Quote:

---

Originally Posted by centchemmueller

I don't know if this has been covered, but whenever my shower is running the smell of sewage seems to be coming up from my drain. This happens in only one bathroom, this bathroom being on the second floor. There is a 1/2 bath in the basement that hasn't been used in years, we just recently bought the house. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

---

I'm finding that these nasty odors can be in fact the tile selection itself and not the drain or plumbing line. On my own home we had to remove the sheets holding the mosaic tile together.

The tile was made in India and the glue used to hold it to the sheets smells aweful when wet. I suspect that this smell is coming from the glue used to hold the tiles together and the smell leaking through the tile and grout.

If you have a spare tile or sheet of tiles try soaking them and then smelling the back side of the tile. If the odor is bad you might have found your source of the problem.

JW

I went through this exact thing...
I even thought it was under my sliding shower door track, and removed it completely and put it back with fresh grout.
It took months to find my culprit.
It was a small spot, where the glass is held in place in the doors metal frame.
After each shower, some water would seep in there, and then when I slid the door, it would slosh around in there and create that smell.
The fault was in a small 1 inch gap in the rubber strip that holds the glass in place.
I squirted Lysol in the hole, then stuck a flattened drinking straw in and sucked it out with a shop vac. I let it dry for 48 hours and filled the space with silicone caulk.
Smell is gone.
Sometimes the source of a smell is elusive and might be something tiny!

I would perform a peppermint test on the DWV piping first; that would confirm if it is a sewer / septic odor. Custom shower bases ( i.e. mudset & tile) are often installed with a vinyl or rubber liner. This liner must be installed on a pitched subfloor, to direct any water that gets through a grout joint or crack in the tile floor to " weep holes " that are a part of the shower drain located below the finished tile floor. Without a pre - pitched subfloor, any water that gets into the liner pan will sit there and fester, causing odors.
If the odor is caused by a failed dwv pipe connection somewhere in a wall, floor, or ceiling, a " house trap " can be installed on the main drain pipe in the basement or yard to prevent sewer / septic odors from inflitrating the living space. A successful peppermint test can often help locate the source of the sewer gas leak...

Vitoio and Mike,m Welcome to The Plumbing Page. You're both fresponding to a 9 year old dead thread thread. Your input is great and we thank you for it. Let's hear more from you both. Tom

Thanks Tom!
9 years... and I did not see an answer I found that pinpointed what I felt to be the problem.
I found the thread while searching for a foul odor, and when I finally found the source... I thought I would share.
9 years or not... the answer before both both Mike's and mine was from only one year ago. When I had problems with odor, I found this thread by googling my issue!
The thread did not help...
Then I found a correct answer, and decide to share!

And we thank you for telling us where you located the source of the smell. Most bad shower smells come from the drain and you gave us a new place to check. We try to keep our complaints current and cluttering up the page with old threads. I wasn't coming down on you for your input which gives us a new source to check. Thanks again, Tom

BAM is right! We spent time using bleach, baking soda with vinegar, flushing the vents from the roof. We tried everything except calling a plumber. Thank God we didn't! We removed the strainer, dug out the old caulking, scrubbed away any slime that we found (down into the drain as well) with some Comet, and now the smell is gone! These posts and replies saved us $$$. Thank You!