# Bad Smells



## Monkey Hangers

We have moved into a rented property in El Algar which had been empty for some time. Been here 6 weeks now and keep getting really, I mean, REALLY bad smells downstairs.
We have a bathroom downstairs and a bedroom and we chose to use that bedroom as there is just the two of us. There are no signs of damp and if we sniff directly over the bath, toilet, bidet, sinks etc, nothing. There are no open drains near the outside of the back of the house, yet the bedroom regularly STINKS. The family bathroom is directly above us, but no signs of damp in our ceiling. I've tried loads of bleach, no different. These horrible drain smells hit you as soon as you walk in the front door. We moved the bed expecting to find something dead and decayed under there, nothing, closets, all clear.
The neighbours reckon it's because the houses are open under the floor and the smell is from the sewerage pipes underneath. We really can't believe theirs is as bad as ours, I'm paranoid my clothes and belongings are going to smell of drains. We are told to regularly fill the bath up and empty it while flushing the toilets.......this seems crazy and we are really unhappy about the situation. Any-one had similar experience?


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## xabiaxica

Monkey Hangers said:


> We have moved into a rented property in El Algar which had been empty for some time. Been here 6 weeks now and keep getting really, I mean, REALLY bad smells downstairs.
> We have a bathroom downstairs and a bedroom and we chose to use that bedroom as there is just the two of us. There are no signs of damp and if we sniff directly over the bath, toilet, bidet, sinks etc, nothing. There are no open drains near the outside of the back of the house, yet the bedroom regularly STINKS. The family bathroom is directly above us, but no signs of damp in our ceiling. I've tried loads of bleach, no different. These horrible drain smells hit you as soon as you walk in the front door. We moved the bed expecting to find something dead and decayed under there, nothing, closets, all clear.
> The neighbours reckon it's because the houses are open under the floor and the smell is from the sewerage pipes underneath. We really can't believe theirs is as bad as ours, I'm paranoid my clothes and belongings are going to smell of drains. We are told to regularly fill the bath up and empty it while flushing the toilets.......this seems crazy and we are really unhappy about the situation. Any-one had similar experience?




it _could_ be the drains under the properties - we get the occasional nasty niff in the street outside our kitchen - sometimes it's so bad we can't open the kitchen or downstairs bedroom windows, or the whole house stinks

I keep a plug in air freshener plugged in & turned on in the hall in the nearest socket to the kitchen & that bedroom

we had the same problem where we used to live a few years ago too - we were recommended to keep the plugs in the sinks & baths at all times, & flush the loo regularly even if you're not using it


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## Monkey Hangers

xabiachica said:


> it _could_ be the drains under the properties - we get the occasional nasty niff in the street outside our kitchen - sometimes it's so bad we can't open the kitchen or downstairs bedroom windows, or the whole house stinks
> 
> I keep a plug in air freshener plugged in & turned on in the hall in the nearest socket to the kitchen & that bedroom
> 
> we had the same problem where we used to live a few years ago too - we were recommended to keep the plugs in the sinks & baths at all times, & flush the loo regularly even if you're not using it



Thanks for that, so it is 'normal' then? I'd be interested to know if anyone has experienced this though, as it will be an important factor in where I want to live......at the moment, not impressed.


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## xabiaxica

Monkey Hangers said:


> Thanks for that, so it is 'normal' then? I'd be interested to know if anyone has experienced this though, as it will be an important factor in where I want to live......at the moment, not impressed.


I don't know about 'normal'

but it's happened to us in two different places, so maybe 'common'?


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## MaidenScotland

Have you a bidet that is not in use? We have the same problems here in Egypt and it usually turns out to be the bidet sewage pipe drying out, also id you have a drain in any of your floors make sure these have not dried out by poring water down them daily

Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


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## xabiaxica

MaidenScotland said:


> Have you a bidet that is not in use? We have the same problems here in Egypt and it usually turns out to be the bidet sewage pipe drying out, also id you have a drain in any of your floors make sure these have not dried out by poring water down them daily
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


oh yes!! I'd forgotten the bidets!!!


we run water down them regularly too & put a put the plug in at all times


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## nigele2

Monkey Hangers said:


> Thanks for that, so it is 'normal' then? I'd be interested to know if anyone has experienced this though, as it will be an important factor in where I want to live......at the moment, not impressed.


Monkey I was curious so I asked aroung my Spanish family. In Seville, Jaen, Madrid and Asturias, chalets and flats (even ground floor) and never a problem.

Is it a new building?

I guess you have given a good example of why it is so important to take the oft said advice here and rent first 

Bit surprised so few people use the bidet. Where the hell do you wash your socks :confused2:


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## xabiaxica

nigele2 said:


> Monkey I was curious so I asked aroung my Spanish family. In Seville, Jaen, Madrid and Asturias, chalets and flats (even ground floor) and never a problem.
> 
> Is it a new building?
> 
> I guess you have given a good example of why it is so important to take the oft said advice here and rent first
> 
> Bit surprised so few people use the bidet*. Where the hell do you wash your socks :confused2: *


in the washing machine................the _feet_ get washed in the bidet 


on both places I've experienced this problem I've been in a townhouse on a urb about 10 years old - maybe the drains just aren't up to the job of so many of us living here - I suspect they might have originally been intended as holiday homes - but certainly where I live now almost all seem to be lived in full time


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## owdoggy

Monkey Hangers said:


> We have moved into a rented property in El Algar which had been empty for some time. Been here 6 weeks now and keep getting really, I mean, REALLY bad smells downstairs.
> We have a bathroom downstairs and a bedroom and we chose to use that bedroom as there is just the two of us. There are no signs of damp and if we sniff directly over the bath, toilet, bidet, sinks etc, nothing. There are no open drains near the outside of the back of the house, yet the bedroom regularly STINKS. The family bathroom is directly above us, but no signs of damp in our ceiling. I've tried loads of bleach, no different. These horrible drain smells hit you as soon as you walk in the front door. We moved the bed expecting to find something dead and decayed under there, nothing, closets, all clear.
> The neighbours reckon it's because the houses are open under the floor and the smell is from the sewerage pipes underneath. We really can't believe theirs is as bad as ours, I'm paranoid my clothes and belongings are going to smell of drains. We are told to regularly fill the bath up and empty it while flushing the toilets.......this seems crazy and we are really unhappy about the situation. Any-one had similar experience?



Is your washing machine inside the house? I only ask because we had a drainy smell when we first moved in & traced it back to the drain at the back of the washer that had just been stuck into an open pipe.



Doggy







......... who used to live in Yarm.


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## snikpoh

The bad smell of drains is very common in Spain - it could be water evaporating from the traps, or (and more likely) bad fitting waste pipes.

Take a look at where all the waste pipes go into the wall (all of them so include w/m, dish washer etc.). Normally there is a tube in the wall into which the drain pipe goes - no traps some times. If they are badly fitted then the bad smells come up the pipe and seep out behind tiles etc.

Quite hard to get rid of - we have the same problem every time the wind is in a certain direction.


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## Monkey Hangers

Thank you everyone for your replies, much appreciated. I think the house is around 6 years old. Our neighbours did comment on the wind changing.....don't see why that would make such a niff in my bedroom when the windows are closed and there's no vents. Yes, the washer is inside the house, so hubby is going to pull that out and check it, good point about the bidet, will keep swilling that out. Also, going to keep the plugs in, fingers crossed!


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## baldilocks

Several causes come to mind based on experience:

Quite often, the Spanish do not fit U bends or P traps so there is no seal to prevent smells from the sewers
If there are traps check that there is not a wad of hair, threads or other linear detritus that can act as a capillary/syphon to drain the traps
If you have not had much rain, the smells can come from the sewers under the street
Check for hidden drains in the floors which may be under something (kitchen units, etc) these often have an integral trap that dries out and allows smells into the building. This was the case last New Year's Eve when at a neighbour's house, there was an awful stink and it was a case of moving a heavy settee and pouring water into the drain.

Please don't invite any of us round until you manage to solve the problem!


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## snikpoh

Monkey Hangers said:


> Thank you everyone for your replies, much appreciated. I think the house is around 6 years old. Our neighbours did comment on the wind changing.....don't see why that would make such a niff in my bedroom when the windows are closed and there's no vents. Yes, the washer is inside the house, so hubby is going to pull that out and check it, good point about the bidet, will keep swilling that out. Also, going to keep the plugs in, fingers crossed!




Keeping the plug in can't possibly help!


What about the overflow hole in the sinks, baths, bidets etc? These all let the smells out as well. 


The problem really has to be fixed 'at source' - fit traps and seal all waste pipes.


The point about smells coming through the floors is extremely valid. We had a blockage in our rented apartment - cutting a very long story short, we had to break the floor in the middle of the bedroom only to find a junction of 4 waste outlets meeting in a square hole. There was no manhole cover and all the gasses were able to simply permeate up through the porcelain tiles


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## Monkey Hangers

snikpoh said:


> Keeping the plug in can't possibly help!
> 
> 
> What about the overflow hole in the sinks, baths, bidets etc? These all let the smells out as well.
> 
> 
> The problem really has to be fixed 'at source' - fit traps and seal all waste pipes.
> 
> 
> The point about smells coming through the floors is extremely valid. We had a blockage in our rented apartment - cutting a very long story short, we had to break the floor in the middle of the bedroom only to find a junction of 4 waste outlets meeting in a square hole. There was no manhole cover and all the gasses were able to simply permeate up through the porcelain tiles


That is sounding an awful lot more like it................


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## Monkey Hangers

*Bad Smell Update*

I have had a drain guy come out and flush the pipework, it's all clear, no blockage. So, this afternoon, he is coming back to dig under the house as he thinks that we have a collapsed drain box right underneath our bedroom 
I think the owner is in for a big bill. He said job could take four days, might have to have a little holiday somewhere.
In the meantime we have moved all our clothes out of there and are sleeping in a much smaller bed upstairs. (Doggy is hogging most of it )


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## thrax

Well, we have been told by experienced ex pats and Spanish folk that quite often the smell will come when the wind is from a certain direction. We didn't believe it at first but sure enough each time we had an easterly we got the smell. It is very common. There is a treatment available from Mercadona which is called Fosas Septicas and they resemble tea bags (don't try them as tea though) and all you do is flush one down the loo every week. They worked a treat for us.


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## Monkey Hangers

thrax said:


> Well, we have been told by experienced ex pats and Spanish folk that quite often the smell will come when the wind is from a certain direction. We didn't believe it at first but sure enough each time we had an easterly we got the smell. It is very common. There is a treatment available from Mercadona which is called Fosas Septicas and they resemble tea bags (don't try them as tea though) and all you do is flush one down the loo every week. They worked a treat for us.


Thanks for that, will bear it in mind for future smells, but this one, well, my husband removed the plastic surround for the light switches in the hall outside the bedroom, as the smell was coming up through the wall cavity, eurgh, we have a big problem under there! More little clues are now surfacing from neighbours, so we think it's been an underlying problem for some time now..........rising damp that has been fixed, hmmmmm......wonder why last tenants really left?


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## thrax

When we moved into our first villa we thought it was a real find. Rustic charm oozing out of the wooden beamed ceilings, everything we wanted. Until it rained on 18/19 December last year. The villa flooded. The four doors to the outside world were full of cracks and holes and let all the heat out. We had no heating at all to speak of, apart from a log fire which collapsed the first time we used it as it hadn't been built properly. And the smells came then. Our landlord's response? Oh well, this is normal in Spain. No problem at all.


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## Monkey Hangers

thrax said:


> When we moved into our first villa we thought it was a real find. Rustic charm oozing out of the wooden beamed ceilings, everything we wanted. Until it rained on 18/19 December last year. The villa flooded. The four doors to the outside world were full of cracks and holes and let all the heat out. We had no heating at all to speak of, apart from a log fire which collapsed the first time we used it as it hadn't been built properly. And the smells came then. Our landlord's response? Oh well, this is normal in Spain. No problem at all.


OOh no! Sounds horrendous.
Our guy came and dug up outside, sadly, there in no crawl space to get underneath. A neighbour has the plans as to where his drain lines are, although they proved to be pretty inaccurate. So, now, we go back to the owner, will he allow us to have the floor in the hall and bedroom dug up?


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## mrypg9

We lived in a house in Cerny Vul just outside Prague and depending on wind direction there was a vile smell in my bathroom and dressing room.
We traced it to a vent pipe just outside the dressing room window which wasn't tall enough to allow the wind to blow the smells away. Raising the pipe a metre would have helped but we moved to Spain!
Sounds as if your vile smells come from the same source but more difficult-to-fix location.
The only unpleasant odours we have now come from our well-fed Rhodesian Ridgeback who is doing his bit to contribute to global warming.


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## macdonner

MaidenScotland said:


> Have you a bidet that is not in use? We have the same problems here in Egypt and it usually turns out to be the bidet sewage pipe drying out, also id you have a drain in any of your floors make sure these have not dried out by poring water down them daily
> 
> Sent from my iPad using ExpatForum


Ahhh that may explain the pong that I get from the upstairs bathroom! There is a bidet in that one that we hardly use and the smell disappears after I give the room a once over with cleaning fluids once/twice a week. Thanks for the tip!!! This just leaves the problem of the 5 year old "wee" man missing the bowl in the downstairs one on a regular basis creating a similar smell


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## Monkey Hangers

*No More Smells*

We have had our floor dug up and all the open drain boxes underneath have been replaced with solid pipework, no more smells!!:clap2:


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