Removing Urine Odours at Source
Published on:What is the problem?
Smelly men's washrooms!
Why is it a problem?
- Unhygienic
- Poor user experience
We all use a washroom multiple times per day, so why it is acceptable to have an unpleasant and unhygienic experience?
You know that restaurant you love but the washrooms are disgusting? The one that tarnishes its own reputation due to shocking customer washroom experience. What is happening?
Or the urinals in a pub toilet on a Friday night that are literally overflowing creating a massive puddle of pee in the washroom.
Ask your kids if their school washrooms stink of wee. If they're at secondary school, I bet the answer is yes. Is that good enough for our kids?
Believe me, we see a lot of washrooms across many sectors and this issue is prevalent.
Flow rate is reduced when there is a build-up in the pipes
What is happening?
This trap, or the u-bend, is where a lot of the odours originate from
- It's not always poor cleaning methods but it often is
- It's not always insufficient frequency of cleaning, but it often is
- It's not always the wrong cleaning products, but it often is
Here's the real problem
Nothing, until now, accept a vicious sulfuric acid, can touch the hidden activity in the pipes of the urinal.
What is growing in there? Uric salt. AKA Uric crystal.
Urine sits the in the u-bend (and the rest of the pipes if they are at all blocked) and evaporates to leave behind a crust that sticks to the plastic pipe like Velcro.
This is what gives off the main odours and reduces the capacity of the pipe as the uric crystals grow.
The Result?
- Stench of urine
- Reduced flow rate
- Eventual full blockage resulting in an expensive call out from a drain company
Inside the trap uric salt is clinging to the sticky plastic walls and will continue to unless addressed
Where else should be addressed?
Putting the pipes to one side, to give yourself the best chance of removing urine smells from washrooms, you need to ensure the following areas are cleaned properly with a fluid that works on urine.
- Partitions
- Pipework beneath the urinal
- Walls/splashbacks
- Dust - on top of cubicles, cisterns (look high and wipe it!)
- In and around the urinal
- Floors
Floors are the big one
Urine hides in the floor and soaks in, out of reach of mops.
If it's a non-slip floor, it's in the pores of the floor (they create grip by having an uneven surface on a microscopic level).
If it's a tiled floor, urine is in the grout.
The Solution
- A floor machine with brushes, ideally contra-rotating (Rovawash, for example), that gets into the hidden part of the floor and scoops up the urine
- Our cleaning fluid that loves working against urine
