Odors from the drain in the laundary room.

[Hobiecatter]

Normally it's fine, but when someone takes a "#2" in one of our 3 bathrooms, you can smell it from the drain in the laundary room which is located way on the other side of the house.

Is this normal?

Is there any way to fix this occurence?

 

[Layne]

Is the laundry room in use? My girlfriend's apartment had this problem since she didn't have a washer and the trap apparently evaporated dry. I suspect you are using the washer though and your problem is much more complicated, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Terry]

If it's a floor drain, put some water in it.
If it's the washer drain, make sure it has a p-trap.

 

[Jadnashua]

If the washer standpipe is not vented, it could be getting sucked dry when the toilet flushes...if that's the case, then you need to add a vent (which it should already have).

 

[Hobiecatter]

OK yeah thanks all.

I have actually only noticed this once yesterday so I will keep monitoring it. It is a vented drain for the washing machine and just washed some clothes an hour or two before that. It runs every other day too so it must have just been a "strong" one.

I'm about to have a plumber install a water softener and he will be using this same vent pipe in the attic to (acurately) drain into. So I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any other issues before I start this softener project which will be using this drain.

Theoretically, based on what youv'e said, it may actually help my situation since water will be running down the drain once a week from a much higher point of the drain pipe.

 

[hj]

IS there a floor drain in the laundry room, possibly under the washer? Running water down the vent will have absolutely NO effect on any odor condition.

 

[Jadnashua]

A vent is no longer a vent once you use it for a drain...

 

[hj]

In this case the difference is academic, and vents are OFTEN used for the softener discharge without affecting the original fixures to ANY extent.