[BlondeBrazilian]

Hi, guys. New here and in search of some advice. My house is 5 years old, we moved in about 6 months ago. About 2 months ago, we started noticing a very distinct fishy smell in one of the upstairs bathrooms. We narrowed it down to the bathtub drain (no other drain smells), poured some Liquid Plumber, which improved the situation somewhat.

However, the smell came back, and now it expanded into another bathtub drain (also upstairs but nowhere near the original one).

The smell is not musty - it's definitely fishy, like something died in there -- but how could it carry into another bathtub? I've been doing some reading and it sounds like it could be a clogged vent line - no gurgling sounds when the tubs are draining, but the smell seems to worsen when the tubs are used.

I have an appointment with a plumber but I'm afraid they won't be able to resolve this so any clues would be sincerely appreciated.


It's solved! After hiring a plumber who insisted it was our water heater (which is 5 years old) - note that his first words were "I have no idea what could be causing this" - we ended up figuring it out ourselves with a bit of luck. We have a bathroom downstairs in which the shower rarely gets used. Last time it was used was several months ago. My husband ran the water in the shower to fill the trap and voilà! No more smell.

It's interesting how the gases were traveling all the way up to the upstairs bathrooms but nowhere else in the house. Oh, well. I'm just so glad that he figured it out!

[speedball1]

Thanks for the update.
To prevent this from happening again fill the unused traps with cooking oil to prevent evaporation. Especially if you have a basement floor drain. Good luck, Tom