The garage is considered one of the most common places in your house where you spend your time repairing cars or cleaning them. In today’s article, we will discuss why your garage smells like sewage.
Garage smell like sewage?
One of the common reasons that can cause the garage to smell like sewage is a drain pipe issue. Generally, the garage can accumulate old water and other debris inside the trap of the drain pipe. This issue can lead to the buildup of sewer smell in your garage and make your garage smelly.
The garage is considered one of the most common places in the house where people spend their time repairing or cleaning their vehicles. Garages are not only used for housing vehicles.
Sometimes they are also used for storing random things that you’re not sure what to do with. That is why it is highly important to keep your garage clean and make it smell fresh like the way you treat the environment inside of your home.
It is very common for people to store items inside the garage that shouldn’t live inside the home. This list includes trash cans with containers of oil.
However, sometimes you may notice that the garage has started to be a bit smelly and it smells like sewer. Having a garage that smells like sewer can be very frustrating and disturbing as it will ruin the environment inside the garage.
Many reasons can cause the buildup of a smell like sewer inside the garage. In addition to that, some of the common reasons that can cause the buildup of sewer smell inside the garage are recycling bins, trash cans, mold or mildew, and floor drains.
This can be the reason for the unpleasant smell inside the garage and they can easily be fixed by taking proper care of the garage. However, if your garage is smelling like a sewer, it must be due to the floor drains.
If the floor drain has a trap, the old water will be left inside the trap and lead to the build-up of sewer smell in the garage. Below is a brief discussion on what causes the garage to smell like sewage:
Mold or mildew:
As the garage is only used for housing cars and keeping the items stored inside of it, which will not be used, it can cause the buildup of mold and mildew in the garage. In most cases, it may smell like musty and wet or rotten wood.
Floor drain issue:
One of the common reasons that can cause the garage to build up a smell like a sewer inside it is the floor drains. However, the average floor drain in a residential garage does not have much use.
But if it has a trap that might clog the floor drain and due to accumulation of the breeze inside the floor drain, it can lead to a sewer smell in your garage.
The leak of natural gas:
Sometimes your garage might smell like a sewer due to the league of natural gas. In addition to that, if you keep trash cans or other items stored inside the garage, they can smell like a sewer.
That is why it is highly recommended to move away all the unused and stored stops from the garage to prevent it from accumulating like a sewer.
How do you get rid of sewer smell out of the garage?
Having the presence of a smell like sewer inside the garage can be frustrating and irritating for you as it can ruin the garage environment. However, it is highly recommended to treat your garage the way you treat your home.
Generally, the garage is not only used for storing or housing cars. Sometimes people leave their unused and unnecessary items in the garage and store them. Keep the garage clean and maintain the environment inside the garage.
It will not be able to build up any smell like a sewer. However, sometimes the drain pipe, which is also known as the floor drain, can be leaked and spread a bad smell like sewer throughout the garage.
That is why whenever you detect the presence of a sewer smell inside your garage, you need to check and observe the floor drain pipes for any leakage that is causing the garage to have this bad smell.
However, except for the floor drain pipes, you need to check and observe some other issues that can lead to the build-up of a sewer smell inside the garage. Below are some steps that will help you to get rid of the sewer smell out of the garage:
Check the floor drain:
One of the common reasons why your garage may start to smell like a sewer is because of the floor drain leakage.
If the garage floor drain has a trap the old water and other debris, it may remain inside the trap and cause the buildup of a serious smell inside the garage.
Pour mineral oil into the floor drain:
If you check the floor drains of your garage and see that the old water has accumulated inside the floor drain, you need to pour mineral oil into the trap of your floor drain pipe.
Let it stay:
After pouring mineral oil into the trap, you need to wait 24 to 48 hours. Generally, the mineral oil evaporates slower compared to the water and keeps the trap from stinking up your garage like a sewer.
How long does it take to eliminate sewer smell in the garage?
Having the presence of a sewer smell inside your garage can be very frustrating and irritating as it can ruin your garage environment. There are some easy solutions that you can rely on to get rid of the sewer smell from your garage.
The first thing you need to do to get rid of the serious smell from your garage is to remove all the unused items that are stored inside the garage. Now you need to check for any mold and mildew inside the garage.
Finally, you need to check the floor drain pipe for any water accumulation or debris accumulation that is causing the smell to build up in your garage. You can try pouring mineral oil into the floor drain.
Generally, the mineral oil takes around 24 to 48 hours to evaporate which is a very slow evaporation rate compared to water. However, using mineral oil is one of the best ideas that you can use to get rid of the sewer smell from your garage.
Although it takes a lot of time, it will provide you with a good fragrance that will help to eliminate the bad smell inside your garage. Depending on the condition of your floor drain pipe, you might need to repeat the process very frequently to get rid of the smell permanently.
How to prevent sewer smell from forming in the garage?
The garage is considered one of the most common places in our house that we use very frequently. It is the place where we store our cars and leave unnecessary stuff.
However, it is highly recommended to keep the garage neat and clean so that it can smell fresh. Due to storing a lot of things, the garage may start to accumulate and build up mold and mildew inside of it.
If the floor drain pipe of your garage has accumulated old water and double is in it, it will cause the buildup of sewer smell inside the garage.
The first thing to get rid of the sewer smell from your garage is to keep it clean. However, there are some other ideas and techniques that can be used to prevent the sewer smell from forming inside the garage.
Below is a brief discussion on how to prevent sewer smell from forming in the garage:
Avoid storing unnecessary items:
The first thing you need to do to prevent the sewer smell from forming inside the garage is to avoid storing unnecessary items. In addition to that, you should also refrain from storing things like oil containers or trash cans.
Make space in garage:
Make sure to keep your garage as spacious as you can. It will help the garage to prevent the accumulation of any bad smell.
Provide the garage with ventilation:
You need to provide your garage with proper air ventilation so that the bad smell can go away from the garage easily. This thing is one of the most effective techniques that you can rely on to get rid of the sewer smell from your garage.
Final Thoughts
It is normal for a garage to accumulate a bad smell inside of it if the garage does not have any proper air ventilation system or is stuffed with a lot of items stored inside it. That is why you need to clean your garage and check the floor drain pipe to keep away the bad smell.