Laundry Room Adventures

The handy-person or persons used by our home's previous owner(s) definitely took on projects beyond their knowledge base. We have discovered many issues with past construction as we and our contractor have worked on the house over the past three years. 

We had noticed from time to time a very faint sewer gas smell in the laundry room, and finally investigating that issue rose to the top of our to-do list. Steve opened up the wall to discover, as we had suspected, that whoever plumbed the drain line and vent stack for the washing machine had not installed a trap. While most of the unimpeded sewer gasses likely rose out the vent stack in the roof, whenever Steve ran the stove ventilation fan in the nearby kitchen, the gasses were pulled out of the washer drain opening and into the house. 

The fix was not terribly complicated, but did require pulling the wall apart. 

Steve begins cutting away the drywall:

Steve adds the finishing pieces to the new trap and drain line:

New plumbing complete and electrical moved:

Steve pours water down the line to check for leaks before closing up the wall:

After I painted the resealed wall, a brand new LG washer and dryer were installed (our old washer was leaking quite a bit and rusting, so it was definitely a good time to replace it):

The sewer gas smell is gone, hooray! The laundry room looks pretty darn civilized. One more project down.