Horrid smell from the shower!!!

We recently sold our home and the buyer's inspector said we had a leak in the shower pan. The grout had come off around the drain. After 3 plumbers, the 3rd one replaced the flanged drain pipe and regrouted/cemented the drain cover. It has been 2 and a half months and we have just heard from the new owners that there is now a horrid smell coming from the shower and they can no longer use the bathroom due to the smell and of course, they want us to remedy this since we had the drain repaired. At this point I don't know what the problem is. I have talked to the plumber who wants nothing to do with it now and says it is not his problem. Any suggestions as to what this "horrid smell" could be caused by and if it could be a result of the repair that was done? We did not experience this when we were living in the house.

I don't know if there is any way to get the plumber that did the repair to go back and make the job right or not. The fact that you no longer own the house shouldn't make any difference, but I'm no legal expert. It also depends on what, if any, guarentee was made on the work. I'm thinking that even if you could eventually force him back, it would take time and you can't take time. You have to make the problem right even if that means paying another plumber to replace the shower completely. If you don't fix it promptly, you could be taken to court and forced to do it, so better do it now without having to pay lawyers as well as plumbers.

If (and it is much more common than you'd think) the shower was not installed properly, it may need a total rebuild to remedy the problem. For whatever reason, many installers think that the shower pan should be flat on the floor then you build a sloped floor on top of it. Problem is, any moisture that gets through the grout and cracks, migrates to the bottom of the mudbed under the tile, sits there as stagnent water and unless given enough time inbetween getting rewetted, will smell like a swamp...a nasty one at that. If there were leaks, the floor and walls may be all moldy and rotten, too. Hard to tell, but this might end up costing you a fair amount to fix. Course, it could just be the drain needs a good scouring, too. If so, that's a quick fix.

Are there any signs of water leakage?

You might want to discuss this at www.johnbridge.com I'm assuming that this is a tiled shower?

The first thing I would do is put some bleach down the drain. Let is sit in the trap for a while so the evaporating chlorine will kill everything nearby. If the odor goes away, then it is an operating maintenance problem.

At what point do private sale warrantys end? The drain was fixed, apparently to the satisfaction of the owner or the owner's inspector. Can they keep coming back to you forever?

Horrid Smell

Thanks all, does it make a difference that the shower bottom is a one-piece thing and not tiled as is the rest of the shower. We only lived in the house 2 years and the shower is exactly like we bought it. I just can't imagine what the smell could be from if nothing was changed except the drain. I'm baffled but will probably have to pay to put in a new shower for a house I no longer live in. Thank you for all your suggestions.

Look under the shower pan,

Does it have a p-trap connected to it?

warranty of problems

if the plumber fixed the problem and now they got a bad smell....

I would wash my hands of it ,,,, its their problem now .....


and for all you know they might just have some long
hair down the drain that is siphoning the trap

just tell them to call a plumber and have it cleaned out..