Hello. I'm a homeowner with a host of problems and am trying to see if any of the experts on here feel like these are possibly related.

Upstairs in our master bath, one sink drains fine, the other does not drain at all. We often get a "rotten egg" smell when we first run the water up there (only in the sinks though, not the shower).

We have a 1st floor laundry and EVERY time we run the washing machine for the first cycle, we get a very strong "rotten egg" smell. After a few washes the smell is gone.

Our front gutter is completely clogged and the rain water just pours down over our window and more recently, started coming into our basement (and we cannot figure out the source). We now have a very very strong mildew/stinky water smell when you walk into the house (near the washing machine consequently). Our downspout appears to go into the ground and not run off.


Our front yard often fills up with massive puddles during rain storms so I don't think our ground drains appropriately. Luckily, in 7 years this is the first time we have had water in the basement.

I feel like some main thing...either a basin or a pipe or something under or near our washing machine is horribly clogged or broken. Do such things exist?

We have city sewage. I do have a plumber coming on Friday but trying to get an idea of what we may be facing so I can brace myself...

Thank you in advance for your time!
Shannon

-Hello. I'm a homeowner with a host of problems and am trying to see if any of the experts on
-here feel like these are possibly related.

-Upstairs in our master bath, one sink drains fine, the other does not drain at all. We often
-get a "rotten egg" smell when we first run the water up there (only in the sinks though, not
-the shower).
1. If the 2nd sink doesn't drain, and you haven't been using it, chances are the trap is dry and you are getting sewer gas back out of it.


-We have a 1st floor laundry and EVERY time we run the washing machine for the first cycle, we
-get a very strong "rotten egg" smell. After a few washes the smell is gone.
2. I would suspect a trap that is losing its water. It could be getting siphoned off by another device, or siphoning itself due to improper venting. it is possible that there is a crack and water is just leaking out, but you should be able to see that unless you have a partial crawlspace under the laundry.


-Our front gutter is completely clogged and the rain water just pours down over our window and
-more recently, started coming into our basement (and we cannot figure out the source). We now
-have a very very strong mildew/stinky water smell when you walk into the house (near the
-washing machine consequently). Our downspout appears to go into the ground and not run off.
3. Clean the gutter and downspout. test with a garden hose or a 5 gallon bucket afterward to ensure it is all cleared out.
4. As above, if your washer standpipe is leaking, that could account for both the dry trap and mildew in the laundry area.

-Our front yard often fills up with massive puddles during rain storms so I don't think our
-ground drains appropriately. Luckily, in 7 years this is the first time we have had water in
-the basement.
5. I have a feeling if the gutter was working properly the basement would still be dry.

I feel like some main thing...either a basin or a pipe or something under or near our washing machine is horribly clogged or broken. Do such things exist?

We have city sewage. I do have a plumber coming on Friday but trying to get an idea of what we may be facing so I can brace myself...

Thank you in advance for your time!
Shannon

Thank you so much for your answer!! I went and googled to understand what a trap was and was the outside vent was and will look at both when I get home tonight in the laundry room.

From your answers it doesn't sound like the clogged gutters and downspout are related to the washing machine issue or sink issue. Those may be trap problems and the other unrelated.

I hope our plumber can snake the clogged gutter and fix it. A lot of websites recommend abandoning a downspout that goes down into the ground and instead altering it so that it runs out into the yard. Is this something that would help too perhaps?

1. The odor in the sinks is often due to a fouled overflow in the sink. It has accumulated "gunK" and when the faucet is turned on, the odor is pushed out of the overflow opening.
2. The stopped sink just needs to be unplugged, probably due to hair in the drain.
3. Do you have a floor drain in the laundry, if so it is dry and needs to have water poured into it.
4. The downspouts are not really a "plumbing" problem, but a plumber should be able to fix them. But he might not be the cheapest way to do it.

Hi,
No there is no drain in the laundry room at all. The only drains are in the basement. We have one of those random drains in the center of the kid's playroom that most houses have..and then we have another area that has an actual hole/pipe thing going down into the ground which is wide open and I pour my dehumidifier water down. I never notice a yucky smell from either of those. The water that leaked into the basement did not come from either of those pipes as the carpet and floor were dry near those and the "dust" undisturbed. The water in the basement appears to have come right down through the ceiling almost under the window that the water pours down over from the clogged gutters. I climbed up on a ladder to feel in the gutter last night and they are in fact completely filled with water (and we haven't had any recent rain)...so definitely clogged somewhere. I tried tapping on the downspout all the way down to see if I could "hear" a difference to tell where the clog was but it all sounded hollow to me so I believe it is underground where the issue is. That is why I called a plumber...I don't own a snake or have the foggiest idea how to use one.

I have only dealt with a few clogged downspouts, and they are usually plugged at the roof, or in the bends directly below it. Having someone clean the horizontal portion of the gutter and testing it usually only takes a ladder, bucket, and a pair of leather gloves so you don't get cut by anything in the gutter. Usually gutter downspouts are not watertight, and if the blockage was in the ground, water would pour out around the pipe in the ground. From your post, it is unclear to me if that is the case.
I completely forgot about the overflow. It is very probable that hj is correct if it is coming from the same sink, and not the one with the stoppage. The most effective way to treat it is probably to remove the stopper and reattach the popup assembly, then using a rag, twist it up and shove it down the drain. The bar on the waste arm will keep it from going too far. Next fill the sink with bleach water and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes then remove the rag and let it drain. When you fill it, you will have to make sure that the water runs into and fills up the overflow holes. while it is sitting, use your newfound knowledge of popup assemblies to remove the popup from the sink that won't drain, and remove the gunk, hair and slime that are in there and reassemble. After you reassemble both sink drains, test them by running water and checking for any leaks underneath both sinks.

The rotten egg smell occurs equally with BOTH sinks...the one that works and the one that doesn't. As well as the washing machine...

What would cause water to be syphoned out from a trap?

We do not appear to have any leaks at all under either of those sinks or from the washer itself however can't speak to what is going on under the floor and since we have a mildew smell there definitely could be leakage under the laundry room.

I have to say I honestly do not know the answer to if the water is shooting back up out of the base of the downspout...I have never looked. When we started seeing the water pouring down waterfall style over our bay window our honest stupid response was, "Oh look at that, isn't that interesting." But we never paid it any mind at all until of course, water entered our basement. Stupid I guess...sigh...

Am hoping this gets resolved PRIOR to the next rainstorm but if not I will check to see if anything is coming up out of that area. My guess is no however...simply because like I said there is a standing "lake" of water within the upper gutters right now so I do not think anything is moving anywhere and the overflow appears to be coming down from that specific place in the gutter.

I do have a very tall ladder...but am not 100% sure how to extend it and I was home alone with two small kids last night and couldn't do more than the 6 foot ladder to stick my hand up there. I need the bigger ladder to get a better "view" from the top. My father suggested sticking a broom handle down the downspout to try and "poke" the clog.

Clearly we're not the most "handy" family.

Most downspout/gutter hardware is screwed together to allow for future disassembly for cleaning.

UPDATE:

Last night we were able to figure out our big ladder and were thus able to climb up high enough. We used a tiki torch pole to poke down into the downspout gutter...and immediately upon doing so the clog moved and dislodged and all of the water went rushing down (hooray!). To ensure the clog didn't just move further down we ran the hose on high pressure for about 5 minutes down the spout. Hopefully...this will solve that problem. The next time it rains we will find out. I did check the basement and it did not appear that any water came in once we dislodged the clog...so hopefully that was coming in from the foundation where the water was pooling due to the overflow from the upper gutters.

I poured Draino into my upper bathroom sink...and it is now running fine.

I also put a cup of draino into the washing machine and ran it on the hot cycle...which pretty much solved nothing. The washer still stinks. I pulled the drain hose up and out of the pipe just to "see" and it was covered in black goopey really horrible smelling stuff. Don't know if that is normal or if that indicates an issue with the trap. But the smell was overpowering when I pulled it out so I put it back in pretty quickly. The trap appears to be at the right height and is shaped correctly from what i could tell. I don't know how to post a picture on here or I would so you all could look at it.

I'm going with the small favors theory...I can deal with the stink provided my basement stops flooding.

Thanks for all of the advice!!
Shannon



Edited 1 times.

I've always heard you should not bury the laundry discharge pipe into the trap. It should just be down a few inches, and should never sit in the standing water of the trap. That's why it is all gunky and smelly. You should take it out, clean it off really well, and then place it back in, strapping it or fixing it so it drops water into the trap without getting buried by the trap water.