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Stinky Laundry Room? Stinky Bathroom? Check Your Traps.
Have you noticed any foul odors in your basement that you just can't get to the bottom of?  It might be sewer gases coming in to your home.  Every plumbing fixture needs to be equipped with a trap, which is basically a dip in a pipe that water fills up.  This water sitting in the trap is what prevents sewer gases from coming in to your home.  The photo below shows a "P-trap" - this is the type of trap you'll find below sinks, showers, and bath tubs.

Toilets have their own built in traps, and so do floor drains.  The trap on a floor drain is located below the surface of the floor - the photo below shows a floor drain as seen from the side.

The problem that home inspectors often find in basements is that floor drains or other plumbing fixtures in the basement never have any water flowing to them, so the water in the trap eventually dries out and allows stinky, hazardous sewer gas to come in to the home.  Because of this, abandoned or shut off plumbing fixtures are always listed as a hazard or required repair on Truth-In-Sale of Housing evaluation reports in Minneapolis, Saint ... more

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