Odd case of sewer gas.

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Wildvortex

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Hi, I have a shower that after about 5 minutes in the shower I get the smell of sewer gas. After that initial time the smell goes away. I remodeled the bathroom and had no problems with a smell until about a year and a half later.
I have had the septic tank drained, ran a hose in the vent pipe to ensure that there was no blockage, and put a larger p trap in to ensure there would be water in the trap. Nothing has worked. I am dumbfounded and even asked a friend who was a plumber. We are all mistified.
Would love to get this figured out since I am the first to take a shower and get the gassing. Wife gets to take a smelless shower.
 

Reach4

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Is the smell maybe coming out of the lavatory or toilet rather than the shower drain?
 

Steve Bishop

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Did you ever get this problem figured out? I have exactly the same thing happening. No smell except when in the shower & for a bit after getting out. no other time. The smell is just in the shower area at the start.
 

Jadnashua

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An unfortunately very common build mistake in a shower is to put the liner flat on the floor verses having that liner sloped to the drain as required by the plumbing code. Way too many people and inspectors are guilty of not either knowing or enforcing that plumbing code issue. Neither tile nor grout is considered the waterproofing in a pan, it is the liner, and that must be sloped to the drain. If the liner is flat on the floor, after time, you are guaranteed to have some liquid water buildup underneath if the shower is used regularly. Combine this with any soap scum, body oils, etc. that may percolate down there, and you will have a cesspool. Stirring that up can make the shower smell nasty. Another issue that is all too common is for the weepholes on and even properly sloped liner to the drain eventually or originally blocked off, so that the water cannot drain. If the riser to the drain is excessive, or the drain is not directly underneath the shower grate, the p-trap can only protect you from sewer smells...there can be a lot of crud that accumulates on the drain above the p-trap. You may need to take the grate off, and use something like a bottle brush and clean it up.

Another common mistake is to puncture the liner or fail to seal the seams of the liner when it goes over the top of the curb. Code requires no penetrations to the liner below 2" above the top of the curb. Rather than doing it 'right', it is fairly common to nail or screw cement board over the curb...that will destroy things over time as you will not be able to make it waterproof...symptoms, cracked grout on the curb, and eventually, destroy the curb.

The normal symptoms are the smell, and wet grout on at least around the drain, but over time, it can extend back to the edges, and potentially even start to wick up the walls.
 
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