[ErnieC]

I read a discussion on this forum that occurred in 2005. Several people noted they had sewer like smell coming from a single shower drain. Speedball1 had several suggestions regarding cleaning out hair or other biological material from the drain. Some of the questioners tried all the suggestions to no avail.

My situation is similar. I know it is coming from the drain because when I tape up the drain the smell stops. When I remove the tape after several days it is powerful. The drain has been snaked without finding anything. I have used various materials. Roebek (spell ?) drain cleaner / septic tank cleaner with live bacteria seems to eliminate the fowl smell for a couple days. Then it's back again. This has been going on for several years. The trap is always full of water and a plumber cut a hole in the ceiling below the shower and said the plumbing to the shower looked normal.

Any further suggestions or solutions from anyone?

Thanks,
Ernie

[speedball1]

Hi Ernie,

The odor is caused by rotting hair matted in with grease from the soap. If you've tred all the remedies including all night standing bleach followed by flushing with boilng water then you've just about exhausted the standard methods. And yet you've missed something because the odor's still there.
I once had a problem similar to yours coming from a floor drain in a restaurant. The smell was so bad the inspector was going to red tag the business and close the doors. I figured the odor was from rancid and rotting grease that had built up on the pipe walls and that a snake couldn't dislodge.
I solved the problem by renting a steam jenny and shooting steam though the line to melt the grease followed by large pans of boiling water to flush it out into the main. Since I had tried everything else this was a last attempt "hail Mary" shot to make the restaurant manager and the inspector happy. It worked. The line was clean and the smell was gone.
Earnie, since you've tried everything else you might want to consider this.
Good luck and let me know how you make out. Tom

[aqua@home]

How do you do the all night standing bleach??

[speedball1]

How do you do the all night standing bleach???

It's simple. At night before bedtime pour a gallon of bleach down the drain and let it set overnight. Next morning flush it out with a few large pans of boiling water.
The bleach will start to dissolve the hair and grease and the boiling water,(this is important ) will melt the grease and flush it out into the main.

[ErnieC]

Hi Ernie,

The odor is caused by rotting hair matted in with grease from the soap. If you've tred all the remedies including all night standing bleach followed by flushing with boilng water then you've just about exhausted the standard methods. And yet you've missed something because the odor's still there.
I once had a problem similar to yours coming from a floor drain in a restaurant. The smell was so bad the inspector was going to red tag the business and close the doors. I figured the odor was from rancid and rotting grease that had built up on the pipe walls and that a snake couldn't dislodge.
I solved the problem by renting a steam jenny and shooting steam though the line to melt the grease followed by large pans of boiling water to flush it out into the main. Since I had tried everything else this was a last attempt "hail Mary" shot to make the restaurant manager and the inspector happy. It worked. The line was clean and the smell was gone.
Earnie, since you've tried everything else you might want to consider this.
Good luck and let me know how you make out. Tom

Tom:

Thanks for your speedy reply. Just getting involved in this forum got my enthusiasm up again to pull the stainer plate and try to clean out the pipe leading to the trap. There was a lot of black yuck stuck to the pipe wall and on a small ledge where the drain pipe got smaller leading into the trap. So I poured bleach on everything and let it set. Then I took a toilet brush and cut the wire bristle portion in half at the tip. This make the brush section like two J shaped bottle brushes. I bent one straight and bent the other and spiraled around the handle. Then I used the modified brush to scrub everything from the pipe entrance down quite a way into the trap. Then I ran hot water from the shower to wash it all down, followed by about a gallon and a half of boiling water. Finally I poured a commercial drain freshener in and let it sit overnight (last night). Today it looks clean and smells clean. I think all that yuck may have been the source of the extreme fowl sewer like odor. I would not have thought it could have produced so much odor. But perhaps it did. The real test will be after a couple weeks of use.

Nice forum. I'm glad I found it.

Best regards to all,
Ernie

[speedball1]

Hi Ernie,

Glad your smell's gone. Please let us know if it's permanent. Regards, Tom

[jfrwhipple]

That nasty smell in your shower could be the glue used to hold the little tiles to the larger 1'x1' sheets. I'm finding that many tiles are sold and have a water based glue that holds them to the sheets and it is this glue that smells once it's wet.

Ensure you soak test your tiles prior to installing them and checking that the glue is not water based and does not cover more than 10-20% of the tile.

If your tiles start falling off or you find that the tiles are fully covered with glue you should not use them on your project. If your new shower smells try testing this therory with a left over tile sheet.

Good Luck,

John Whipple