We are buying this 26 yrs old house with a septic system. The walkout level basement is finished with a full bath.

The main drain is 6 feet higher than the basement floor. So the basement designer used a Qwik Jon system (a zoeller pump) to pump the basement sewage up to the main drain. The pump is behind the drywall.

The bathroom hasn't been used for quite a while.In the day of home inspection, the inspector used the basement toilet. The sewer smell emergies after he flushed the toilet. The exhaust fan doesn't help a bit.

As long as we close the bathroom, the other parts of basement have no sewer smell. The utility room is 5 feet from the zoeller pump and we can't smell anything there.


After reading most of related posts in this forum, I guess the smell comes from either shower drain or toilet.

If it's from shower drain, what should we do?
My step: 1. confirm the existence of the P trap.
2. check the P trap is dried out or not.
3. pour 1/2 gallon bleach for over 24 hours, then use boiling water to flush the shower drain.

If the smell comes from the toilet. We first need to check the wax seal is bad or not. The
Instruction of the Qwik Jon system says we need the special wax seal coming with the
System. We couldn't find it in the market. Can we just use any other thin wax seal instead?
We will also pour some bleach and boiling water into toilet to see it helps or not.

Any comments?

So what did the inspector have to say about the house plumbing? How long was the house vacant or unused? That sewage ejector is not supposed to be sealed behind a wall, it needs period service. The pit with the ejector needs a vent and you probably can't check that with the pesky old wall in place. Is there anyone living in this house now?

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

So what did the inspector have to say about the house plumbing?? How long was the house vacant or unused? Thgat sewage ejector is not supposed to be sealed behind a wall, it needs period service. The pit with the ejector needs a vent and you probably can't check that with the pesky old wall in place. Is there anyone living in this house now?

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The inspector said the bathroom design is poor and he has no idea how to deal with it.

The house is vacant for about 2 months.

There is a 18 inch by 18 inch hole in the drywall. The hole is covered by an easy removed plastic board.

The vent should be OK. Otherwise we should have sewer smell in the utility room.

Could you please explain what kind of "period service" we should have to maintain the sewage ejector?

Thanks a lot.

Sewage ejectors last 5 -15 years if you have a good one so being able to get back to the pit for replacement is necessary. I suspect that sealed pit and pipe connection are not so well sealed. With the panel removed can you get back there to check?

Send us some pictures.

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The inspector said the bathroom design is poor and he has no idea how to deal with it.

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Please expand on that and give us details. What didn't he like?
I would check the seals on the pit and replace them if found faulty. Also the ejector system should have two vents. One venting the fixtures which can be connected back to a existing dry vent and a dedicated vent that runs from the pit through the roof without connecting back to anything. Are those vents in place? Let me know. Tom