Have you recently noticed a rather pungent, foul smell wafting up from your sink, that made you puke?

Is your drain gurgling? Is there a noticeable smell from your toilet after flushing? These are all signs that you have a plumbing issue, and there is no better time to act than now!

Stinky plumbing can be caused by any number of reasons. Let’s take a closer look at the most likely culprit behind your stinky plumbing, as well as how to rectify this problem and have your home smelling fresh as a daisy in no time.

Sniffing Out the Culprits: 8 Potential Causes of Stinky Plumbing

Here are the top 8 reasons – identified by our skilled and experienced plumbers – that your plumbing is stinky and what you should do about it.

1: Your Garbage Disposal Needs a Clean

A garbage disposal is such a great appliance to have in your kitchen, and it can help make cleaning and disposing of food items that much easier. But did you know that it needs to be cleaned too?

Yes, your garbage disposal should be cleaned at least every two weeks, if not more. This is largely dependent on how often you use your garbage disposal and what you end up putting in it to be disposed of.

Though there are garbage disposal cleaners available at the store, a really smelly garbage disposal unit might need the cleaning services of a plumber.

2. A Dry P-Trap

The P-Trap is a curved pipe located under your kitchen sink. It is often the main cause of smelly sinks as biofilm gets caught in the pipe, trapping unpleasant odors and waste in the P-Trap.

A great way to reduce the smells emanating from your sink is to ensure that your P-Trap always contains water by regularly running water down the sink. 

This water helps to reduce the risk of our P-Trap becoming dry and keeps smells at bay. 

3. A Clogged P-Trap

Another common cause of smells in your pipes is when your P-Tap becomes clogged. As we mentioned in our previous point, this can happen when the P-Tap is dry or when biofilms and other waste become trapped in the pipe. 

Using a “snake” can help remove those smaller blockages, but larger ones should be cleared with the help of a professional. 

Clearing a clogged P-Trap is not always easy and will require the expertise and knowledge of a skilled plumber to assess the clog and remove it. 

4. Bacterial Build-up in Your Plumbing

With the amount of food, oil, soaps, and even hair that gets flushed or run down your plugs, it’s no wonder bacteria tends to build up in your pipes. Often referred to as biofilm, this bacteria clings to the inside of your pipes and causes some rather nasty smells. 

Drain cleaners, food traps, and other temporary fixes or remedies might help the situation, but often a plumber is the only thing that can help remove this bacteria. 

 5. Issues with your Sewer Line

Cracks, holes, and tree roots can often cause blockages in the sewer lines in and around your home. You won’t even know they are an issue until it is too late and a plumber needs to be called out to fix the pipes. 

There are, however, a few telltale signs that you should be aware of. They are:

• Blocked or clogged toilets
• Gurgling drains and sinks in your home
• Unwelcome visitors in the form of pests luring near your sink, drains, and in your home

Sewer line issues require the services of a skilled plumber to rectify. Do not try to take on this issue yourself. At best, you may end up smelling quite bad, at worst, you could create a health and safety issue.

6. Broken Seals Around Your Toilet

If you suddenly notice a rather unpleasant smell coming from your bathroom accompanied by puddles of water on the floor, you have a broken toilet seal.

This seal is meant to contain the water (and smell) of waste leaving your toilet when you flush, and a broken toilet seal is a messy disaster to deal with. 

Call a plumber to have your toilet seal repaired, and say goodbye to nasty smells and leaking toilets. 

7. Missing Sewer Trap or Sump Plugs

The sump, or sewer trap, is the meeting point of all the plumbing pipes in your home. This trap should be fitted with a lid or plug to seal in unpleasant smells and keep the sewerage from leaking into your home or garden. 

If your sewer trap or sump does not have a plug or lid, call a plumber to have one fitted. Open sewer traps are an accident or smelly disaster just waiting to happen. 

8. Clogged Venting Pipes

Venting pipes are pipes located on the outside of your home designed to keep the smell out of your home as it directs any dirty water or other liquids out. Should one of these pipes become clogged, you will find that a smell of dirty or sewerage water will linger in your home. 

These pipes are not easy to access or clean by yourself, so be sure to call a plumber to help keep your vent pipes unclogged and directing smells as they should. 

What to Do and Who to Call

Dealing with any of the above issues can be quite a daunting task if you don’t know exactly what the problem is or what tools and remedies to use.

Thankfully plumbing services like Mr. Speedy Plumbing are ready for just about any plumbing catastrophe. Located in the Los Angeles area, no job is too big or too small for the team at Mr. Speedy, so give them a call today to experience top-class service. 

Why wait for your small plumbing issue to become a disaster? Call today and book a call-out and see why Mr. Speedy Plumbing is the number one plumbing service you can trust for fast, quality plumbing maintenance and repairs.