On 9/21/2014 7:58 PM, nestork wrote:
Rebel1;3286867 Wrote:
The toilet has been off the closet flange for a week, and I have not put

anything in the drain pipe to prevent sewer gases from drifting up into

the bathroom. Yet I don't smell any, and my smelling is excellent. From

the plumbing diagrams on the web, there are no traps other than the one

in the toilet. Should I be concerned that there is a blockage further
down the drain?

The house is 15 years old and built on a slab.

Thanks,

R1

If I had to guess, I'd guess it was because the vent stack that toilet
empties into is on the downwind side of your house.

I'm thinking that if the wind across North America is generally in a
west to east direction, if your vent stack opens up on the east side of
your roof, the wind blowing over your roof could be causing an low
pressure area on the east side of the roof, possibly causing air to be
sucked up the vent stack.

Test the idea. Light a cotton shoe lace until it's burning under it's
own steam, and then blow out the flame so that the cotton is smoldering,
releasing a steady stream of smoke as it burns. You now have a poor
man's smoke pencil. Hold the smoldering end of the shoe lace over your
floor flange (or what's left of it) and see if the smoke gets sucked
into the toilet waste pipe or blown out of it. If it gets blown out,
then it could be that the prevailing wind is pushing air down your vent
stack, and preventing sewer gas from coming up. If it gets sucked into
the toilet waste pipe, it's probably due to the wind blowing over your
roof.

Interesting theory, but the toilet has been off the flange for a week.
During that time the winds have varied from zero to fairly high. I can't
state that the winds/gusts have always been from the same direction.