Have you ever walked into your house and thought that the plumbing in the property smells of rotten eggs? This is an unpleasant smell to be met with at any time of year, but can be particularly off putting over the Christmas holiday period; after all, no one wants their property’s plumbing to be smelling of rotten eggs when the family are coming around for the festivities!
So, why does plumbing get a nasty smell? What can make your property’s plumbing smell so foul in the first place, and what can be done to get rid of the vile stench from your property?
Why Does My Bathroom Smell Like Rotten Eggs?
If you find yourself wondering about why your property’s plumbing smells like rotten eggs, there could be a problem with the systems in your property that will need to be looked at by a skilled and experienced plumber. However, while the problem might seem like one which is just a foul inconvenience, it is important to consider the severity of rotten egg smells in your bathroom; indeed, a rotten egg smell in your bathroom could actually be putting your health at risk as well!
Where Is This Rotten Egg Smell Coming From?
When your property smells of rotten eggs, what you actually smell will be hydrogen sulfide gas—the same gas, in fact, that gives rotten eggs such a distinctive smell. In small quantities, this is unlikely to be overly problematic—however, when the smell is lingering for long periods of time in your bathroom, this could lead to complications down the line.
Long term exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas can be quite dangerous, to say the least, and this is especially true in a bathroom environment. When you are in the bathroom, the potential side effects of exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas could make you incredibly ill, or could even make you feel faint—potentially putting you at risk of falling and getting hurt on the hard surfaces in the room.
Side Effects Of Hydrogen Sulfide Exposure
Hydrogen sulfide exposure should always be minimized at all possible opportunities, and this is especially true in the bathroom, where a fall could do potentially serious damage. Exposure to this gas over long periods of time can result in headaches, nausea, dizziness, and even irritation to the skin and/or eyes; as such, getting a problem fixed quickly is imperative to ensure your ongoing health.
What Causes The Smell?
Most commonly, the cause for bad smell in your bathroom will be in relation to the plumbing systems. The smell of rotten eggs in your bathroom can usually be attributed to stale water in the pipes, resulting in large amounts of bacterial activity—which, in turn, leads to the development of the foul smells. However, the smell can also be caused by faults in the plumbing system, so keep this in mind as well.
The most common cause for a bathroom having rotten eggs smell will be to do with contaminated water. The water in your property can potentially get contaminated by many different things, but the two which could be causative of a bad smell are corroded magnesium sacrificial anodes or bacterial growth in the property’s hot water tank, thus, giving a strong hydrogen sulfide smell to the water.
Alternatively, if you manage to pinpoint the source of the smell to the overflow outlet of the bathroom sink or tub, the cause might be a little different. In these cases, the reason for the sulfur smell could be due to a buildup of bacteria at the end of the overflow whole’s pipe; this will also give off bad smells.
Out gassing is another reason for bathrooms to develop a nasty, rotten egg smell. Out gassing is when plastics release gases as time passes by, and this can include gases such as hydrogen sulfide; this is most commonly seen in newer products, however, it is important to note that certain materials will be more prone to seeing out gassing than others (for example, cultured marble is arguably among the most prone to causing this problem). If you have recently invested in new products for your bathroom, as such, this is something that you may want to consider; while not common by any stretch, it is known to have happened before.
One final reason that your bathroom might smell just a little bit egg this holiday season could be because of the p-trap in your plumbing systems drying out. This curve in the plumbing won’t dry out often, but when it does, it can cause the same notorious egg smell that other factors can also cause; in this case, though, the smell is a little harder to bear. Indeed, when the p-trap has begun to dry up, smells from the property’s sewage can rise up through the pipe work and into the bathroom—and we don’t really need to say any more on this matter, do we?