my s traps stink

After the property being vacant for 4 weeks the s traps have a strong odour. Flushing water down them helps. Mainly smell from shower and laundry drain.
I don't want to put anything too strong down them as it is a septic tank, with overflow into the town system.

Any suggestions?

Stirling
 
Stirling

Put a spoonful or so of bi-carbonate of soda (bi-carb) down the drain, and pour a bit of cheap white vinegar down after it.

Lots of fizzing, then flush with plenty of cold water.

Use a rubber plunger vigourously, flush again, then bi-carb & vinegar again and more flushing.

I defy any nasty smell-making organisms to withstand this environmentally friendly cure-all for smelly drains.

If the property is going to be vacant for a while, pour a little vinegar down all the drains with S traps. The vinegar smell dissapears quite quickly, and when you next go into the house you won't have that stale drain smell.

A few drops of 'Nil-Odor' works wonders, too. Shake a drop or two in each room and it really does neutralise odours.

Cheers

Kristine
 
What could be happening is the water is evaporating from the traps (because they are not being used regularly). A teaspoon of vegatable oil stops the evaporation.
If it is only one or 2 drains in an immediate area, the thing that goes up the roof (gets rid of odours) could be blocked with birds etc.
 
Thanks Kristine and Adam,

The non existant vent could be part of the problem. I have permanently removed the inspection plugs to vent the pipes. (Although the septic tank has a vent).

Stirling
 
I have just bought s-traps for my sinks so i havent experienced any smell down them!

But being new to putting plumbing pipes in, i asked the question, what is the s-trap for? And the salesman/plumber said.. it's to stop the smell coming up thru the pipe so it holds water in there. Obviosly once he said that i new instantly the water stopped air from going up the pipe in the sink hole.

So it's not as simple as cleaning out the s-trap is it?

As well as the vinigar and bi-carb it should cure it somewhere.

I am going to instal the s-traps that i've got so that they can all be easily taken apart just by unscrewing them to clean! Don't know if your are glued like ive noticed some of them. To which i see no purpose in doing if the downflow is set up right.

It seems to me that the s-traps are not serving there purpose, so maybee the s-traps themselves are dirty :rolleyes: .
 
Hi Jaffasoft

<<being new to putting plumbing pipes in>>

Oh dear I'm going to be a killjoy now -

Are you a licensed plumber? There are lots of do-it-yourself projects which don't need a licensed tradesperson to do, but plumbing is not one of them.

Nor electrics.

Nor roofing.

Check your insurance policy: If you install plumbing yourself and there are burst pipes or drains which overflow, will your insurance cover the damage?

Better to pay a couple of hundred dollars now than be faced with a damage bill later.

Kristine
 
I did all the plumbing myself, the electricals myself and the biulding, roofing walls painting, windows, in fact i have biult a whole house myself from the ground up:rolleyes:, there was dirt there before.

But of coarse i have got a lot of advise along the way, lot's of people can tell me how to biuld but nobody has helped me biuld it.

For the electricals ,my friend, solar electrician is guiding me along the way and will be checking off all the wiring for insurance purposes. Same as the local plumber will be down, I'm def going to get him to finish the gas lines off and check everything for safety.

The roof is new to me. This is a hobby small houseboat i'm biulding, i don't know how i will go with insurance yet. As far as i know i will get the qualified ppl to check each area of construction and see if it qualifies for insurance.

For example the electrician said i have to have all the 12V lights and power pionts on separate lines and the batteries in a sealed area with curculation airvents from the ouside. So today i changed the wiring so that it's right for insurance ( in the electrical deppartment anyway).

Opps i forgot to give mention to the local carpenter who came down and we both made the wood work frame which was the original structure. I wasn't sure how to do that bit. But after doing what we did, i can see myself doing another one.

i should have really been a carpenter, it's really good fun.
 
Hello Kristine AKA Mr Brittis
If we all followed the official guidelines for doing things around the house, and always got the appropriate tradespeople to do each job, you would find that most people without a piece of paper would not be able to pick up a spanner.
As far as roofing is concerned, it must be a state thing because in SA I don't think there is any such thing as a roofing trade, that is why the industry is full of cowboys.
I agree that it is important to have appropriate trade certificates when doing paid work, however I disagree with the way homeowners are constantly beeing bombarded by new and often silly regulations.
There is an easy solution and that is as follows : EDUCATION
A 6 week plumbers course for home owners
A 6 week electrician course for home owners
Basic building techniques for homeowners.

There are about 5 jobs of each trade a home owner / renovator would commonly come across, after that leave the rest to the experts.
If a home owner does these courses, then that should enable them to undertake specific jobs around the house, then increase the fines/ penalty for undertaking work outside those common areas that they have qualified for.
Give the homeowner a logbook, where he must list all work undertaken in the house that utilizes these skills, if the house is ever sold a compulsory building inspection should be undertaken and cross referenced with the log book.

I have 7 years experience working with all types of power including 3 phase 440V, without the safety of an earthing system in place (warships dont have earthing systems for obvious reasons), and Im still here, yet It is illegal for me to connect a faceplate to 3 wires in my own home.
People drive like morons every day of the week, risking peoples lives without a second thought, they all have licences (they even get a photo, they must know how to drive). A bit of paper does not always mean the person knows what they are doing, however maybe by educating someone that the reason you turn your lights on in poor light is not for your benefit, but for the benefit of other road users, or that following 30cm behind a car travelling at 80 km is not safemaybe some of that information may help people become better drivers (sometimes full lock brake tests help people learn as well). This holds true for all sorts of building work as well.
 
Hi Sterling. I have had success with a product called Actizyme,its available at supermarkets, you just put it down the drains & toilets and it takes away the smells,
as we use our grey water through a sprinkler system.

Regards Rob.
 
adaran01 said:
As far as roofing is concerned, it must be a state thing because in SA I don't think there is any such thing as a roofing trade, that is why the industry is full of cowboys.

Hi Adaran

This is off the smelly drains track, but while it is commendable for us all to 'give it a go', there are nonetheless rules & regulations which I did not compile but which I, as everybody else, are bound by.

One set of regulations is the Building Code of Australia, which now incorporates AS3500, which is the Plumbing Standard.

Therefore, throughout Australia, roofed structures must have permits and stormwater drainage if over a certain size.

Windload on roofed structures can be quite severe, and above latitude 23o is considered to be in cyclone areas and thus roofing structure is critical.

It's great that we think we can be a law unto ourselves. However, if our 'handyman' roof ends up in the neighbours loungeroom they may not be very pleased.

The BCA has evolved over time and is there to establish the engineering requirements for work. Ditto Electrical codes. I have a bit of a thing about electricity and death, but maybe I'm just squeamish.

I'd rather pay Ray, my friendly electrician, $150 to install a powerpoint, than to do a handyman job which resulted in a fire or someone's death. As a landlord I have had complete rewires done and thrown out enormous quantities of handyman wiring cos I'd rather have my tenants alive than fried to a crisp.

Anyway, the Spartans died out because of their unfortunate social habit of killing the messenger. If we all just sat about saying 'tut tut silly old rules well what about that, then' we would still be back in the dark ages.

The fact that Australia has some of the safest housing in the world is because we have taken the trouble to develop a set of building codes and more importantly adhere to those codes.

I make no apology for thinking that building regulations are important.

Cheers

Kristine

I have disabled the reputation thingy so you can all save your negative reputation votes for someone else.
 
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