Great pong update

Warning… if you’re sensitive then this post might not be the one to read… not before breakfast anyway!

We’ve been having problems with a mysterious smell in our downstairs bathroom. I do have quite a good sense of smell and have what’s known as ‘the Elsden nose’ – not in terms of size but in terms of odour detection, but even my sensitive  proboscis couldn’t detect from whence it emanated – not the lavatory, nor behind it, nor the hand basin, nor any of the pipes. We had called Steve the plumber and he hadn’t found anything wrong so suggested maybe it was the outside drains and sewers… although there was no smell from there at all. If so it was the responsibility of the water company, so we rang them, and the same day an engineer came to check out the great pong.

The water board chap had arrived, checked out the sewers with a camera, cleared a small fat-berg, flushed everything out, cleaned everything out and departed. All seemed well… except the pong remained. It wasn’t there all of the time, and it varied in its pong-power, but it was very unpleasant and some of the more delicate members of the family used the other upstairs bathroom. We rang the company again, and this morning at about 8:15 another young engineer arrived. He checked out the main sewer to see it was all still clean and lovely and free flowing – which it was, and he checked out our domestic sewer which fed into ti and that was all fine too but he did check with his camera to make sure and had us flush the lavatory. He said all was sound but he suggested that maybe the problem came from the actual lavatory bowl itself, that maybe some of its housing had become loose which would be a job for Steve the plumber. We thanked him for his efficiency, professionalism and suggestions and said farewell.

As he drove away I thought back ruefully to the last time we had seen our friend Mike Scott in the pub. He is a man who knows much, especially of a practical and domestic engineering nature – electrics, technical stuff… and maybe sanitation? When we were pondering on the great pong he had ruminated and then said it was probably that the lavatory bowl housing was a little loose… if only we had listened to Mike Scott!!! However now we also know that our outside sewers are perfectly clean and free flowing!

Note to self… ring Steve the plumber…