You will find them in basements, workshops, garages, or even in bathrooms. The floor drain can be a real boon in any area were an abundance of water may spring up and needs to be drained away. The best floor drains are the floor drains that you never have to think about. However, they do require a little bit of maintenance. If you neglect this maintenance or just don’t know how to take care for a floor drain, it will let you know with a foul stink.
What Causes a Floor Drain to Stink?
You might think that when a floor drain stinks, it has been used too much, but actually, the opposite is likely the cause. If your floor drain doesn’t have any exposure to water, it will start to smell. Rather, it is more apt to say that it lets in smells.
The way a floor drain is designed is that it is not a straight tube draining downward, but rather bends into a curve known as the P-trap. The P-trap typically holds water so that sewer gas does not come back up through the drain. However, if your floor drain doesn’t see any use at all, that water in the P-trap just evaporates, leaving sewer gas free to waft back up. This is typically why people walk into their basement and smell rancid stenches. They didn’t do their floor drain maintenance, and are smelling the results from that.
While floor drain smell is most often caused by a dry P-trap, it is possible for your drain to be dirty as well. It is actually really quite simple to decide which is your problem. If you haven’t used your floor drain at all in weeks, then it is likely a dry P-trap. If you use the floor drain all the time, subjecting it to a lot of debris, and find it slow to drain, then you most likely have a dirty drain that is starting to stink. Unlike a P-trap, this may require a professional to help fully repair in order to remove the stink.
How to Care for a Floor Drain?
Performing maintenance on your floor drain to prevent smells is a simple affair. It isn’t something you need a professional for, and doing maintenance may actually prevent the need to call them.
Regularly Add Water
A floor drain needs to be used in order to keep the P-trap wet. Sewer gas is not only terrible smelling, but it is actually quite bad for your health to breath in. You simply need to pour about a gallon of water directly down the floor drain every month or so if the drain is not seeing regular water exposure.
Limit Debris
Many floor drains are used to make quickly floor cleaning easy. This means it regularly gets wet, but you have another problem – debris. With the water, dirt and everything else is pushed to the drain where it could end up inside the drain. This can cause clogs as well as smells. Ideally, you want to prevent this by keeping large debris away, but if you do have a clog caused by it, then you need to clear the clog quickly. If you can’t do it by pouring in water, then you need some professional help.
Need Help? Contact SOS When You’re In A Mess!
Is your floor drain still stinky after pouring in some water to fill the P-trap? Unfortunately you likely have a clog problem that needs a professional hand. If you are having any floor drain issues, contact us today to see what SOS Drain & Sewer can do to help. Don’t let small plumbing problems turn into big plumbing emergencies by putting off repair.
