apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You don't say if you're in an apartment or a house, but in our circa 1927 house, we had that problem in 1991. Turned out the sewer line right below that area had been slowly disintegrating due to root infestation under the house. New sewer pipe, no gaseous emissions and sewer spill!

beccaz , you beat me to it. When I lived in a ground floor apartment in a 1923 building, the second bedroom adjacent to the bathroom had the same problem. It turned out to be a leak in the waste pipe under the building. The pipe was replaced and the smell went away.

my aunt's bathroom skin constantly suffers from stinky sink. Occasionally, our bathroom sink does too. It stinks like sulfer/rotten eggs/someone with a bad case of indigestion.

When that happens, my father disassembles all the pipes and manually removes all the gunk that has accumulated in the pipes with a snake and a long metal rod. You will find masses of hair, soapscum, bobbypins, tooth paste caps... the list goes on. It's a pain to do, but it's worth all the work

After you clean the pipes, pour bleach down the drain and maybe some vinegar and baking soda after that. Always use a strainer with the smallest available drainage house - that'll keep most things out.

I don't think it would be a sewer leak because the S drains in sinks stop stinky smells and water from crawling up into homes. But if your clean the pipes manually, and they still end up stinking, get that checked out.

If you haven't tried this already, run the water for 3-5 minutes. Sometimes when a line is unclogged, or if it doesn't get used very often, the gases from the sewer below can rise up through the pipes if there isn't a bit of water trapped at one of the bends to block them.

This happened to us, and we eventually discovered that the plumber has not installed P-traps on the sink/toilet/bathtub or the correct venting for the plumbing -- so methane was backing back up from the septic tank into the house. Then it happened again and we found out our iron pipes had rusted out and were spilling sewage under the house. We had to spread lime around the crawl space to kill the smell.

Also, if the vent pipe on the roof (coming from the bathroom) is not tall enough, bad smells can easily get sucked back into the house/apt.

Try running the hot water for 3-5 minutes and then pouring some plain white vinegar down the drain. It's pretty tough stuff and much more eco-friendly than bleach.

Check out this link for a bunch of other great uses for vinegar!

http://odyb.net/food-cooking/62-little-known-uses-of-vinegar/

Good luck!!!

See if you can determine whether the smell is stronger when you use only the *hot* water. A sulfur smell can be caused by buildup on the heating element in the hot water heater. We had this problem & had the heating element replaced (about $200) and the problem is gone. Word to the wise - DO NOT watch when the plumber pulls out the old element -- you don't want to see what your hot water passes by before it gets to you in the shower.