all,

I bought a house that is fairly old with a lot of fixer uppers. One issue I am having is that I have sewer gas that comes and goes from my shower drain.

I checked to see if the ptrap was cracked by filling it up with water but after a few hours the smell returns. I am not sure how far the p trap is installed.. I don't see water when I look into the drain because the pipe is curved. If the ptrap is indeed cracked, any thing other than pulling the shower floor up to fix it?

I've had recommendations to clean the vent on the roof top to see if that helps but any suggestions or tips would be much appreciated.

If you had a cracked trap you would have a leak.

More likely you have a blocked vent pipe. When water is run somewhere else the water flowing down the pipe will pull the water out of the trap. Air must get in to replace the water. If it can't get air in through the roof vent it will get from some where else, such as your shower drain.

Snake the roof vent.

Let's do a little cheng. Do not run water in the shower for a few hours. Now, remove the strainer and take a stake and poke it all the way down to the bottom of the bend of the trap. What does the water on the stick measure? Are there any wet spots? Do you hear any bubbles or gurgles when you flush or drain? Let me know. Back to you, Tom

If you had a cracked trap you would have a leak.

More likely you have a blocked vent pipe. When water is run somewhere else the water flowing down the pipe will pull the water out of the trap. Air must get in to replace the water. If it can't get air in through the roof vent it will get from some where else, such as your shower drain.

Snake the roof vent.

Hi hkstroud,

If I have a cracked pipe, how would I know if there's a leak and where if it's a shower drain underneath everything? Sorry I am a novice.


[Let's do a little cheng. Do not run water in the shower for a few hours. Now, remove the strainer and take a stake and poke it all the way down to the bottom of the bend of the trap. What does the water on the stick measure? Are there any wet spots? Do you hear any bubbles or gurgles when you flush or drain? Let me know. Back to you, Tom

Hi Tom,

Please see below. The pipe turns about 2 inches down, how else would you recommending measuring water level?

46574

Is this a shower or a tub? Sounds like a tub.

If the trap were leaking you would see the water damage unless this is first floor of house on a slab.

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Is this a shower or a tub?Good question and nice pick8up. Tom

Hope this works. This is actually a stand alone shower.

Is the shower located on a slab, first floor ore second floor? There should be a pipe leading down to the bend of the trap. Can you poke a rod down there? Back to you. Tom

I bought a house that is fairly old with a lot of fixer uppers
I wonder if there is actually a trap installed here.

The house is on a slab and it's on the first floor. If I take a solid rod and try to put down the drain it stops at the bend.

That's my concern is that I am not sure if there is even a trap there.

One thing you can try is to pour water down the drain so as to fill the supposed trap. Then flush an upstream toilet. Can you hear the water flowing? Can you smell sewer gas? You are now seeing the problem with slab houses, you need to possibly rip everything out for a $3 trap.

I would run a toilet auger down. If there is not trap the auger should easily slip down the pipe. If there is a trap, the auger will go through it but you should feel the resistance as it makes the turns.

We have tried to run an auger and it does have resistance as it I assume that it's turning.

The sewage smell comes and goes but it comes from the shower drain. I've actually ran a hose down the drain for several minutes and it would not flood or overflow as it seems like there's no clogging.

I guess we are back to where we started, snake the vent to make sure it is open.