What’s that build-up in your urinal?

In this blog, we’re talking about smelly bathrooms and urinal build-up in particular… because at Initial, that’s what we deal with every day.

In our previous blog post, we talked about foul-smelling bathrooms, and what could be stinking up your bathroom. We also looked at some studies that show how smell affects our performance levels at work, and that smells can have an impact on our mood, confidence and productivity levels, and even affect our social behaviours and so on. Read more about that in our blog post Can smell affect workplace productivity?

Let’s face it, if you need to go, you need to go, it doesn’t matter where you are and as much as you might detest using public or office bathrooms – you’d hope that they meet your standard of hygiene. 

Biggest bathroom hygiene pet peeves?

Our research shows that in an office, employees feel that below-standard bathrooms demonstrate a lack of care for them from their employer. We know that odour and perceptions of hygiene are closely linked, and that disgust is the overwhelming emotion when experiencing an unpleasant bathroom smell. 

So how do we start to unpack these common bathroom problems? Let’s see how Initial can help.

Let’s talk dirty!

A dirty urinal with a visible build-up of uric acid and stains is enough to make anyone turn around and not use the bathroom. But there are easy ways of keeping urinals clean and smelling fresh (as fresh as possible).

Deep cleaning bathroom treatment by Initial

• Since uric scale builds up over time, your daily cleaners’ products aren’t equipped to eliminate tough scale and acids. A solution to this is implementing regular deep cleaning treatments to thoroughly eliminate harmful bacteria from bathroom fixtures.
• Our treatment is an intensive bathroom clean that sanitises urinals, toilets, surfaces, flushing rims, fittings and surrounding areas of each of your toilet cubicles or urinal areas. These areas are exposed to continuous deposits of urine splashback that contain harmful bacteria.
• Chemical cleaning agents are harsh on your equipment and do not kill bacteria and yeasts, and provide only short-term relief from smells.
• Our patented bio-enzyme preparations are 100% environmentally friendly and remove the buildup of scale, dirt and uric acid deposits.
• Deep cleaning also has a residual efficacy which means there is no immediate buildup of deposits to cause odour.
• Our team of experts have the correct tools and PPE to reach those areas your daily cleaner can’t. And, you will also have peace of mind that there is no cross-contamination within your bathroom or from one bathroom to another.
• We will also provide you with free pine-fresh cleaner to use daily in between our treatments making sure that your bathroom stays smelling clean and hygienic … and user-friendly. 
• Added to this service is a free disinfection fogging service. The fog is applied after the bathroom has been deep cleaned and will disinfect the entire bathroom including under counters, doors, walls, and any surface within the space.

We’ve been keeping bathrooms and urinals clean since the 1960s. Take a look at some of the before and after images, found in our archives.

Here are more tips from the experts to keep your bathrooms clean, read Bathroom deep cleaning: your checklist.

Reasons why the office bathroom smells

Urine is probably the most common source of malodour in the bathroom. 

In the good ‘ole’ days before flush urinals, barkeepers had nowhere to discard used ice. What better place than a urinal?  Besides providing encouragement to aim, the ice would gradually and constantly melt away and flush away the urine and – hopefully –  all the bad smells along with it.

The thinking behind this was that warm air rises and the cold ice cools the urine which was thought to prevent the odour from being dispersed into your bathroom. Genius, right?

Moving on to later years; colourful round pee mats in a choice of fragrances from cherry to melon, placed into your urinal. These encourage aim (yes), but mostly they are supposed to absorb malodour while releasing a pleasant fragrance. They are also meant to block foreign objects from entering the outlet and clogging your drains (but that’s only if they stay in place). 

How about urinal cakes or mints? Specially designed for the urinal in a variety of colours and fragrances, these are supposed to suppress foul odours in your bathrooms and prevent blockages just like the pee mats. Some of them do become messy as they dissolve, but whatever you do, “please don’t eat the mints!”

(Imagine a dramatic sound effect right about now) … Initial’s eco cap for urinals for the win!

The eco cap is the only water-saving product that fits all flushable urinals.

Water saving, really? With Initial’s patented eco-cap, urinals only require two flushes per day. Now, isn’t that a positive impact on the environment?

Initial’s patented solution: Eco Cap

• The Eco cap with either prongs or a suction sits snugly into the urinal outlet and
• it won’t move around like a pee mat or urinal cake could. 
• It contains a bio block made up of bio-enzymes (good bacteria) that break down uric acid, salts, and scale to prevent build-up.
• It doesn’t mask odours but actually neutralises them, and also prevents the buildup of uric acid scale, thus keeping the pipework clean and free-flowing.
• The unique design blocks the entry of foreign objects like chewing gum or sweet wrappers while still allowing the friendly bacteria to be dispersed. 
• Best of all, it provides your daily cleaner with peace of mind that the unit is serviced and maintained by trained professionals and doesn’t have to be handled like pee mats and other devices. 
• A free eco-spray solution is left behind for your cleaner to use in between services, making sure that only friendly bio-enzyme cleaning products are used.

Let’s sanitise!

In addition to our patented Eco-Cap for urinals and thorough deep cleaning service by Initial, we would also highly recommend our toilet or Urinal Sanitiser unit to keep your bathroom user-friendly and hygienic for all your male guests.

This is a unit that is fixed to the wall above the cistern or urinal and is plumbed into the water supply. It contains bio-enzyme sanitiser fluid (friendly bacteria) which is released into the water ensuring it is sanitised with every flush, and in-between flushes by neutralising bacteria and odour and minimising the build-up of scale. The bio-enzymes break down scale and acids keeping your pipework clean from odour-causing build-up.

A breath of fresh air?

I cannot understand why the ‘strawberries and cream’ fragrance is so popular in bathrooms. Why would you want your bathroom to smell like dessert? It’s a ‘no’ from me, but each to their own…

If you’d like a bathroom fragrance to deliver a great first impression and provide a good washroom experience, try Initial’s advanced, fully programmable air fresheners. They are ideal for use in the washroom environment and will not mask nasty odours, but instead neutralise them. All our air fresh sprays are ozone-friendly and CFC-free.

Contact us to book your hygiene survey today, and let the specialists provide more helpful hygiene tips to keep your office bathroom free from harmful germs and bacteria and smelling hygienically fresh.