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Why Does My Bathroom Smell Like Urine?




When a bathroom smells like urine, many times the first person people turn to for answers is the plumber. They are wondering if a leaking toilet could be causing the odor. While a plumber may be able to assist you with your odor control efforts there are a few things you should realize before calling the plumber.

The odor of urine in a bathroom is never caused by a problem that a plumber can fix with the possible exception of a commercial men’s room with urinals and even then in most cases a plumber cannot help. The problem is with almost 100% certainty that you have some boys in the house with bad aim.

The reason that the smell of urine cannot be caused by a toilet is that whatever amount of urine goes into a toilet it is diluted with anywhere from 1 to 5 gallons of water when the toilet is flushed. If the wax ring under the toilet were leaking the smell from the liquid waste would be non-existent although the smell from the sewer gases leaking would probably be quite strong. Urine smell is bad aim!

To fix the smell you need to be able to effectively clean the floor, the toilet and quite possibly the floor under the toilet. You probably want to use a product used for removing pet urine odors for cleaning. You may want to hire a plumber to remove the toilet from the floor so the floor under the toilet can be cleaned as well and to reinstall it after cleaning. The plumber should also caulk around the toilet to prevent water and urine from getting under the toilet again. In the worst cases the flooring may have to be replaced.