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If your apartment floor waste admits sewer smells often, its likely your building has Air Admittance Valves and Grays Rescue Building Management are pleading for these valves (commonly referred to as a Durgo) to stop being used for large apartment blocks.

As an ex plumber I understand the attraction of terminating vents in risers and ceiling spaces without penetrating the roof, however, there is clearly a downside as residents are paying the price.  

Insufficient ventilation air flow causes the water seal in traps to be vacuumed back into the risers and the result is a sewer smell coming back out of the floor waste. 

There is a standard practice GRBM encourages for our residents to keep your apartment smelling fresh, every time you do a load of washing, slowly pour a bucket of water into floor waste to refill and reseal the trap preventing sewer smells.

This is something Grays Rescue Building Management deals with regularly and would like to encourage the team making changes to the construction industry to ban the use of cost-cutting ventilation practices to improve the quality of strata living for unsuspecting owners and tenants.