I understand this, having had an issue lately as we have four toilets and only two residents, two toilets which are rarely used, and this was explained to me by the plumber. It is a yucky way to find things out. Thank you for posting this. I
understand and I hope others will take heed before they experience the same.

deleted due to duplicate post.

This post was edited by patricia43 on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 15:53

How does this advice vary for those with septic systems, might you know?

Thanks for the PSA!

I would think this would apply to both those with sewers and septic. Its not just blockages to be concerned with. A rarely used sink, tub, or shower drain can allow odors to enter into your house. Also drain flies!

Also a big thanks for the PSA! Very useful info!
(although a little funny to find in the decorating forum, lol!)

If you have rarely used fixtures you need to run water to refill the trap...the u shaped thing that's supposed to stay full of water...it keeps sewer gases from leaking back into the house. If not used, the water can evaporate and you will smell it.

Do not flush and leave immediately. Make sure the toilet does not continue to run and all is well before you leave.

Hmm, we owned our lakehouse about 7 years, low flow toilets, it was certainly empty for 60 day strethces and maybe more, never had this issue. That's why I wondered if something about local septic might be relevant.

Something to be mindful of. Thx

I've been living by myself for the last 6 years, up until the last year when oldest DD moved from San Diego, but works full time~that means it's basically still me.I've never had a problem, but wonder if homes that have huge trees, especially Oaks, are more inclined to have issues b/c of roots getting tangled up with whatever is there. Just thought....

Annie, you are wayyyy to 'well versed' on toilet issues. lol

Might depend on the size, shape of the house. How far the water has to travel inside the house to get outside. Small footprint, two story might be better than a long Cape or ranch. And, do you take baths?

We are also on septic Mountain and with just the two of us, we have one bathroom that is not used often. Nor do we do the flushing when we leave on trips. We've never had a problem???

This is news to me. Lived in a home w/ septic for 20 yrs. & was always concerned about that. But when we moved to our current home with city sewer I thought I didn't have anything to worry about. Good to know.

Thanks for the heads up. You know, we have a sink in our laundry room that hardly used and I've noticed a few times now where water came up into the sink while the washing machine was running. ??

Shee, that may mean that there is a clog in the line that is preventing the water from draining quickly. So it backs up. You could live with it a while, but at some point, it may clog to the point that it won't drain at all. It will fill the sink and overflow.

Wouldn't the distance between the house and the main (street) pipe also make a difference?

I think if this information were correct, we would have all heard about it by now. I have lived alone in a Cape for 20 years and have never had a problem with waste drying out and causing a blockage. Two years ago, I had the sewer pipe to the street replaced because it was a clay pipe that was over 50 years old and was broken and blocked due to tree roots. It may be that you have some other problem going on.

Well there is that old plumbing expression...the 2 things a plumber has to know: pay day is Friday and $h!+ rolls downhill. Theoretically your pipes should have appropriate pitch so it all flows downhill to the end of the line. Perhaps tree roots or pipe break or settling or something else is happening so that it can't flow downhill and that is the primary cause. I wouldn't think you'd need to fill a tub full of water and then drain it to make the system work right.

We recently moved to Florida where water is quite expensive. If I had to fill the tubs, flush the toilets, etc. we wouldn't have any money left to pay a plumber!

I don't believe what he said. We moved from a large home in NY and had multiple bathrooms (5). As the kids grew and moved out many were not used frequently. It was just me and my husband and water usage certainly dropped considerably.

We never had that type of problem.

Jane

It certainly happened at our house and I had no idea what it was. In fact, I called two plumbers, one of whom suggested over the phone I might have put cat litter in the toilet. Hello! We never did that and besides our cat has been dead almost 2 years.

Our LR toilet was regularly flushed before we retired because, at the time, we had a housekeeper and a gardener weekly who used the laundry room toilet due to easy access from the garden and the housekeeper always cleaned and thereby flushed all the toilets.

A second plumber almost diagnosed the problem over the phone (the smell was very bad, like a P-trap odor). However, he did come out and he explained that the infrequently used bathrooms need to be used occasionally.

Oops. Never mind.

This post was edited by deee on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 8:37

We had 3 baths in our last house - on septic. We rarely us done and we had an unpleasant smell. The sink trap evaporated and you get a gas smell. There was no problem with the toilet.
Mtn, did you have someone open your lake house when you were going to arrive?