The bathroom is one of the best parts of your home.
It’s a place for various daily tasks such as getting clean, as well as enjoying some much-needed relaxation after another gruelling day.
Sadly, the positive vibes are completely destroyed when bad odours enter the room through the sink and bath.
Worse still, smelly drains are a very common problem that most homeowners will suffer from at one time or another.
This can lead to huge frustrations, and may even bring minor health risks.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an issue that will naturally subside, which is why quick treatment is required.
Here are some top tricks to banish the bathroom blues by overcoming those odours in the fastest time possible.
Need help with smelly drains? Speak to an expert now:
#1. Bicarb Soda And Vinegar
In many cases, it will be possible to flush the bad smell away with a simple formula of bicarbonate soda, vinegar and hot water. After all, those odours are often caused due to trapped materials within the piping of those bathroom drains. Therefore this trick is usually the best starting point for anyone wanting to say goodbye to nasty smells.
Pour roughly 150g of bicarb down the plug (it’s fine that some will stay on the surface). Then pour roughly 250ml of white vinegar over the solution, and this should make it bubble. Let the chemical reaction take place for around 25 minutes and then pour a kettle’s worth of boiling water down the sink.
Leave it another 25 minutes and then repeat the process. With a little bit of luck, this should remove the smell along with any minor blockages.
#2. Try Hot & Cold Water
The fact that your sink and bath handles hot and cold water on a daily basis means that you’ve tried this step on a basic level anyway. Nonetheless, the idea of flushing the pipes with a cycle of hot and cold water should not be ignored.
Rather than relying on the taps, use a combination of boiling and iced water. Use the latter to congeal any grease, hair, and debris before flushing it out with the boiling water. In truth, one cycle probably won’t be enough so you’ll want to repeat the process at least three or four times. This should successfully clear the waste materials, taking the bad smells with them.
Aside from overcoming this initial problem, it should keep the pipes and drainage systems flowing freely. This makes it the perfect maintenance task for any homeowner, even when the odours have only just started to appear.
#3. Try Bleach And Cleaning Products
If water and homemade concoctions aren’t working, bleach could be the answer. Pour it down the affected plug without diluting it and give it time to do its job. After this, you can flush it with hot water. Choose a scented bleach, and you may find that those smells mask the negative odours for an immediate improvement.
Another option is to buy bathroom drain unblockers. These strong products will break down hair and soap scum to banish smells and create free flowing pipes. Different items will require specific treatments, so it’s best to read the label and do what it says. Otherwise, those efforts could go to waste.
When completing those procedures in the bathroom, you should treat the sink as well as the bath. Even if one drain seems to be the source of those odours, there’s a good chance that a problem is slowly growing inside the other unit.
#4. Clean The Pipes
The disposal systems used for basins and bathtubs can be quite complex. Unfortunately, this means that “U” bends and traps can collect the associated gunk and junk. While this accumulation is often a slow process, moving the materials along can be quite challenging. When pouring stuff down the sink doesn’t work, you may need to think about removing the pipes.
Accessing those pipes may be very easy or extremely difficult depending on the bathroom design. As such, the choice between the DIY and professional approaches will vary from household to household. Either way, removing the bend that is likely to be the source of odours gives you a chance to flush out the material.
In some cases, you may even wish to replace this part of the system, although it’s rarely a necessity. Once you’ve removed that smell, you’ll want to avoid repeat problems. Use hair catchers and other bathroom products to reduce those threats. From now on, the only smells in your bathroom will be candles and scented cleaning materials.
Job done.