How to Get Rid of the Smell of Sewage From the Shower Pipe

You are in the shower, washing your hair with shampoo and suddenly you smell something unpleasant. Something smells like sewer. The first thing you feel is that it is coming from the toilet. This may be true, but it could also come from your shower drain. Here are some examples of what can be behind the stench and how to get rid of it.

How to get rid of sewer smell in shower drain

There are several potential sources of sewage odor coming from the shower, tub, or sink drain. Because drains are not outdoors, it often takes trial and error to figure out what needs to be fixed to get rid of the smell. It’s best to start with the simplest solution and work from there.

clogged drain

Sometimes it’s obvious when your drain is clogged. In other cases, the drain may appear to work, but in reality it comes close to filling up and blocking.

If you’ve never cleaned your shower drain before, you might be wondering how this can be the cause of the sewage smell. In that case, buckle up: things are about to get ugly.

Sure, there’s probably a lot of hair down there, but the bad smell usually comes from a bunch of other slimy grime caught along with it: dead skin, bacteria, soap suds, body oils, debris, biofilm , and whatever else you put on top of it. earth. shower drain.

Lifehacker has published several articles on drain cleaning over the years, so take a look at the various methods and pick one.

Dry or dirty P-trap

A P-trap or drain trap is a U-shaped section of pipe that permanently retains a small amount of water to prevent sewer gases from entering through the drain. So when the P-traps dry out, your bathroom can smell pretty bad.

This is most common in showers that are rarely used , such as a guest bathroom, or that have not been used for a while, such as if you have been out of town for an extended period of time. If this is the cause of the smell, run the shower for about a minute to fill the pipe and this should help.

On the other hand, if you shower regularly, the siphon may be dirty. To clean it , pour one cup of hot water down the drain, let it soak for a minute, then pour one cup of undiluted chlorine bleach. Leave it overnight and your P-trap should be clean, sanitized and odorless by the next morning.

If you try both methods and suspect that the smell is coming from your P-trap, it may be broken. In this case, you need to call a specialist.

Leaky pipes

If none of the solutions above worked, you may be dealing with leaky pipes in your walls or under your shower. Shower wastewater and/or sewer gases can seep through cracks or broken connections in pipes, causing the bathroom to smell like sewage. Finding and fixing a leak is a more complex project that is best left to professionals.