Customer Symptoms:

A homeowner called to complain about a bad sewage smell coming from the laundry room. The homeowner told us that they recently purchased a new dryer and washer and that it must be something from the plumbing end.

Issue:

Our technician went to the site and quickly realized what the problem was after inspecting the laundry room. It was an older house and had an S-trap in the laundry room sink drain, causing the bad sewage smell.

Resolution:

We told the homeowner that the S-trap was most likely the reason for the bad sewage smell that they were experiencing. In addition to the problem, it is now a code violation in the area. The S-trap created a negative pressure and sucked the water from the trap, allowing the sewage smell to move upwards into the home. The homeowner was comfortable with us replacing the S-trap with a new P-trap. We installed the new fixture, and the homeowner contacted us a few days later to report that the smell was gone.