Sewer smell i bathroom coming from the Ventilation

[Logan.wooo]

Hi everyone on the forum. I am new and in need of help..

I just moved in the new apartment in a new building that has just finished the construction process.

The apartment is on two floors with two bathrooms one directly on top of another.

Both bathrooms smell on the actual sewer. Like from the city sewer.

I was present a lot during the construction process and saw everything (well almost).

The smell originates from the ventilation fan in the bathrooms. The smell gets way way worse if I turn on the ventilator.

Here is the deal. There are four PVC pipes one next to another and they are in a corner of the bathrooms. The first one is a sewer pipe. Literally all of the toilets, sinks, bathtubs and etc connect to it. Other 3 are for ventilations for the entire building in this building wing.

Those 4 pipes serve my apartment and 4 apartments beneath me.

One of those ventilation pipes is dedicated to my two bathrooms.

I have a reason to believe that the contractor purposely connected that specific ventilation pipe to the sewer pipe. If he did that I will rip him to shreds legally speaking. But let's not go there yet maybe I am wrong. Reason why I believe that is because they did these kind of things to me before and all because I scolded them for not following any regulations or safety measures or for work that is really substandard like for mixing up the hot and cold water pipes when connecting them to the bathtub, installing really weak electric breaker, using 2inches of tile adhesive to correct the curved wall with the tiles (which broke off) and etc. So they hate me for bringing up the obvious problems and demanding repairs.

I tried pouring water in all of the bathrooms floor drainage, the toilet has water and is well connected to the wall, the bathtubs are in use and etc. The smell doesn't originate from any of these elements.

Literally when you place your face near the ventilator you feel the sewer smell and when you turn it on for a minute or two it all goes to hell.

All ventilations have access to the roof and the sewer pipe also has a head on the roof.

Is there anything else I am missing?

I am thinking of filming the inside of the ventilation pipe with a camera and if the pipe connects with the sewer pipe... Well lets just say someone's is in big trouble.

 

[Terry]

Does the ventilator pull air from the bathroom and push it up to the roof?
Or is the ventilator for bringing in cool air from outside?

If that is an intake fan, then it should not pull air close by the plumbing vents.

With a plumbing system, the vents do tie into the waste pipes.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Logan.wooo]

Hi Terry,

I am not sure I understood what you meant. I am sorry.

But the ventilator pulls the air through the PVC pipe through and above the roof where is the cap of that ventilation pipe

 

[Reach4]

Usually a bathroom vent fan pulls air from the bathroom to outside.

Sabotage does seem likely based on your description. A sewer camera could look up the pipe.

A smoke test or peppermint test could be useful, but you might need access to the roof. A person injecting the peppermint or smoke in an adjacent apartment that shares venting might be good enough. I am not a professional. I bring these up for you to search for more information.

 

[Terry]

If that is a bathroom fan for ventilation, removing moist air from the bathroom, the ducting should not be connected to any of the plumbing pipes.

 

[Logan.wooo]

Thank you for your responses!
My fan also sticks paper to itself like in your image. The suction keeps it sticked.

I will hopefully soon uncover who did what and what is the problem.

Will update once it is figured out!

 

[Nebojsa]

Sounds like the bathroom fan is not independent with its own exhaust pipe/hose. Probably hooked it to the vent/sewer line.

 

[WorthFlorida]

You should look outside the building and see a vent pipe going through the roof. The bathroom vent can exit the wall or the roof. Do you have a flat roof or is it pitched? There are roof vent hoods for bathroom and dryer exhaust made for pitch roofs. If there is attic space and you can get access, check there.

I asked about the roof because where I worked at one time, we had a very heavy sewer smell every morning as the building was opened up. A flat roof has a wall at the wall of the building. Sometime is is less than a 1/4 meter (a curb) or as high as 2 meters. With a high wall and the vent is just above the roof level, sewer gas gets trapped in the bowl like structure. Overnight the winds are generally calm so the gas did not dissipate. The air conditioning fresh air exchange was nearby and it would suck in the sewer gas. The fix was the vent pipe was extended above the wall level.

 

[Nebojsa]

Familiar with that region ,maybe to much slivivica during construction.