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Like many of the other components in your Staten Island, NY home, your plumbing requires ongoing maintenance and cleaning in order to keep problems at bay. For your plumbing specifically, it is wise to get a professional drain cleaning done on a regular basis because if you don't, you might have to deal with unpleasant odors coming out of the drains.
In between professional drain cleanings, keep your drains fresh by running water often, sprinkling the drain with a generous helping of baking soda, and following that with equal parts white vinegar. Finally, flush the pipework with water.
If you are wondering what might be behind those nasty smells coming from your plumbing and what you need to do, here are some possibilities.
What Should You Do? Call a Professional
Instead of spending a lot of time trying to determine why your plumbing smells, you are better off to contact your local plumber right away. They have the training and specialized equipment to find out exactly what the problem is.
For instance, if you have a problem with your sewer line, you won’t necessarily be able to determine that on your own. You need special cameras to figure it out.
The Sink is the Problem
If you are guilty of letting food matter and grease fall down your kitchen sink or letting soap, shaving cream, and hair fall drain from your bathroom sink, you likely have a lot of gunk in your plumbing. Eventually all those debris bond together and begin to decompose. And this process smells awful.
Get a drain cleaning to remove the odor and the debris. In the future, don't let food scraps go down your sink and place hair traps over drains in the bathrooms. It might also be the P-trap under your sink causing the smell.
The P-trap is the curved piece that sits under the sink. It functions to block the smelly sewer gases from entering your home by creating a cushion of water. If the P-trap dries out, nothing is blocking the smell. Simply run the water, and you should be alright.
Sulfur and Your Pipes
Do you smell rotten eggs? The cause will not be eggs at all, but instead hydrogen sulfide gas is emanating from the pipework. It's possible that the pipes, as they age, are creating that smell. There is also the potential that your water supply has been contaminated.
Fill a couple of water glasses from a few different taps in your home. If the water smells in all of the glasses, the water is contaminated. If only one smells, you have a specific plumbing problem.
If you're not sure what your plumbing problem is or how to deal with it, then you should get in touch with a professional!
