Home DIY

I can't view the images.

I would go scorched earth on the cupboard. Bicarb fucking everywhere, air purifier, vinegar spray, sugar soap, dehumidifier, fans, open windows, fabreeze, bleach. Basically soak it in whatever level of chemical cleaner you are happy with then suck all the moisture back out.

We have had an air purifier and dehumidifier running since day 1 here. I think they have helped with the smells and with our heating bills.

The door was off for over a year, but is in place now, it could be part of the problem though, yes, maybe some ventilation holes in the top of the doors will help...

You want airflow, I'd run a fan or air purifier in there 24/7 for a week or so and see if it helps.

Have done all of this except bleach - I think my next step is to paint everything in the cupboard again with two layers of Zinser B-I-N and repaint, maybe ventilate the doors too, if still no joy then just keep the hoover in it.

Thanks!

Had the air purifier in there on constantly for nearly 6 weeks!

oh...

I'm out then, fucker's haunted.

I will say, it will go eventually. Smells can't last forever, it's just a matter of how concentrated the source as to how long it takes. If the wind hits the house in a certain direction and agitates something beneath the floor boards, we do sometimes get the faintest whiff 4 years on. But one of those "do I smell that or am I just imagining it?" kind of things. Worse is the weed smoke from our neighbours going into our airbricks. But that's rare so not something to complain about really.

Our house is drafty as fuck, I mean, well ventilated which probably helped us out a lot.

Its a real doozy.

You'd know :P

Still having issues with a slow emptying toilet. It's not the toilet itself. Seems there's a restriction further down the line. In a block of flats is that likely still our problem or the body corps? Anyone dealt with similar before? I'm assuming they can do the thing where they get a drill and corkscrew the pipes to try and remove any sediment or deposits? But if there's trees or something that have grown into the pipes or the pipes have moved it could be a bigger job. Any other ideas?

Do you know that other flats are experiencing the same issue?

If not then you need to get it looked at and it may get "jetted/flushed" from inside your bog or there might be an access from outside if you're lucky (depending on what level/height your flat is at)

If its further down the line i.e when your pipes are meeting other flat pipes and other flats have the same issue, it would be the responsibility of whatever agent/factor you have that deals with building issues.

We have a slow emptying toilet and I have put it down the positioning of the soil pipe internally and slopes (or lack of) through the eaves. This actually causes blockages often for us as the flow of water isn't enough to help everything down.

I cut a little hole in the soil drain pipe outside and use that as my access point. Reconfiguring bathroom upstairs so can fix when we do that. Will just live with hooking shit out for the next 12 months though...

Get a CCTV survey done, they send a tiny camera on the end of a probe down ur poo pipes.

Thanks. We're ground floor. The last plumber said it might be simply because the flats above are sharing the same pipe further down. I know there's water access and some kind of drain out the front of our place which might provide scope for inspection/cleaning.

Are you sure that's for house plumbing and not something else?

Worth asking the other flats if they have slow draining toilets still.

If the blockage is in a shared part of the system (further down) then at least its not just your problem to deal with. Although I would assume that any kind of root ingress/collapsed pipe/ small blockage issue on a high usage pipe (shared building etc) would surface a pretty obvious problem and become a serious blockage pretty quickly.

Can you lift the inspection cover and take a look out front?

Out front there's a pit drain thing that has a bunch of pipes going to it IIRC.

It doesn't look like sewage waste so I think it's just waste water from sinks and stuff. I assumed the sewage went elsewhere otherwise the multi-pipe pit thing would be full of shit and reek.

I might send the prettier half to ask upstairs and/or email the management dudes to see if anyone has mentioned anything else.

Might try and have a look at the drain outside myself too.