Why must the Ladies room smell like a sewer?

[BabbyO]

Ok, totally not worth b$tching about, but seriously, why must the ladies room in my office smell like a sewer?

And I know what sewers smell like. I've installed them, connected to existing sewers, sampled from manholes and I currently design equipment for wastewater treatment plants.

This is a typical office building, with the exception of the smell of the ladies room.

I guess its bothering me more as the super sensitivity to smells has hit again with this pregnancy...but can't we fix this? Its so annoying.

Yes, it has been brought up to management. It has been "looked into" but nothing has fixed it. Oh, and that's probably because some days are worse than others and we can't figure out the common denominator (it isn't a person doing their business). This is that strong sewer-gas smell that you get...

Ugg.

Ok, I'm done now! :)

[Smillow]

Does the ladies room have a dedicated hot water heater? If it is too big for the amount of use it gets, the water can get smelly. The only other thing I can think of is a dried out trap in the drain line. Yuck!

[Kymberley]

I can't even go to the bathroom if it smells that bad, and I especially can't imagine dealing with that while pg! Totally legit BP, my FIL's house smells this way sometimes, and it makes me GAG. Ugh, sorry you have to deal with that!

[BabbyO]

Pretty sure there's not a dedicated hot water heater. I suspect that one of the seals is slightly broken on the toilet. Not enough to leak but if just the right person leans just the right way on it...I think we get gases from the the line escaping into the bathroom. However, as I said it is not constant...and I truly think it has something to do with a certain person leaning on a certain toilet. (I also think the same person is responsible for the TP holder being ripped out of the wall 3 times in the last 2 years).

Not that its her fault...like I said I think the seal is bad/partially broken and she aggravates it.

Oh, well...hold my breath and pee as quickly as I can....

[craftysierra]

Dry trap on a floor drain? Icky to have to smell sewer gas in the bathroom especially while pregnant.

Sierra

[MamaMolly]

Dry trap or maybe it wasn't installed correctly? I heard them called French drains when I lived overseas, they connected straight to the sewer instead of having the trap/bend and smell horrible.