Bathroom sink smell

[Shaklee3]

Hi, I redid the plumbing on my bathroom sink, and the new sink is about 4" higher than the old one. I installed a new ptrap as part of the remodel. my wife says she's smelling sewer gasses when she turns on the water. since it's new piping I didn't think it could be biofilm, and the ptrap should have water in it since it's used continuously. any other ideas?

 

[John Gayewski]

Is that a 1.5" trap?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Shaklee3]

Is that a 1.5" trap?

Hi John, yes, it's a 1.25" tail into a 1.5" trap into the 2" drain on the wall.

 

[John Gayewski]

It looks like the tail piece might be too long. It normally shouldn't be a problem, but the two things I would try are. Offsetting the tailpiece with either two 45° fittings or a 90 tailpiece. And switching to a smaller trap. I think 1.25" all the way to the drain might help alone.

 

[Reach4]

I installed a new ptrap as part of the remodel. my wife says she's smelling sewer gasses when she turns on the water.

Is the smell in the sink bowl, under the sink, or from the wall?

If in doubt, separate areas with cheap plastic drop cloths. Sniff which side of the plastic has the smell.

 

[Terry]

It's easy enough to tell if there is water in the trap, just loosen the slip joint nut there on the swivel.
I don't see a problem with any of what I'm seeing there. And I always use 1.5" traps on those. I've installed maybe two 1.25" traps in the last year, because I was limited at the wall, not by choice.

The vertical from the stopper down the the trap can collect goo and hair pretty quickly. I'm always amazed at how quickly that happens, and would love to have the long haired people in the home learn how to clear those. But they do have other good qualities, so I figure it's still my job.

Last week, I did my normal fix for a client in Edmonds, pull the stopper, pull the trap, put a bowl under it first to catch water. Take some paper towel, wad it up, and then push it down from the top into the waiting bowl.
Yuck!!! Didn't really want to see that mess.
Now put it back together. The other thing you might do is to pour some Clorox down the overflow to clean that up a bit.

 

[Shaklee3]

thanks everyone! I didn't go missing... I tried the first suggestion of a 1.25" trap, but that didn't make any difference. my wife says she can smell it even when the water isn't running sometimes. @Reach4 it's not coming from the bowl since I smelled that by itself when the stopper was down and it was fine. I can try bleaching the overflow, but this is a new vanity so I didn't think it would come from there? I'll see if under the sink smells tomorrow.

oh, and yes @Terry Love there was water in the trap when I replaced the 1.5" since it came out as soon as the nut was loose.

 

[John Gayewski]

If there's water in the trap and your already at 1.25. Then it's time to start looking elsewhere.