Posted by Jed Lewison on Sun Aug 12, 2007 at 8:35 PM Pacific

Stinky

Last September, a good friend of mine from college was in town. She came over to my house with her husband and their two young children, both boys. (Great kids, I might add!)

We spent the afternoon watching college football while her boys watched Shrek. Then we decided to head out for a barbecue dinner. Right before leaving, one of my friend's sons had to go to the bathroom. For him, peeing while standing was a relatively new experience, but he seemed to accomplish the task without major incident. (Apparently he hadn't yet learned about closing doors!)

A couple of days later, I began to notice quite a foul smell coming from that bathroom. Ugh! It was horrid. I figured that the kid must have sprayed all over the place. So I dutifully scrubbed the toilet, both inside and out, and even mopped the tile floor. To fill the mop bucket I used the bathtub. (This is a relevant detail.)

Wala! The foul odor was gone.

Well, about two weeks ago I began to smell the exact same aroma. So gross. I started to feel guilty for having blamed the young man for the stink. Obviously, I figured, the smell was a result of my bachelor-esque habit of not cleaning the bathroom as often as I should. Still, I toughed it out, electing to close the door. At the time, the smell was subtle, not overpowering.

Well yesterday it reached a breaking point, or a stinking point I should say. When I went shopping this morning, I purchased all sorts of cleaning agents to tackle this problem.

Then I realized something. The foul odor had gotten worse only after I had opened the shower curtain to adjust the blinds in the bathroom.

Could there be a dead animal in my shower tub? After all, I never use it. Or worse, could their be some sort of decaying scorpion colony or some other exotic southwestern bug?

Nope. Nothing.

Then I got another thought. What would happen if I turned on the water? Maybe the water would be brown and gross. So I turned it on. Nope. It ran clean. I let it run for a minute, just to be sure.

Then I left the bathroom to go get the cleaning supplies, ready to tackle my chore. When I returned, I noticed that the smell was gone. Huh? What had happened?

Could it be the smell was emanating from my drain? The thought had never occured to me. Yet it seemed the only logical explanation. How else could the smell just vanish?

To be sure, I filled the tub with hot water, and then let it drain. After two hours, the smell was still gone.

I desperately hoped that my problem was solved. So far, it appears that it has been solved. But why?

I did some Googling, and here's the best explanation I could find for what happened.

The traps in floor drains—or for that matter, any drains that haven’t been used often—will eventually dry out. This may sound harmless enough, but a dry trap can cause a room to fill with potentially harmful sewer gas from the septic tank or the city sewer system. Phew!

Eliminate this problem with a little fresh water topped with cooking oil (Photo 1). The oil floats on top of the water and seals it against evaporation. Your drain will hold water in the trap much longer.

I'm pretty sure this is it. I haven't used that drain in months -- I never shower there. My last house guests were here in May. And as you can guess, it's both hot and dry in Vegas. Things dry out fast. So now I've just gotta' keep it wet, and maybe add some oil to help keep it that way.

Thanks The Family Handyman for helping me figure this out. (Well, I hope I've figured it out.)

And I hope my friend's son will forgive me for having blamed him for stinking up my house! (To be fair, Inever did complain about it!)

Stinky

Last September, a good friend of mine from college was in town. She came over to my house with her husband and their two young children, both boys. (Great kids, I might add!)

We spent the afternoon watching college football while her boys watched Shrek. Then we decided to head out for a barbecue dinner. Right before leaving, one of my friend's sons had to go to the bathroom. For him, peeing while standing was a relatively new experience, but he seemed to accomplish the task without major incident. (Apparently he hadn't yet learned about closing doors!)

A couple of days later, I began to notice quite a foul smell coming from that bathroom. Ugh! It was horrid. I figured that the kid must have sprayed all over the place. So I dutifully scrubbed the toilet, both inside and out, and even mopped the tile floor. To fill the mop bucket I used the bathtub. (This is a relevant detail.)

Wala! The foul odor was gone.

Well, about two weeks ago I began to smell the exact same aroma. So gross. I started to feel guilty for having blamed the young man for the stink. Obviously, I figured, the smell was a result of my bachelor-esque habit of not cleaning the bathroom as often as I should. Still, I toughed it out, electing to close the door. At the time, the smell was subtle, not overpowering.

Well yesterday it reached a breaking point, or a stinking point I should say. When I went shopping this morning, I purchased all sorts of cleaning agents to tackle this problem.

Then I realized something. The foul odor had gotten worse only after I had opened the shower curtain to adjust the blinds in the bathroom.

Could there be a dead animal in my shower tub? After all, I never use it. Or worse, could their be some sort of decaying scorpion colony or some other exotic southwestern bug?

Nope. Nothing.

Then I got another thought. What would happen if I turned on the water? Maybe the water would be brown and gross. So I turned it on. Nope. It ran clean. I let it run for a minute, just to be sure.

Then I left the bathroom to go get the cleaning supplies, ready to tackle my chore. When I returned, I noticed that the smell was gone. Huh? What had happened?

Could it be the smell was emanating from my drain? The thought had never occured to me. Yet it seemed the only logical explanation. How else could the smell just vanish?

To be sure, I filled the tub with hot water, and then let it drain. After two hours, the smell was still gone.

I desperately hoped that my problem was solved. So far, it appears that it has been solved. But why?

I did some Googling, and here's the best explanation I could find for what happened.

The traps in floor drains—or for that matter, any drains that haven’t been used often—will eventually dry out. This may sound harmless enough, but a dry trap can cause a room to fill with potentially harmful sewer gas from the septic tank or the city sewer system. Phew!

Eliminate this problem with a little fresh water topped with cooking oil (Photo 1). The oil floats on top of the water and seals it against evaporation. Your drain will hold water in the trap much longer.

I'm pretty sure this is it. I haven't used that drain in months -- I never shower there. My last house guests were here in May. And as you can guess, it's both hot and dry in Vegas. Things dry out fast. So now I've just gotta' keep it wet, and maybe add some oil to help keep it that way.

Thanks The Family Handyman for helping me figure this out. (Well, I hope I've figured it out.)

And I hope my friend's son will forgive me for having blamed him for stinking up my house! (To be fair, Inever did complain about it!)

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