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Gas odour - fosse problem?


flower
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Hi all,

I hope someone out there might be able to identify a problem we have. We have a really strong gassy odour in 2 rooms of our house. We have recently had a new fosse installed and do not know if it is related. It is quite hard to pinpoint exactly where the smell comes from but it appears to sometimes come from the series of waste pipes that we have. All the plumbing is new and sealed so there are no obvious leaks and what we find strange is the type of smell. It really is very gassy, not like the odour of when there is no smell trap/u-bend. There are no smells in the bathrooms, only the rooms where the waste pipes pass. The fosse itself has been correctly vented outside so we are completely baffled as to what to do, but we really need to do something in a hurry as the smell is almost unbearable.[+o(]

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thankyou.

Flower

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The only thing I can think of (assuming there is no smell outside the building eminating from the fosse which may permeate the walls ) is that the waste pipes are syphoning the water from the waste traps of whatever they are connected to.

If you have a longish run of wastepipe, when you empty the bath/basin or whatever, the waste water fills the pipe and this induces a vacuum behind it as it flows away down the pipe. This vacuum will suck the waste water from the waste traps and let gasses from the drains into the room.

If this is the case, after emptying the bath or whatever, wait a few minutes and run a very small amount of water into the appliance to replenish the water in the waste trap.

The permanent cure for this problem is to fit anti syphon valves to each wastepipe as near as possible to the bath/basin. 

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Its sounds very much like a fosse problem as the smell sometimes can very ideed like a gas, it is in fact a gas of a kind, it will settle at lower point as it is heavier than air, so it may be leaking from the bathrooms or sinks etc and ending up more collected in the rooms that you mention. I would give the fosse a re start treatment you can buy these at most brico places and possible talk to your fosse installer for their advice. Another thought is may be you had SPANK involved in your planning for the fosse and for your certificate of conformity, they I'm sure would be able to advise if you contact them.

Lilly

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A  friend who had this problem( in a new installation ) found that the installer had terminated a breather pipe in the roof-space, this was not a one-off aberration ,as I have seen it in another newish house; the answer was to extend the pipe through the roof.

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Thanks everyone for the replies. Jondeau, the suggestion about the water being syphoned from the traps kind of made sense and I think that might have helped us solve the problem (fingers crossed). We have a downstairs toilet still to be installed and in the meantime the 100mm waste pipe has just been capped off. I have put on a U-bend and filled it with water and the smell instantly disappeared. That was yesterday morning and so far so good. Do you think it sounds feasible that it was that causing the smell? Just worried I'm being teased and it'll be back with a vengeance tomorrow!! [:D]

Thanks very much again.

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[quote user="flower"]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Jondeau, the suggestion about the water being syphoned from the traps kind of made sense and I think that might have helped us solve the problem (fingers crossed). We have a downstairs toilet still to be installed and in the meantime the 100mm waste pipe has just been capped off. I have put on a U-bend and filled it with water and the smell instantly disappeared. That was yesterday morning and so far so good. Do you think it sounds feasible that it was that causing the smell? Just worried I'm being teased and it'll be back with a vengeance tomorrow!! [:D]

Thanks very much again.

[/quote]

 Very likely,

      When we first moved in we had a similar smell problem which turned out to have been caused by the previous tenant's DIY plumbing-in of a washing machine,the waste pipe not having a U bend. As soon as this was rectified the smell disappeared for good.

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