How do I get rid of FOUL odor from my garage drain?

Question

Hi,
I came home yesterday and there was a horrible sewer smell in the garage, clearly emanating from the drain in the middle of it. I removed the cover and the water was clearly filthy and stagnant.

It rained the night before but I'm not sure if that has an impact (it has been raining for on and off a couple of days actually but nothing really dramatic).

Anyway, I opened the garage door and ran the hose down the drain to see if I could force the dirty water out of the one-way valve but the smell only got worse. It disappeared after a while but I think it's mostly because the door was open.

Does anyone have any ideas what it could have been?

D-Rock: Won't the oil eventually end up in the pipes themselves and cause a clog? Just asking becasue I've always been told not to poor oil down a drain.

Answer 1

hi, what happens with intermittently used drains like floor drains, or seldom used sinks, is the water level in the trap lowers due to evaporation. the MAIN purpose of that p-trap is to stop sewer gases from coming back out into your living area. this is why the smell went away when you ran a hose in it. you simply restored the trap seal.

there is a simple fix to this. vegetable oil! pour a half cup or so of oil down the drain. it floats on top of the water, preventing it from evaporating, and protecting your trap seal.

Answer 2

Garage Drain

Answer 3

If the floor drain has water in it and there is still that sewer odor the breather pipe is clogged with leaves or a spider web. (The breather pipe pokes through your roof and equalizers air pressure on the house's sewer system.)

You will have to have someone, or yourself, ladder up on the roof and run some type of device such as a plumber's snake down through the pipe and clean out whatever is blocking the ability for the pipe to breathe.

Or, your house may be new enough to have a clean out trap at the base of the major stand pipe or soil pipe or even in the kitchen.

Good luck and be carefull.

Answer 4

The floor drain has a trap in it. Chances are that you don't get a lot of water flowing into this drain. There may have been leaves, dirt that has been in the drain , rotting. You were correct in sticking the hose in it. You may also want to try a drain cleaner (Draino, Liquid plumber)and flush again with the hose.

Answer 5

open drains such as in the laundry , bathroom or garage periodically need poor fresh water into the drain to keep the seal. yours was probably dry and the rain forced some back pressure and therefore the stagnant water.

Answer 6

Jube is probably right on this one. In the mean time pour some bleach down there.

Answer 7

Try dumping the bodies in a river or marsh instead. You could always feed them to pigs or gators.

Answer 8

sounds as though the rain did have an impact on stopping it up or flooding it..i would put some bleach in it

Answer 9

Pour some baking soda down there.