Apr 13

Written by: David Heffner
4/13/2010 9:08 PM 

I got a call today for a sewer gas odor coming from a floor drain in a dentist's office. The call came to me through the  property manager, so I didn't have the opportunity to speak to anyone in the dentist's office directly. I thought to myself, "Slam dunk." Pour some water into the floor drain and this should take care of the problem. Floor drains are notorious for having their traps dry out which then allows sewer gas back into the house/building. After getting to the office however, the office manager told me that she had poured 4 1/2 gallons of water into the floor drain yesterday. So much for that idea. Looking around the area of the floor drain, I couldn't see where else the problem could be coming from, so was going to tape off the floor drain with duct tape and see what that did. Just then, the office manager told me that they had removed an instrument washer (similar to a dishwasher, but for dental instruments) about a month ago. Bingo! I found the drain for the instrument washer in the wall behind the cabinet and determined that the p-trap had dried out. Since they weren't going to be using this drain anymore, I cut the trap out and capped the drain line.

The same thing can happen in a home with floor drain, but also in bathrooms that seldom get used. When I get these calls, I tell the customer to pour water into the floor drain or run the water in the sink, tub and to flush the toilet. This usually takes care of the problem.

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