The bathroom is the one space in the house where everyone goes to wash dirt away, regenerate, and freshen up. Whether it is before bed or before work in the morning, conducting your grooming routine is important to how you feel and how you approach your day. No one wants to start or end their day in a bathroom that stinks. Brushing your teeth or taking a shower among a horrible odor coming from the plumbing in your bathroom could be nauseating.
Once you have thoroughly cleaned your bathroom and confirmed that the smell is not coming from an unflushed toilet or, garbage can that needs to be dumped. Check some of these common causes for bathroom odors:
Pipes are dry. If you look under the bathroom sink there is a “U” shaped piece of pipe that connects to the bottom of the sink. This fixture is called the P trap and in the curve of that U is a small amount of water that always sits there. The purpose of this water is to block smells from coming up through the drain. But, if that water has evaporated or leaked out the sewer gases that build up in your plumbing system will begin to drift up and out of the drain.
Pipes are clogged. When you take a shower or bath, brush your teeth, shave, or any of the many other grooming activities done in the bathroom you rinse residue down the drains. That residue is liquid as it goes down the drain, but solidifies inside of your plumbing pipes and traps things like hair, debris, and other materials. These clogs can develop bacteria which then begin to decompose and cause an odors.
Pipes are cracked. If you have a crack in a pipe and it is leaking water, that water could lead to dry rot inside the walls of your home or in your flooring. The dry rot grows mold and mildew and these fungi give off an odor. This can also occur if the toilet has overflowed and the water got between the floor and the subfloor.
If your bathroom has a mystery odor and you are concerned about what is causing it, don’t hesitate to contact a licensed, professional plumber. These situations can escalate quickly if there is a plumbing issue and an experienced plumber can help to limit the damage.