Smelly toilet bowl :(

[Thebatswhiskers]

Delightful choice for a first topic I know, but i figure if anyone can help it would be MN!

We've moved into a rented flat and the toilet stinks of stale pee

Steamer, the handheld part. Does a bloody good job that cleaners dont.

Have you changed the toilet seat. That'd be my first step as it may have got ingrained somehow.

You're probably much more sensitive to it than anyone else. Stick a diffuser in there and see how you go, open a window as much as you can.

@gamerchick That's really interesting, we were looking into a steam cleaner for the floor (wet room) so I'll make sure we get one with handheld attachments. Thank you!

@almostthere15 You're probably right, I think once you smell it the smell stays under your nose! I hadn't thought of changing the toilet seat. That's next on the list to try.. thank you :)

Oh also.. no window. But the extractor fan is pretty good, we try and keep it well ventilated.

Ate you sure that it isn't the floor/grout around the loo? I had this problem and it was the flooring 🤢

Used febreeze (liberally) on it regularly and a rim block that also had febreeze - which I can't seem to find anymore. That regime did work if followed regularly. Then changed flooring and got rid of the person with the poor aim! 🙄

Honestly - I'd give it up as a bad job and replace it. You can get a new bog for £100 and at least you'd know it was clean and not harboring someone else's foosty wee. I had the same in a flat I moved into and I replaced it - turned out it had been rented to a group of lads who weren't too careful with their aim and when we took it out there was a thick yellow scum of dried wee under where the bowl / pan sits on the floor 🤢🤢

What type of flooring is your bathroom? I’m wondering if wee has soaked in to the floor because generally an overnight bleach (plenty of bleach) would sort this.

Bleach the life out of underneath the toilet. It will have collected under there.

@Daftapath getting rid of the messy person is the best long term fix!

@SurfnTerf oh wow, that's grim 🤢🤢 Not sure how the landlord would feel about a new toilet. If absolutely nothing else fixes it though, I might have to enquire...

@PinkHeart5914 It's a wet room so it's a non slip, altro style flooring. I really, really don't think it's the floor. Everything smelt in there when we moved in, but now only the bowl smells. It's all had a thorough bleaching but the pee smell seems concentrated under the rim. But who knows!

Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate your help everyone! Just went under the rim with some gloves on and a sponge scourer and there's definitely a lot of grime hiding up there 🤢 We'll try the new seat, steam cleaner under the rim (how do people clean theirs?! Nothing wants to reach under it properly) and do another thorough bleach of the base and the floor, just in case...

gamerchick That's really interesting, we were looking into a steam cleaner for the floor (wet room) so I'll make sure we get one with handheld attachments. Thank you!

Watch though, it lifts more than you think and the smell of ammonia makes your eyes water. I felt like a right slattern and I keep a clean house (well thought I did)

@gamerchick Oh wow! Now I have to try it, just out of morbid curiosity

@Thebatswhiskers too right! 💪🏻

Have you tried attacking the rim with a loo brush? It's amazing what that can shift. Maybe some lime scale remover up there too?

@Daftapath good for you!

It's been attacked with both toilet brushes and rim brushes but nothing quite reachs all the way up. It's currently got some bleach sitting under the rim which I shoved up there with a sponge but I hadn't thought of limescale remover.. another one to try, thank you such a gross topic, sorry everyone! I'm just a bit out of my depth, I've never known a toilet that Harpic and a scrub couldn't cure...

I saw this the other day in B&Q and intend to try it in the future uk.hg.eu/products/toilet/hg-toilet-renovation-kit-05l

Have you checked where the hinges of the seat fasten to the porcelain? That's generally the culprit, underneath the hinges. If you remove the seat altogether you can check.

I hate to say it, but clean the loo, then diluted Zoflora on a baby wipe (then throw away) plus neat Zoflora in the actual toilet, is the only way mine smells clean for days.

Im off to join the Zoflora lovers thread

@PseudoBadger Ooh that looks promising, thank you. The scrubbing brush looks ideal too

@BrokenLink The hinges have had a good scrub with a toothbrush but haven't been removed. Another thing to try.. this toilet better be spotless after I try all these tips! Thank you

@Chalady whispers I've never actually tried Zoflora before everyone here raves about it so much, I think it might just fall into my shopping basket...

Scrubbing under the rim with bleach and leaving the bleach on removed a lot of nasty smelling gunk but it still smells exactly the same Have ordered a steam cleaner and a new toilet seat for Operation Toilet stage 1. If that doesn't sort it stage 2 is the HG stuff @Pseudobadger linked to. Stage 3 may be weeping quietly and just lobbing Zoflora at it.

We found DS was pissing everywhere and it was going between bowl and cistern in the tiny gap.

Used a floor wipe and see-sawed it into the gap, thus removing the dried on piss. Repeat until clean.

Smell gone.

@MissMarplesKnitting Gotta love boys eh floor wipes you say...my Tesco shop this week is 90% toilet cleaning paraphernalia! Thanks for the tip

Just a thought. When your toilet flushes, does the water actually give the rim a good flush? Recently our flush does not seem as effective so we have been experiencing the same problem. Place a few pieces of loo roll just under the rim before you flush to check.

I had this problem when we moved in to our house last year. All three toilets stank of stale pee and some had limescale problems too.

I tried loads of different things but the only product that worked, in getting rid of the smell and limescale was this Domestos limescale remover. I chucked an entire bottle down each loo and left overnight and the limescale came off easily and the smell went!

www.domestos.co.uk/product/detail/849383/domestos-zero-limescale

Wearing gloves - I would use thick kitchen roll to get right up in the rim with your fingers (I know that is grim hence the gloves which you throw away incinerate afterwards.

You could also try the spray used to clean up pet wee - seems to be good at getting rid of the odour.

Lots (and I do mean lots) or bicarb up under the rim. You can put toilet paper behind it to stop it sliding back out. Once it's soaked for a couple of hours, you can scrub with a scourer or toothbrush.

Oh, and make the bicarb into a paste first.