Proper Installation Bath Lav...

Over the past year or more a sewer-like odor has been apparent when using either of my bath lavs. I thought it was coming from the water supply, but recently when cleaning the sink stopper I found that the problem was foul gunk that had built up in the drain, trap , and waste line. Since there was so much gunk and it was so foul, I have decided to replace the corroded drain and the trap.

My question is: should the drain have ever reached this state of pollution or should the waste line be reasonably self clearing? Installation was approximately 15 yrs ago.

Attached are 2 photos showing the drain, trap , and waste line. The vertical distance from the bottom of the sink to the center of the waste is 5.75 in. and horizontal distance from the center of the sink to the 2" waste entry connection is 7". The Drain and trap are 1.25 in Black Plastic. The waste line from the junction to the sheetrock entry is -very- slightly sloped the wrong way (low side toward drain.) Though the slope is quite small, it definitely does not slope toward the main waste outlet. Is this the cause of the fouling? If so, is there any reasonable solution short of ripping sheet rock and rebuilding the waste line? Thanks for any help.

Most lavs collect gunk of some sort.
You can pull out the stopper, and run a hand snake through, and that should clear things out pretty well.
If you can get the drain to grade better, that would be nice, it's been working fifteen years though, it must not be that bad.

A nice touch, is also putting in some cleaning enzymes like Bio-Clean every so often.

Thanks for the quick reply, Terry. I'll snake the waste and am waiting for delivery of new faucet and drain hardware. The Bio-Clean sounds like a good approach going forward.

(cool pics of Alpental in May. I learned to ski there in '70-'71 - probably hasn't changed all that much!!)