post pipe-replacement solvent fumes

[Brad L]

Hi there, I am not a plumber myself (as I'm sure will be obvious by the naivety of my questions in this post). I had a plumber here a week ago and he replaced pipes under both my bathroom sinks and also replaced the taps on one sink (following from leaks). I assume all he would have used was PVC glue, and from what I've read about it, that should dissipate in hours, but in the one bathroom (where he replaced the pipes and also taps), the smell is still so strong that it burns my nose contantly 7 days later. And, oddly, it is by far the strongest when I turn on the tap. I'm not sure if it's the water itself, or if it's wafting up through the drain, but in either case it doesn't make sense to me because I can't think how the glue would be inside the pipe and even if it was, why would it still be curing and giving off a strong smell a week later.

Also puzzled why it's occuring in that bathroom (where the pipe and taps were replaced) but really hardly at all in the other bathroom where it was just the pipes. That makes me wonder if it's something to do with the taps replacement rather than the pipes. Either that or is it possible he made a mistake and applied so much in this case that it's not curing, or some got inside the pipe and since it's wet in there, it's not drying and just continuing to waft up through the drain and for some reason running water through does nothing to stop it? I'm hesitant to ask him to come back for that, and not sure the smell would even be noticeable to him as I would guess he works with this daily, but to me it's really an intolerable smell.

So, I'm trying to figure out a) why it's occurring, b) if it's any concern (beyond annoyance) to be inhaling these fumes which really should be inert by 1 week after the work was done (!), but still smell very noxious, and c) how to stop it from continuing to smell. I've tried running the bathroom exhaust for many hours, but it's made no difference. I've tried running water down the sink (for as long as I can stand the smell) but that hasn't seemed to reduce it either. Don't really want to just mask it with a different scent, because then I wouldn't know if it's still occurring. Just want to figure out how to get rid of it altogether. Thanks in advance for any advice!!

 

[Twowaxhack]

Give it another week.

 

[Geofd]

Have you called him back so he can diagnose

 

[Brad L]

Give it another week.

Yeah I probably will, was just worrying about what it is I'm inhaling all this time as it seems pretty potent that it literally burns my nose., but I'm assuming there's no way whatever solvent he used could still be harmful after a week even if for some reason it hasn't dried.

 

[Brad L]

Have you called him back so he can diagnose

I didn't yet, I wasn't sure if it would be overreacting or not, and thought he might not even smell it since he works with the stuff all day probably. But it's really been intense, especially whatever seems to be wafting up the drain or coming out in the water (or both). But I did read some others online having similar issues post-plumbing work, and the consensus seemed to be just give it time, so I'd been assuming it's no concern despite how much it's been bothering me.

 

[wpns]

A week is a long time, maybe he spilled enough that the trap is full of solvent, or spilled it into some other place that’s acting as a reservoir.

Does running hot water down the drain make it worse?

Is there a vent fan? Try leaving that running? Open windows?

 

[Twowaxhack]

Look under the cabinet and see if he left his glue ( or whatever )

 

[Bird Doo Head]

We have a family member who can be near no VOCs, so we have experience with the slightest chemical odor. You may be smelling out-gassing from the PVC pipes and fittings.

Also note that the solvents in the primer and glue, usually acetone or MEK, will permeate soft and/or porous surfaces. Towels, tissue paper rolls, cardboard should all be removed.

Sometimes VOCs even get into the grout and linger for days. Smearing on a paste of baking soda mixed with water and letting it dry and stay for a day will help. Next, wash it off with plain water and rinse it away.

I hope this helps you get rid of the solvents quickly.
Paul

 

[Brad L]

A week is a long time, maybe he spilled enough that the trap is full of solvent, or spilled it into some other place that’s acting as a reservoir.

Does running hot water down the drain make it worse?

Is there a vent fan? Try leaving that running? Open windows?

We have a family member who can be near no VOCs, so we have experience with the slightest chemical odor. You may be smelling out-gassing from the PVC pipes and fittings.

Also note that the solvents in the primer and glue, usually acetone or MEK, will permeate soft and/or porous surfaces. Towels, tissue paper rolls, cardboard should all be removed.

Sometimes VOCs even get into the grout and linger for days. Smearing on a paste of baking soda mixed with water and letting it dry and stay for a day will help. Next, wash it off with plain water and rinse it away.

I hope this helps you get rid of the solvents quickly.
Paul

Look under the cabinet and see if he left his glue ( or whatever )

Thank you all for your messages, I appreciate it! Somehow or other, I'm still having the problem with this solvent smell.

I've run the bathroom vent a lot, both with the bathroom door closed and open, and have run a lot of water through the sink. I don't have a nearby window, but have had windows open elsewhere when I could (unfortunately we've also had really bad air quality with forest fire smoke, so this has been a bad time!).

Under the sink itself, there was no evidence of any spill, and the things I have under there don't have any solvent on them.

The smell seems to be coming not from underneath the cabinet, but wafting up through the drain itself. I had thought before that it was strongest when the tap was on, but it really is strong to me even with the tap off! I can't really tell if it gets stronger when it's on or not now.

I had that bathroom door closed all day today and went in for about 1 minute and didn't even turn on the tap at first and that was all it took for my nose to start burning from it again and then it continues burning for a long time after even once the door is closed, and a headache quickly followed as well. Whatever it is, it really is an irritant. I tried turning on the tap after, but my nose was already burning from it, I couldn't tell if the odor was stronger with it on or off.

I did contact the plumbing company by e-mail and got a reply from the dispatch manager but they were minimally helpful, and most of their suggestions were things I was already doing. Apart from, they did suggest putting a bowl of vinegar under the sink (though I don't think it's coming from the external pipes) and they also suggested pouring vinegar down the sink. I do plan to try that, but I'm wondering, would that just mask the smell (which doesn't really help if it's still there), or would it actually get rid of it completely? (i.e. remove any remnants of the cement that is causing the smell?)

I also asked them to send me the MSDS sheet of the specific product that was used, and it was Oatey Canadian Standard ABS Yellow Cement. Knowing nothing about plumbing, that didn't particularly help me, except I shudder when I read all the potential effects of having been inhaling this stuff in my condo for over half a month now, mostly with the windows shut because of the smoke.

I'm really at a loss to what to do about it, and so thought I'd reach out again and give you an update. The other bathroom (where the same pipe installation was done) has no smell at all, so this is why I'm still convinced the plumber must have done something wrong in this bathroom, but even if so I can't understand how the chemical could still be spelling after weeks! Is it possible that some got spilled inside the drain pipe and it will not dry/cure because water is in the pipe and so the cement stays in liquid form and just continually wafts up? But then why wouldn't it get washed out when I run large amounts of water down it?

Any further thoughts would be very helpful, and thanks again!! Also since I'm worried about all the nose burning and headaches, anything to put my mind at ease about the effects of this would be helpful too (like, even though the smell is still so potent, is it really possible that the toxicity of the product could still be active after over half a month even if somehow it has not properly cured in the drain?)

Thank you again for any help/advice, and sorry for the long message, just wanted to update you on the situation.

 

[MicEd69]

Thank you all for your messages, I appreciate it! Somehow or other, I'm still having the problem with this solvent smell.

I've run the bathroom vent a lot, both with the bathroom door closed and open, and have run a lot of water through the sink. I don't have a nearby window, but have had windows open elsewhere when I could (unfortunately we've also had really bad air quality with forest fire smoke, so this has been a bad time!).

Under the sink itself, there was no evidence of any spill, and the things I have under there don't have any solvent on them.

The smell seems to be coming not from underneath the cabinet, but wafting up through the drain itself. I had thought before that it was strongest when the tap was on, but it really is strong to me even with the tap off! I can't really tell if it gets stronger when it's on or not now.

I had that bathroom door closed all day today and went in for about 1 minute and didn't even turn on the tap at first and that was all it took for my nose to start burning from it again and then it continues burning for a long time after even once the door is closed, and a headache quickly followed as well. Whatever it is, it really is an irritant. I tried turning on the tap after, but my nose was already burning from it, I couldn't tell if the odor was stronger with it on or off.

I did contact the plumbing company by e-mail and got a reply from the dispatch manager but they were minimally helpful, and most of their suggestions were things I was already doing. Apart from, they did suggest putting a bowl of vinegar under the sink (though I don't think it's coming from the external pipes) and they also suggested pouring vinegar down the sink. I do plan to try that, but I'm wondering, would that just mask the smell (which doesn't really help if it's still there), or would it actually get rid of it completely? (i.e. remove any remnants of the cement that is causing the smell?)

I also asked them to send me the MSDS sheet of the specific product that was used, and it was Oatey Canadian Standard ABS Yellow Cement. Knowing nothing about plumbing, that didn't particularly help me, except I shudder when I read all the potential effects of having been inhaling this stuff in my condo for over half a month now, mostly with the windows shut because of the smoke.

I'm really at a loss to what to do about it, and so thought I'd reach out again and give you an update. The other bathroom (where the same pipe installation was done) has no smell at all, so this is why I'm still convinced the plumber must have done something wrong in this bathroom, but even if so I can't understand how the chemical could still be spelling after weeks! Is it possible that some got spilled inside the drain pipe and it will not dry/cure because water is in the pipe and so the cement stays in liquid form and just continually wafts up? But then why wouldn't it get washed out when I run large amounts of water down it?

Any further thoughts would be very helpful, and thanks again!! Also since I'm worried about all the nose burning and headaches, anything to put my mind at ease about the effects of this would be helpful too (like, even though the smell is still so potent, is it really possible that the toxicity of the product could still be active after over half a month even if somehow it has not properly cured in the drain?)

Thank you again for any help/advice, and sorry for the long message, just wanted to update you on the situation.

The volatile parts of the glue are MEK and acetone. Acetone evaporates very quickly but MEK can linger for a while. However, it seems quite strange for this smell to last for weeks no matter how much glue was used.

The water in the P-trap will effectively block any smell coming from inside the drainpipe, so it would seem the smell is not coming from there. But as you cannot find any place where the cement has been spilled, it is quite a conundrum. And even if the cement was spilled over a nonporous surface, the MEK would have long evaporated.

I would suggest calling Oatley and see what they have to say. But perhaps try one thing before you do that. Boil a couple of quarts of water, add a 1/4 cup of baking soda, and pour that down the drain. Even though that doesn't appear to be where the smell is coming from, if it is, perhaps that will resolve it.

 

[wpns]

I would disassemble the P-trap, or at least remove the drain plug, and see if somehow there’s some solvent in there?

 

[Twowaxhack]

Your neighbor might be making meth

 

[Brad L]

I would disassemble the P-trap, or at least remove the drain plug, and see if somehow there’s some solvent in there?

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Brad L]

Your neighbor might be making meth

I'll ask her, thanks.

 

[Brad L]

The volatile parts of the glue are MEK and acetone. Acetone evaporates very quickly but MEK can linger for a while. However, it seems quite strange for this smell to last for weeks no matter how much glue was used.

The water in the P-trap will effectively block any smell coming from inside the drainpipe, so it would seem the smell is not coming from there. But as you cannot find any place where the cement has been spilled, it is quite a conundrum. And even if the cement was spilled over a nonporous surface, the MEK would have long evaporated.

I would suggest calling Oatley and see what they have to say. But perhaps try one thing before you do that. Boil a couple of quarts of water, add a 1/4 cup of baking soda, and pour that down the drain. Even though that doesn't appear to be where the smell is coming from, if it is, perhaps that will resolve it.

Thanks a lot for this. It's really helpful to have this additional context, in helping to rule things out.

I'm going to try the baking soda solution for sure, just have to get some from the store.

Just to be sure I'm understanding, would the baking soda and water actually wash away any remaining solvent (and/or with vinegar like the plumbing company suggested), or would it just mask the smell but any solvent would still potentially remain? (I just want to be sure I'm actually getting rid of the source itself rather than just masking it.) Really appreciate your help with this, thanks.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I’ve been using pvc/abs solvent for almost 40 yrs and have NEVER had a complaint, call or personally smelled any solvent more than a couple hours after using it.

Bark up another tree.

 

[MicEd69]

Thanks a lot for this. It's really helpful to have this additional context, in helping to rule things out.

I'm going to try the baking soda solution for sure, just have to get some from the store.

Just to be sure I'm understanding, would the baking soda and water actually wash away any remaining solvent (and/or with vinegar like the plumbing company suggested), or would it just mask the smell but any solvent would still potentially remain? (I just want to be sure I'm actually getting rid of the source itself rather than just masking it.) Really appreciate your help with this, thanks.

It is strange that you continue to have this smell after weeks.

My suggestion is that if something strange is going on, the boiling water would increase the temperature of the source of the smell making it to release more of the aromatics that are causing you this problem. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) absorbs odors and does not mask them. If this suggestion does help, you may want to do it more than once.

Just note that it is REALLY strange that you continue to have this smell.

 

[MicEd69]

I also meant to say that vinegar is acidic and sodium bicarbonate is basic. If you do the vinegar and the sodium bicarbonate right after each other, in either order, it will bubble a lot. That won't really hurt anything, just don't be surprised when it happens. You can minimize/eliminate that if you flush the drain with regular water from the faucet.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Duct tape the drain closed and the overflow closed.

See if the smell goes away.

Have you ever had Covid-19? The CHINA virus

 

[wpns]

Post pictures? Maybe someone will see something. Definitely unusual! Even if the plumber spilled a whole can of glue under the cabinets or in the wall or down the drain I’d think it would have dissipated by now. Can other people smell it?