Kuwait Plumbing/Bathrooms
This is one of those “sometimes you don’t even know what you don’t know” kind of posts.
We were sitting around after book club, and the topic turned to oddities in our housing. I mentioned that sometimes, my bathrooms just STINK and I don’t know why. People were quick to explain that when they put plumbing in, they don’t exhaust the sewer gases the same way as in Europe and America, and sometimes the gases back up and make a bad smell.
I know that my bathroom sometimes smells like someone has just dumped a diaper pail, sometimes I can smell hair dye, and sometimes I can smell men’s perfume! Sometimes it smells like the sea at low tide – none of these smells has anything to do with me, and I have wondered why my bathroom smells that way. We keep candles and perfumes in our bathrooms, so that when the stench is overwhelming, we can burn or spray it away.
The management’s suggestion, when we complained, was to run a lot of water, that made the smell go away. Run a lot of water? In a country like Kuwait where there is no rain this year, and water is precious?
“If only they would air condition the bathrooms!” one friend added and suddenly the light went on in my head! I had always thought it was me! I do my hair and make up in the bathroom, and often I end up sweating and wondering what I did to make me so HOT (not as the like “she’s so HOT!” sense, in the sweat-rolling-down-my-forehead sense.)
When I got home, I checked out all my bathrooms. My friend was absolutely right, there is no air conditioning in the bathrooms. We love our bathrooms, they are about the size of a small bedroom in the US, or a spacious walk-in closet, they have windows, they have beautiful tiling, they are nice!
And no, there is no air conditioning in the bathrooms. I have lived here for two years and never figured that out.
(No, that is not my bathroom in the photo. I love bathrooms, and found that photo HERE at Tessera Tile where they have glass tiles and I am dreaming of doing a bathroom with glass tiles and glass brick.)
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you don’t have an extractor fan in the bathroom?
Yes, there is a ventilation fan in the window. If you don’t keep it running 24/7, the smell is WORSE!
very interesting! I can’t remember: does your kitchen have a/c?
my bathroom really doesn’t smell, and I’m on a low floor. I can’t imagine that Beirut’s apartments are more up-to-date in terms of sewer gas issues, so I wonder what the difference is.
Much food for thought 🙂
Oh I had the reverse observation when I moved to the States. “Mom, can you believe there’s an A/C vent in the bathroom?” “Why? Don’t they understand that being exposed to cold air when you’re wet can kill you*?”
I’m obviously exaggerating but I didn’t understand why the bathroom needs air conditioning…I guess it’s more about ventilation huh..
Little Diamond, it is “your” bathroom! I can’t believe it has never happened while you are here. BTW, we are looking forward to your arrival! 🙂
GE&B – I remember living in Florida, and you are right, A/C in the bathroom CAN be really cold when you get out of a shower, brrrrrrrrrrrrr! No, for me it isn’t so much about ventilation as about sweating when I am trying to put on makeup and fix hair, sweat spoils everything!
If you think this is no problem research the SARS incident of 2003 in Hong Kong. Sewer gas can be deadly and exhaust fans won’t help only proper traping and venting of the drainage system.
Holy smokes! I had no idea! The smell is killer anyway, but I didn’t know it could kill!
Forget the smell, the bathroom looks fab!
Hi the problem in your bathroom is the pluming. Where ever there is running water there is a drain. And the pluming for the drain should have a pea-trap, which is the thing under the sink that looks like a J in the middle of the pipe. Some people forget to put them in when the do showers. You should get that fixed a.s.a.p as it could be deadly.
Jordan – thank you for your explanation – it isn’t my place, and so I have no say in how things could be corrected. I have complained, and the landlord says “run a lot of water – in the tub, in the bidet, etc and flush the toilet a lot. So much for saving scarce resources!
[…] I love the ‘long legs.’ Today the post attracting attention is one I wrote back in March of 2008 about bathroom plumbing in Kuwait. It just always gives me a grin to see an old post attract a little attention. Share […]