Mr. V was a young teacher who lived alone. Wanting to see more of the world, he applied for an ESL teaching job in Argentina and signed a six-month contract. Before leaving, he did everything he needed to do—took out the trash, turned off the water, stopped the mail, and turned the thermostat up.
He decided not to renew his teaching contract and returned home. As soon as he opened the door, he was smacked in the face with a horrid rotting smell. He feared the worst: squatters or animals had broken in and made a mess of the place—or even died.
But the house was in decent order.
Mr. V investigated further, looking for any messes or evidence of activity—maybe the unwanted visitors were hiding. But there was nothing.
With the immediate threat less likely, Mr. V went into the bathroom, where the smell was the strongest. He’d left the toilet lid down when he left and was terrified to see the horror that awaited when he lifted it up…
Absolutely nothing, just a receded pocket of plain water.
Mr. V was shocked. Just where was the smell coming from? The bathroom sure smelled like ground zero. He called the plumber and explained the situation, including that he had just gotten back from a six-month trip. The woman on the phone asked if anyone had run the water during that time, and he said that no one should’ve been home. She then advised Mr. V to flush the toilet and run the sink and shower, as he might have had the p-traps dry up—then he could call back if that didn’t do the trick.
Mr. V ran the water and then stayed with his parents for a few days. He returned to find that the horrible odor was nowhere near as foul as it was when he first came home.
In Mr. V’s case, the culprits were bone-dry p-traps in his sink and shower. P-traps in your plumbing fixtures keep a small amount of water in them, which creates a barrier to prevent sewer gases from moving through the piping. Mr. V left his home for several months, and nobody was using the plumbing, so the water in his shower and sink traps dried up. The water also receded in his toilet, but the trap never fully dried out.
Traps can dry out when the water evaporates or moves towards an absorbent object, like paper products or tree roots. In most cases, you would just refill the trap to solve the problem. However, a trap that loses water quickly may be broken or have a leak; it will need to be replaced.
The following things can cause a trap to dry out:
- Extended periods without use
- Crack or leak in the trap
- Foreign objects in the piping (clogs or wads of absorbent material that attract water)
Luckily, several of these issues can be solved easily. You can simply fill the trap yourself if it has been a long time since anyone has used the plumbing. However, if the issue keeps coming back or there are signs of other problems, you can always call a local plumber—like Kalos Services—to dig deeper and find out why the trap keeps drying up and how to make sewer gas smells go away for good.
