Hi there
We converted our attic four years ago to incude two bedrooms and a shower room with toilet. We also installed a Drimaster air circulation unit at the same time (this takes air from the attic and circulates it around the house from a vent in the hall to remove condensation). This sits in the remaining attic right behind the shower room toilet. The toilet has what I would call an internal soil vent (there is no external vent anywhere following our attic conversion. The distance from the shower room toilet to the external soil downpipe is about 13 feet.
About 9 months ago we started to get a really bad smell in our downstairs hall way. We thought maybe a mouse had died under the floorboards or something.....but turns out that is where the Drimaster air unit blows out the air in the house etc. And to me, it seems the smell from the toilet and/or pipes is being sucked into the Drimaster in the attic and simply blown around the house through the Drimaster ceiling vent in our downstairs hall. Nice.
My question is, can an internal soil vent from a toilet become broken or blocked in anyway? Or could there be a recurring toilet pipe blockage problem that causes the smell?
We turned the Drimaster off over the summer months and the smell disappeared. Turned it on again about two weeks ago - no bad smell at all. But yesterday we started refurbishment of our downstairs bathroom, so the toilet, bath, sink etc have been stripped out and it's just a shell at the moment. Today, the smell is back in our hall way!!
Any ideas what is causing the smell, and why it's only come back now? The Drimaster has been on for two weeks but only since sstripping out the downstairs bathroom yesterday has the smell returned.
Any thoughts or advice would be great!!
Thanks.