Hi,
We moved into an older home (built 1974) a little over a month ago. We had an extremely thorough inspection prior to settlement. The previous owners had updated a few of the bathrooms in 2018. They were not at the home often, so when we arrived, there was a smell in the main kitchen sink when you ran hot water. Turns out the water heater was set at a low temp. Raising it fixed that issue. A couple of weeks later, we started smelling a cabbage/sewer smell coming from one of the upstairs bathrooms. There are three upstairs and this is the only one that smells. Sometimes, when taking a shower in one of the other two, the smell gets worse. This was one of the updated bathrooms, so the toilet is new and installed last year. There’s no exhaust fan in this bathroom, so we can’t really ventilate it out, either. I tried pouring down a diluted bleach solution in the drains but that didn’t help. We have a septic (but public water), and it does smell like the faint odor that wafts from the septic tank outside. However, that was inspected and pumped prior to us moving in. We had a plumber come out the other day and gave us two options-pull up the tank and check to see if it’s the wax seal or perform a peppermint test. Which would be the best to do first? The estimates were around the same for each. Suggestions on this or any other reason for the smell would be appreciated!!

take some damp paper towels and put them all around the base of the toilet. push them firmly against the base so no smell can come out.
see if that makes a difference.

Packy is referring to a possible failure of the wax ring and a good first place to check. If you pull this bowl check to see the height of the closet ring. This height is crucial to having a good seal. Too high and there is not enough wax which can blow out when you plunge the toilet. Good luck.



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Stop pouring bleach down your septic tank! Mr. Google can tell your more. "The Septic System Owner's Manual" by Lloyd Kahn is a good reference.

Hi! I did this the other day and it hasn’t made a difference. Would the next step be the peppermint test?

Did you make sure the smell isn’t coming out of the sink overflow hole?

It’s not really a sewer smell but it’s the stinkiest part of my plumbing!