🚰 Drainage advice
Drain smell outside your house? What's causing it and what to do
Do this now
- Check if sinks, baths or toilets are draining slowly or gurgling.
- Look at the outside gully (the grid where pipes drain): is water sitting in it?
- Cut down on flushing and running water until it's checked.
- Keep children and pets away from any overflow.
- Don't pour chemicals down. They rarely shift a real blockage and make the engineer's job harder.
Why drains smell
A healthy drain shouldn't smell. Every sink, bath and toilet has a water-filled trap that keeps sewer gases out, and outside drains are sealed. When you get a smell, something has changed.
The usual causes
- A blockage building up. Fat, food waste and wet wipes stick together in the pipe. Waste sits there and starts to smell long before it blocks completely.
- A dried-out trap or gully. If an outside gully or an unused sink hasn't had water through it, the seal dries out and gases come up. Easy fix: run some water through it.
- A cracked or broken pipe. Ground movement, old clay pipes and tree roots all cause cracks.
- A loose or broken manhole cover letting smells out.
Signs it's turning into a blockage
- Sinks, showers or baths draining slowly.
- Gurgling from plugholes or the toilet when water runs elsewhere.
- Water sitting in the outside gully.
- Toilet water rising higher than usual when you flush.
- Rats or flies round the drains.
Why to get it cleared early
A partial blockage only goes one way. Every flush adds to it, until one day the drain backs up, and that's when sewage comes up through the lowest gully or toilet in the house. Clearing a drain before that point is quick. Clearing it after means clean-up too.
A drainage engineer will clear it with rods or a high-pressure jetter. If it's happened before, a camera survey shows exactly what's in the pipe and whether there's damage.
Who's responsible?
Drains that only serve your property and sit inside your boundary are usually yours. Since 2011, shared sewers and the pipes running outside your boundary have mostly been the water company's responsibility. In most of Suffolk, that's Anglian Water. A drainage engineer can tell you which it is once they've had a look.
Common questions
Is a drain smell dangerous?
Sewer gases are unpleasant and shouldn't be in your home. A smell is usually a warning sign of a blockage or damaged pipe, so get it checked.
Will drain cleaner fix it?
Rarely. Chemical cleaners don't shift fat, wipes or roots, and they make the job harder and more hazardous for the engineer.
Who pays to clear a blocked drain?
If the drain serves only your property and is inside your boundary, usually you. Shared sewers are normally the water company's. We'll tell you which on site.