REGULAR USE OF PLUMBING WILL HELP DISSIPATE SULFUR ODORS

My house has a semi-detached garage with an apartment above. It has a kitchen sink in the main area and a full bathroom with sink, toilet and shower. It has its own water heater. Our oldest son will be living there eventually, but for the moment, it is rarely used.

When I use the sink or shower, the water has a strong sulfur smell. It does dissipate, but it returns after a short while. I have been advised to do everything from draining the water heater tank to replacing the water heater or replacing the entire plumbing. We don't experience anything like this in the house. Do you have any ideas as to the cause and how to fix it? -- Hugh, Raleigh, N.C.

Dear Hugh: In Mr. HandyPerson's completely unbiased opinion, it's possible you may need to drain and flush the water heater tank, replace the water heater and replace all the plumbing, in that order, if everything possibly wrong has come to pass. However, also in Mr. HP's opinion, the likelihood of this being the case is so small as to be statistically insignificant. Odds are that the problem is as simple and inexpensive as you hope.

To begin with, most objectionable odors one encounters when turning on a tap emanate from the respective drains. This is particularly common in seldom-used plumbing, where stagnant water stands in the drain for long periods of time and can, in some cases, evaporate from the P-trap under sinks or other traps connected to toilets or showers, allowing sewer smells and gasses to come up from the drain when you first reintroduce running water.

The solution to this is simple. Every few weeks while the apartment remains vacant, flush the toilet, turn on each of the hot and cold water taps at every sink or shower, and let them run for a minute or two. It wouldn't hurt, for additional deodorizing, to treat the various drains with a few tablespoons of baking soda and a cup of white vinegar before flushing them with tap water.

It is not a bad idea to flush out the water heater tank if it has been turned off for a while (or left on but seldom used). If you don't have the owner's manual and instructions, you can probably get directions about how to flush the tank from the manufacturer's Web site (or call the company and ask for a copy of the manual for your model of water heater). If you come up short on information or don't want to do this job yourself, calling a plumber to do this singular task will not cost you an arm and a leg. It is not at all complicated, but the correct procedure for doing it can vary slightly between different vintages, makes and models.

When water is allowed to stand for extended periods of time in pipes, the water heater and various drains and traps, it can develop some unpleasant odors when first turned on again. In your case, with the seldom-used plumbing, Mr. HP is about 99 percent sure that's the cause of the smell, and that flushing the toilet and running the hot and cold taps for a minute or two will remove the odors from the pipes and drains and keep them from returning.

To be completely sure, after running hot and cold water through the pipes and drains, fill a glass with hot tap water from the apartment, take it away from the sink where you drew it (maybe outdoors), and sniff it. If, even after this "system flushing," the water has a detectable odor, then you may very well need to flush the water heater tank (or have it flushed by a plumber).

But if, as Mr. HP suspects, the water is odor-free, you probably don't need to worry about flushing the water heater tank or doing anything more complicated than running the taps and flushing the toilet occasionally while the apartment remains unoccupied.

And, Hugh, when your son is finally in residence, he'll be doing the necessary "maintenance" simply by living there and using the plumbing regularly.

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