Tracking down the Culprit: 7 Reasons Why an Unpleasant Smell May Be Coming out of Your Bathroom

One of the most popular rooms for remodeling is the smallest in the house: the bathroom. There’s nothing worse than creating a beautiful bathroom for it to develop an unpleasant smell and spoil it. Nevertheless, even if you keep your bathroom meticulously clean, nasty smells can still emerge and ruin the effects of your interior design. No-one wants to have a beautiful but smelly bathroom after all!

You can find out more about how you can transform your bathroom into a luxurious haven and visit UniqueVanities.com but in the meantime, let’s take a look at how to prevent that unmistakable aroma of sewage permeating your home.

Here are 7 tips on what to look for when there’s a persistent pong emerging from your bathroom and what you can do to fix it:

1. Check the Bathtub

Sometimes you can notice a smell coming from the bathtub drain. This isn’t actually caused by sewer gas although it can smell as though it is. Unpleasant smells from the tub drain are usually down to bacteria growing in some of the things that get lodged there, such as hair for example. If your bathtub is used regularly, it is more likely that things will get lodged in the drain quite a lot and so it’s important to clean the drain more often than for a guest bathroom for example.

There’s a quick fix for this kind of smell:

• Pour half a cup of baking soda into the drain to clean and deodorize it
• Follow that with half a cup of white vinegar poured directly on top of the baking soda
• The foam that is created should be left to do its work for around an hour before rinsing
• Repeat this process monthly to ensure the bathtub is always odor-free

2. Is it the Sink?

Because sinks work in the same way as bathtubs and drain water out rather than letting it into the tub, they can sometimes stink a little for the same reasons. Regularly brushing your hair over the sink or rinsing toothpaste down the drain can lead to blockages which are a breeding ground for bacteria.

Using the same process as above once a month cleans and deodorizes the sink’s drains in the same way. Obviously, the more a sink is used, the more often you may need to repeat this process.

3. The Toilet?

There are a number of reasons why a toilet can start smelling including the following:

The water in the toilet bowl has evaporated which happens more with toilets that are not used very much

• A broken seal under the toilet which allows sewer gas to leak into the bathroom
• Bacteria collected in the sides of a toilet trap
• An internal crack in the toilet bowl which can cause the water level in the bowl to drop

4. The Shower?

Showers are fitted with something called a p-trap which is a piece of pipe designed to hold water. The job of this piece is intended to prevent sewage gases from coming up the shower drain and creating unpleasant smells in your bathroom. Thoroughly cleaning the p-trap which is located under the drain will ensure it remains bacteria – and odor-free.

Using baking soda and vinegar as above will help to keep the p-trap free of blockages. It’s only natural to expect to clear the p-trap as often as the shower is used and so it’s less likely that you’ll need to clean a shower in a guestroom as regularly. This process helps to break down any organic waste that’s built-up in the p-trap and deodorize the shower.

5. Blocked Plumbing Vents

Most bathrooms have some kind of vent system to release any odors and also to prevent a build-up of humidity which can lead to damp. Sometimes the vents can become blocked, particularly on the outside of the property, with leaves and other organic matter.

Most bathrooms have extractor vents to take out the humidity in the room. These also become blocked over time and can create extra humidity in the bathroom which can lead to damp. It’s important to keep all vents clear as part of your home maintenance, whatever their purpose.

When the vents have become blocked, bacteria will form among the organic matter and create a pungent sewage smell. Blocked vents are relatively easy to clean and should be maintained regularly to prevent bad smells in the future.

6. Blocked Drainage System

When a drainage system has become blocked, it is often not possible to find out where the blockage is and clear it yourself. In these cases, you will need to hire a firm using special cameras they feed into the drainpipes to detect blockages. Then they use specialist equipment to shift the blockage so that all bacteria trapped in the system is eliminated and shifts the bad smell in the process.

Of course, if you regularly clean your vents and outside drains as part of your home maintenance program, you’re more likely to avoid having to call in the professionals. Obviously, the fall is without doubt the worst season for falling leaves causing blockages in drains and so you’ll need to up the ante on your home maintenance during this time.

7. General Damp

Sometimes when rooms have been converted into bathrooms, they are not sufficiently protected to deal with the shift in purpose. Imagine a former bedroom becoming a wet-room for example and you can understand that you have to make sure the walls, floors and ceilings are prepped for the change. This avoids damp from developing in your bathroom and creating unpleasant odors.

The other issue you will have with damp is that it can cause health issues at home. Damp eventually leads to mould which has spores which can spread bacteria around your bathroom. This can have a harmful effect particularly on young babies or people with respiratory problems. The way to avoid mould forming in the first place is to fix any damp issues before they become serious.