How to Get Rid of Urine Smell in Bathroom 

Let us take a look at some of the more time tested remedies how to get rid of urine smell in a bathroom and see how they work:

Arguably one of the most noxious of all smells would be the sharp and pungent smell of human liquid waste, specifically termed urine. It is bad enough that you may have to endure this foul odor at public restrooms, such as at the subway station or a football field, but it is absolutely unacceptable if your own washroom were to smell like the restroom at a hockey stadium right after a big match.

However, if this unpleasant eventuality has come to pass, what are you going to do about it? Especially, if the odor is persistent and simply refuses to go away.

Let us take a look at some remedies how to get rid of urine smell in a bathroom:

Make sure that you have the right supplies for the job at hand

First and foremost, regardless of whichever remedy you are going to use, it is imperative that you have the necessary supplies once you make a decision on how to get rid of the urine smell in the bathroom.

Yes, working on how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom may be pretty much one of the nastiest of household chores that exist out there, but that certainly does not mean that you cannot make it easier on yourself by getting the right equipment to get the job done with the least amount of effort. Some of the supplies you need include the following:

• Toilet brush
• A used toothbrush (it goes without saying that the toothbrush “must” be discarded after being used lest some unfortunate soul actually uses it for the purpose for which it had been made)
• Lots of paper towels (this is no time to scrimp and use a rag because even a discarded rag has the potential to lead to cross-contamination after all)
• A big bottle of any high-quality general purpose cleaner
• Vinegar
• Large, nylon bristle equipped brush
• Baking soda
• Screwdriver
• Wench
• Plastic knife
• Mop
• Plastic gloves
• Footwear
• And lots of water, of course

Now that you have all the supplies you need already and at hand, it is time to stop procrastinating and actually get on with the task at hand i.e. resolving the question of how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom.

Use a good enzyme-based cleaner

Enzyme-based cleaners are the best solution to eliminating urine smell.  They do not just mask the urine odor, they eliminate the odor source completely.  The other good thing about an enzyme-based cleaner is the ease of use.  You just spray on the affected area and walk away.  There are many enzyme-based cleaners in the market, but one of the best is Xion Lab’s bio-enzymatic Stain & Odor Remover.  CLICK HERE for more information about Xion Lab’s bio-enzymatic Stain & Odor Remover.

Pour the general-purpose cleaner all around the rim of the toilet seat

There are a large number of products available in the market for this job. However, if you are more of a DIY (do it yourself) type and do not trust strong abrasive chemicals and their impact on your health, then you can easily create your own bathroom and toilet cleaning concoction with a simple dishwashing detergent.

All you have to do is pour in a few tablespoons of the stuff and mix it with around half a dozen ounces of water, or so. Once your favorite (brand of) mixture is ready, proceed to spray it liberally on the toilet and especially under the rim (if you are using your very own self-created mixture, make sure to acquire a nozzle so that you will be able to hit those ‘hard to reach places as well. Of course, it will not be considered amiss if you were to use a cloth peg to clamp your nose rather than ‘inhaling’ the noxious fumes. Cleaner mixed with stale urine creates a really powerful odor indeed.

Squirt a stream of your bowl cleaner directly under the rim

Once you have determined that those really difficult-to-reach places have been adequately covered with a thick layer of cleaning fluid, it is time to walk out of the washroom and ditch the clothes peg in favor of a few breaths of fresh air. The reason is to allow the cleaner to break down all the scale, lime, dirt, and bacteria that taken together are directly responsible for the current state of your washroom, or in other words, the main factors that prompted you to go about thinking along the lines of how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom?

After the passage of a few minutes (ranging from half to around an hour or so), you can go back on the offensive again. However, for really, really stubborn stains and smells, it may be necessary to let the mixture fight it out with the smelly deposits for the duration of the night. Just make sure you do not use the washroom during this period.

Scrub, Scrub and Scrub

Once you are done with the wait, check up on the washroom toilet bowl and the surrounding areas that you have liberally smeared with the cleaner. Also, make sure that your feet are covered in bathroom slippers and/or clear plastic bags that you will discard once the job is done. This is to make sure that the bacteria or the dangerous chemicals you are using do not actually come in contact with your skin at any time during the cleaning process.

Wipe down the toilet with lots and lots of paper towels

Scrimping and saving on paper towels will get you nowhere. Use them in a steady stream and pay a lot of attention to different points, such as the handles on the toilet as well as the lids of the seat cover and the cistern. This is the part where that old toothbrush may come in handy. It will do a really great job of tackling the grime in those really hard-to-reach places such as the hinges or the underside of the cistern.

It helps to remove the commode seat completely

Speaking of the hinges that enable the seat to be attached to the commode, it is recommended to completely remove them with a screwdriver and wench set. However, this is more of a drastic and extreme measure and does not need to be conducted if the unpleasant odor has disappeared after your initial cleaning attempts.

The thing is that just because the toilet looks all sparkling and shiny does not mean that there are no areas that require cleaning. It is only after removing the hinges and the seat completely that can you really get down and see how much gunk is still left. This is why many surface-level cleaning attempts do get the job done, but nevertheless, the unpleasant smell still remains and makes a trip to the washroom an ordeal and compels you to come up with ever more creative ways to answer the question of how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom?

However, getting to all those really difficult-to-access places will effectively ensure that your job does not remain undone in any way, once you have it completed.

Take care of the floor times too

The question of how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom generally remains unanswered regardless of how hard you work and scrub when you have a house full of young male children. Thanks to their informal toilet habits, they have a tendency of ensuring that the tiles, the seats, the undercover area of the seat as well as the hinges generally get caught ‘mid-stream’. This is why all the sporadic cleaning attempts are not able to get rid of the bad odor.

Here, it is pertinent to note that if urine droplets fall on the area of the caulking in between the tiles, it will be very difficult to get rid of the smell because the urine may well have slipped through the cracks and been absorbed by the white cement or any other caulking element, as the case may be.

Perhaps, this is why your otherwise sparkling toilet and bathroom may end up smelling like the proverbial ‘bar at closing time’. While it may sound really gross, it is not really a cause of worry provided you do your job right, that is.

This is the part where you put your baking soda and vinegar to good use. Baking soda is a really handy little tidbit to keep around the house. This is due to the fact that in addition to its edible properties, it also makes an excellent scrubbing agent when you went to get rid of the worst smells in your washroom.

All you have to do is to make a well-grounded paste by mixing the water with the baking soda and place this concoction both in, as well as around the many cracks of the caulking agent and grout.

As with your previous cleaning agent, leave it to soak in and absorb the bacteria and lime (that cause the bad smell) for a few minutes. Afterward, you can get to work once again by spraying away from the whole mixture thoroughly with vinegar.

Once the vinegar has completely mixed with the baking soda, it is time to break in your new large, nylon bristle-equipped brush to scrub away the baking soda and the vinegar. This will help ensure that any lingering bacteria have been removed and now not only will the grout area between your tiles be clean and sparkling, but it will no longer retain any lingering bad odor either.

Clean the base of the commode as well

This is also an oft-neglected area as well and due to this oversight, it becomes a veritable haven for different types of bacteria and other foul odor-causing agents. In fact, many people simply pour some cleaner on it and then spray it with water in the vain hope that the problem will be resolved all by itself.

As a matter of fact, many people simply spray the area with scrubbing bubbles (especially the area directly behind the commode) and then wonder how to get rid of the urine smell in the bathroom?

Basically, scrubbing bubbles are a form of ‘do it yourself’ cleaning solution that (as the term implies) bubbles up and tends to foam on, as well as around the place where it has been sprayed. However, simply washing it away with a well-aimed shower hose will not really help since it does require a certain amount of, what we may colloquially refer to as ‘elbow grease’ i.e. you have to actually work your way around the problem using a combination of your floor brush and toothbrush for those really hard to get places.

Sometimes, the toothbrush really cannot hack it, especially if there is a lot of gunk in the space between the commode and the cistern as well as the very hard-to-reach place beneath the pipe that connects the flush tank with the toilet bowl. Here you may have to use the plastic knife (liberally coated with anti-bacterial cleaning liquid of course) to scrape away at this really gooey stuff, till there is none left.

Wash the molding and the walls as thoroughly as you can

Walls tend to be neglected when we are trying to answer that perennially elusive question of how to get rid of urine smell in the bathroom?

If after all your hard work, the washroom is still as smelly as ever, then the usual suspects such as the floor tiles and the commode were not to blame. It means that the walls have at one time or another received enough droplets of urine to keep the place as stinky as it was before you commenced working on the whole cleaning process et el. The walls need to be cleaned and well-scrubbed with your all-purpose cleaning agent.

Furthermore, if there is molding all along the floor of the washroom, then that means that some urine splashes may have inadvertently found their way there and have to be cleaned properly as well. Once again, it is going to be you, the cleaning agents, and your trusty plastic knife and toothbrush.

Conclusion

However, this is the last part and by now your washroom should be looking and smelling as if it has only just been constructed. Now that you know how to get rid of the urine smell in the bathroom, it is time to use your mop to dry the floor and the walls so that the washroom may be usable once again.