Hello, I have been experiencing a foul smell coming from my sons bathtub. It seems to be coming from the round trap on top of the drain. I have unscrewed it and poured bleach into the pipe but the odor comes back. It smells like a gassy, faucet smell, mind you it's a one year old tub. Please help me. I don't know what to do. Evelyn in Miami, Fl.

The smell is from the hair and the soap, You say you have tried bleach correct, when you poured the bleach did you wait over night and did you poured hot water the next day if not do this tonight before you go to bed, pour 1/4 of a of a gallon beach and let it stay in the drain, when you get up in the morning pour a bucket or 2 of very hot (boiling) water in to the tub and turn on the faucet to flush out the hair and soap, if this would not help, get back to us we tell you else needs to be done, Good Luck.

John

Thank you will try that.

When you unscrew drain do you see water?May have leak in p-trap or no trap at all.P-trap is water seal to keep sewer gas from backing up.Did you install new plumbing yoursself?

No, I don't have any water, but maybe the person that remodeled my bathroom didn't put a trap. He is an older man and is sick now. However thank you and I will look into that.

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Originally Posted by cmebravo

Hello, I have been experiencing a foul smell coming from my sons bathtub. It seems to be coming from the round trap on top of the drain. I have unscrewed it and poured bleach into the pipe but the odor comes back. It smells like a gassy, faucet smell, mind you its a one year old tub. Please help me. I dont know what to do. Evelyn in Miami, Fl.

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Hi Evelyn! Greetings from Sarasota.
John was bang on, the smell comes from rotting hair and grease. To make sure the drain line's clear the best way is to snake the drain, (see image).
Unscrew and remove the overflow plate,(The one with the drain lever) and pull out the tub stopper. You now have a clear shot at the trap. The way you were going in through the drain it ran you square into a tee that you can't get around. Now feed the cable( 1/4" best or 3/3" with a small tip. You can rent a Ridgid K50 sink cable.) About 2' down you will run into the bend of the trap. Crank and push at the same time to work around it. Your blockage will be found in the lateral pipe going to the stack. You shouldn't have to put out more then 10 or 12 feet. I have found tub and shower clogs to be mostly hair and the worm should auger into it and pull it back. Hope this helps and thank you for rating my reply. TOM

Tom,, thanks for the info, however we have done that already, we ran the snake through the pipes and the smell went away for a couple of weeks or maybe more but now its back. Do you think there is something wrong with the pipes. The plumber we use is an older man and he brought an electric snake and said pipes were clean. I can't figure out what it could be. Do you think there could be a crack in the pipes. Evelyn