Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sluggo832004]

The day I moved in I smelled it. Its a bad smell. Cant really tell what it is. But when I go in the bathroom I can smell it. Is it mold, or old pipes. I want to tell the land lord, but I need to find the root of the problem. Is it the drains maybe? If its mold, what can the land lord do anyway?

Anybody had a problem with the bathroom in your apartment??

[OculisOrbis]

There is a good possibility it is sewer gas coming up through your drain on the floor or sink or from around the around bottom of the toilet. Korean plumbing technology seemingly has not yet progressed to the trap (U-pipe). The lack of a trap allows gases to flow freely where they arent supposed to. Try covering your drains when not in use and see if it improves. If it is coming from around the toilet, it needs to be reset and resealed.

[sadguy]

try pouring bleach into the floor drain and sink drain and flush your toilet.

[computermichael]

I have the same problem. I've given up and have come to accept the smell.

At other places I've lived, I noticed that nobody had ever cleaned underneath the grate to the shower drain. If it smells like old soup, I would guess it's sewer gases, but if it smells like rotten grain, then it's probably something inside of your bathroom somewhere.

[CentralCali]

You should also manually clean the bathroom drain. For some reason here, it has what I can only describe as a moat around the pipe. The moat is easily clogged by hair. About once a week, I remove the drain cover, the upside down cup that covers the pipe and directs everything into the moat, and then use a chopstick to remove the gunk from the moat. Next step is put the gunk in the trash. I then pour some 펑크린 (labeled in English as Punclin) down the drain. About an hour later, I pour about a gallon of water down the drain and replace the drain cover.

Now if I can only find a fool-proof way to get rid of the mildew!

[nathanrutledge]

Could be a combination of all of the above.

Personally, I'd clean the whole bathroom. Scrub the floor, the walls, the toilet, the sink, the whole thing.

Cleaning the drain is a MUST. The drain covers in Korea tend to hold on to hair and junk a bit more than back home, and because the way the drains are set up, the pressure of the water flowing down the drain is lower (in a tub/shower back home, you have the same amount of water in a smaller space - i.e. a stronger pressure). THUS, the soap, shampoo, etc doesn't ALL wash away. The hair acts as a sponge and voila, you have a terrible smelling mess of hair/soap/crap.

Mildew is easy. Get a spray bottle. Fill it with water and a capfull of bleach. Every time you use the shower, spray down the walls and floor with the bleach. It will prevent/retard mildew growth, AND you get that nice chlorine smell. Just make sure that you don't use TOO much bleach, or you could burn yourself/stain clothes.

When I first moved into my place, I had the same problem. Cleaning the drain and scrubbing the place took care of the problem.

[brento1138]

There is an odd "chemical smell" in my apartment which was very strong when I first moved in. It kind of went away for a while (or got to be less). After a 3 week vacation, (I left the windows all closed) the smell was back in full force. Luckily it is going away. It seems to be coming mostly from the bathroom, but maybe from other areas as well. It is a really terrible smell. I wonder what it could be, as well?

It doesn't smell like anything rotting, or sewage. Very chemically. Hope it's not gonna kill me.

[Jarome_Turner]

As others said, it's probably your drain.

Buy a rubber mat, place it over the drain when you're not using the shower. Should solve your problem.

[akcrono]

[Lazio]

Our bathroom had a terrible smell when we moved in. It was clearly sewage smell. I poured bleach into the drain and other chemicals, also boiling water. It didn't help. Landlord suggested a smart idea that we should wash the entire bathroom, floor and walls with shampoo 2 times a day and it won't stink. Sure, who the hell got time for that?! Besides it wouldn't solve the problem.
The problem was simple: there was a square shaped metal piece covering the floor drain but underneath it was the drain pipe itself, uncovered. I figured a way which let's the water go down but the smell doesn't come up. I just had to find a perfect sized bottle cap for that. Problem solved, no smell whatsoever.

[akcrono]

[Riker]

[Lazio]

2 PMs sent.

[sluggo832004]

[thatkidpercy]