I live in the second floor of a tall building. Out of the drain vents of my bathrooms and kitchen comes foul smell that invades the whole appartment. We also hear the drains gurgling for long seconds and out comes a mist that never reaches flooding proportions.

All this happens at random times, NEVER when the bath or the kitchen faucets, toilets or appliances are being used. Almost always there's nobody in those rooms when we hear the noise and following foul smell.

In several occasions, the entrance hall (ground floor) smelled like a sewer but the super in never there when it is happening or pretends it never happened. The pipe that empties to the street exploded recently and he still plays dumb.

He wants to look at the piping in my appartment, I say the problem lies elsewhere....

The guy who cleans the pipes already came and said there's nothing to be done in my appartment, that the main drain is the one clogged and the fouling and vapors are finding a way to breath through my place because the vents in the to stores below us are covered.

Any thoughts?

Here in the US, most of your venting is done at roof level or otherwise on the exterior of the structure. We do have some vents that can be inside, but those have a diaphragm that allows air to enter the vent, but prevents gas from escaping.

I've never heard of a situation where plumbing would vent inside the structure were one would be subject to sewer gases.

Sounds like the traps are dry, pour water into drains. If its the vent stacks just route them away from duck / ventilation intakes or in some cases just extent in height.

It’s a piping issue that’s not going to easily go away. When a heavy load of water is dropping down the stack, it is supposed to pull air behind it from the vent through the roof. It’s also supposed to push a column of air in front of it through a curb vent that is in the front sidewalk.

Think subway car coming down the tunnel. You’re standing on the platform. You feel the air on your face as you hear the car approaching from the distance. And if you stay there on the platform after the car passes, you’ll feel air pull behind the car.

If the curb vent was blocked, air would take another path, the path of least resistance, which is right through your fixture traps. A sewer obstruction between the base of the stack and the curb vent could create a situation which prevents air from flowing freely within sewer, causing the same symptom.

Worst case scenario is that the building uses separate loop venting and a separate vent stack for the fixtures. Except your apartment, which might’ve been added as an afterthought. In which case the problem would always have been there.

So that’s one question. Has the problem always existed?

Woodman, I think you are correct.
I've noticed the problem two years ago and are still arguing with the moron super that does nothing to solve it. He denied being informed on the subject while I told him to his face in Nov. 2016 and regularly tell the doormen to write it down on a book they keep for surch purpose.

I have thirty stories above me. No small building. And I do believe our pipes is the path of least resistance... Worries me what can happen in a worst case scenario.

It's no fun living in an appartment that smells like a swamp.

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If you have any drains that don't have water run into them regularly, you should run a quart or so of water into the drain every week or two (use a liter if you have no quarts ).

As the level of water in the trap decreases, the trap's ability to keep air from moving through it lessens. If the trap goes dry then there is no resistance to air movement.

The bathroom and kitchen may be on a single branch (a good plumber could figure that out). A tee can be installed on the drain and a vent added through an outside wall. The bigger the better. That would relieve the pressure.

I do water our drains every now and then and they're used daily when we bathe and use the kitchen and washing machine. When I pour, I use a large bucket. Basically, they do not have the time to dry.

The three gurgling, burping and deadly farting drains are on different lines AFAIK and their timing is completely independent. None of them smells bad at any time other than their unscheduled "shows".

Our building type allows no external piping. It's all concrete and mostly solid brick walls.

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