Removing the Sewerage smell in my home in Portugal This subject comes around now and again. People put up with the strong smell of drains or sewerage in their homes thinking this is what Portuguese houses are like.
They are not !
Lets look at the likely causes of this kind of smell. Normally a household sewerage system is fairly simple in design and fail proof in operation. Here are a few things that can go wrong in your home. The builder has used waste pipes that are too thin (small diameter) We often see examples where garden irrigation tube has been used because it cheep and to hand. Also very often waste pipes are lead across concrete floors and covered with a screed and tiles. To save money on a thicker screed (it’s just sand and cement) They lay thin pipes along a level surface. This causes poor drainage caused by air locks in the pipe, The pipes are easily blocked as there is very little flow speed. Some may even be a little uphill which can cause siphoning of the waste water back into your sink. Most drain smells from a sink can be cured by simply fitting a “U” bend under the sink. What about the WC if it’s causing a smell it could very likely that the person who fitted it did not use a pvc sleeve to connect the waste of the WC to the waste pipe. Very often WC pans are fitted on top of the floor tiles, approximately over the waste and everything is sealed with “the bodgers friend” White silicon. If the silicon comes loose the gasses from the drains will enter your bathroom or in extreme cases, yes we have met them. The gap between WC pan and waste pipe causes raw sewerage to run inside the floor causing dark yellow stains and mould on your ceilings. Nice! Occasionally you may detect a smell that builds up when you have visitors the longer they stay the more it smells. Don’t worry It’s not the visitors it’s the cesspit vent not being able to cope with the additional usage so that the gasses effectively “burp” through the drains or WC into your house. This is most common when outside atmospheric pressure changes.
If your cesspit has not got a vent, fit one they are cheep, don’t smell and are easy to install.
One other cause of the smells can be that the drainage system in your house has a vent pipe (stink pipe) which comes up inside your loft. To save money your builder hasn’t passed it through the roof tiles as it should be.
Don’t let you house smells drive you crazy. Contact info@Casteloconstruction.com – it could be easier and cheaper to fix that you think.
