Sewage Shower Squish
My girlfriend and I were renting a house with a female friend who liked to play fast and loose with the term “hygene.” From this point on, she’ll be known as “the Barista.”
We were fairly accustomed to the less-than-ideal odors that would waft gently around the Barista, such as when she adopted a diet consisting entirely of hard-boiled eggs, or the Nutmeg Incident. The house we were sharing was built in the 1960s, and we had separate bathrooms.
The Barista’s bathroom was generally heinous in both smell and appearance, with used tampons and other feminine detritus scattered around. As a result, it took us a while to realize that the smell of raw sewage belching forth from her side of the house was not, in fact, her fault.
One day, my girlfriend and I were watching TV while the Barista was at work, and we heard an ominous gurgling noise from her bathroom. Shortly thereafter, we were assaulted by the smell of raw sewage that was so strong it caused my girlfriend (at the time, an autopsy technician) to literally dry heave.
Clearly, an investigation had to be mounted, so we made the perilous journey into the Barista’s bathroom, stepping cautiously to avoid the used condoms and other keepsakes in her biohazard collection.
When we arrived, we discovered that raw, chunky sewage was liberally bubbling up from the drain in the Barista’s shower (which was so coated in pubic hair, mold, and stains it looked like a modern art masterpiece). The smell was horrific, and we immediately called the landlady.
When the Barista returned home from her shift, she was horrified that the lawn had been torn up to expose the Orangeburg sewer pipes that had been nearly entirely blocked by tree roots.
Since the Barista’s bathroom was the closest to the sewer main, the backups had been bubbling up in her bathroom for months without the rest of the house being aware.
We asked her if she had noticed the issue, and she mentioned that sewage regularly bubbled up from the drain while she was showering (biweekly). Her response? “I just squish it back down with my feet.” Story credit: Reddit / PM_me_gun_questions