Removing Foul Bathroom Odors

No one likes walking past the bathroom and getting hit with an awful smell. Whether the stench is the cause of human waste or some lacking area in maintenance, there’s no reason your bathroom should regularly smell bad.

At All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling, we’re here to help. Our plumbers can help you with some potential causes of odors, plus good steps for removing them. Here are some basics on how to get rid of odors – and keep them away for good.

Odor Removal

There are a few areas you can look at to attempt to rid the bathroom of an odor:

• Ventilation: Most bathrooms have a small exhaust fan for ventilation. Using this fan will often remove many basic odors over a period of several minutes, and it can also help remove excess moisture. Moisture commonly causes smelly mold and mildew.
• Air fresheners: Air fresheners don’t actually remove odors, but for temporary smells, they do a great job of masking them. You can either buy store fresheners or create your own using vinegar, baking soda and some essential oils.
• Desiccants: Desiccants are dry materials in the form of silica gels. They absorb odors in the bathroom naturally. Another possibility here is a plant like a fern or a lily plant.

Bathroom Cleaning

Once you’ve gotten an odor out of the bathroom, here are a few cleaning tips to keep it from potentially returning:

• Cleaning materials: If you want to clean a fixture, make a paste using baking soda and lemon juice and apply it. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then spray the surface with some white vinegar. Allow the paste to bubble, the wipe it clean.
• Toilet tank: Failure to clean the toilet tank regularly can cause it to stink like urine. Pour white vinegar in the tank and scrub it out.
• Mold: If you see black specks on the ceiling or green debris around pipes or fixtures, this is a sign of mold. It can be unsightly, smelly and impactful on your health.

Next Steps

Some other steps that can help remove and prevent lingering odors:

• Re-caulk tiles, bathtub and shower
• Close the toilet lid before flushing and keep it closed
• Regularly empty trash bins
• Wash bathroom towels, mats and curtains regularly – these can retain odors
• Contact our plumbers to help fix any leaks

For more on how to prevent nasty smells from the bathroom, or for any of our other plumbing services, speak to the experts at All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling today.