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Edited on Wed Jul-14-04 01:55 PM by eyesroll
Odors in public bathrooms can be classified into two broad categories -- ambient and transient.
Transient odors are just that -- they're caused by an obvious source, and dissipate quickly (or can be covered up with scented odor-control products). Plainly put -- if a public restroom smells like shit, there's a good chance someone, well, just shat in it. Make sure the toilet is flushed (and that there aren't any remnants on the seat or rim of the bowl). Spray some air freshener if you must, and by the time the mango scent goes away, the other scents will, too.
In a small percentage of cases, there's an ambient fecal odor. Something has stuck around to become part of the olfactory landscape. It can't be covered up, and it won't disappear on its own. It has to be corrected.
Top reasons for ambient fecal odors in restrooms:
• Inadequate drain traps in the floor drains, or inadequate toilet plumbing, causing sewer gas to seep up, or to linger. Fixing the plumbing is the only long-term fix, but to get rid of the odor in the meantime, dump an enzymatic drain product down the floor drain; flush the toilet at least once every 12-24 hours, if it's not frequently used.
• Inadequate ventilation. Sometimes, airborne contaminants can get trapped in the HVAC system, or in the vent grate itself. Warm, humid air from the furnace is a great place for mold to grow, too. How does poop get airborne? When you flush a toilet with the lid up (and many public toilets lack lids), tiny particles of toilet water end up aerosolizing. To fix, clean the vents regularly, get a duct-cleaner in occasionally, and get a lid for the toilet. Install better venting if you can.
• Bad mopping. Too many mops don't really remove anything; they just slosh it around. If there was poop on the floor, even a little from the toilet flush, and the mopping didn't actually clean it up, there's now poop everywhere. Take a look around the baseboards of a public restroom sometime, and you'll likely see a "five O'clock shadow." To fix this -- Clean the damn restroom properly -- including baseboards and grout -- with a flat-mop microfiber system, a two-chambered mop bucket (one chamber for the solution, one for the dirty rinsewater). Change the mop water frequently (that's huge).
The best thing the owner of a public restroom can do is to make sure the bathroom is cleaned properly and regularly. Make sure the janitor is well-trained -- and the building's employees also trained to wipe the seat if they miss, notify maintenance if there's a clog, etc. You'd be amazed at how long a shit-filled clogged toilet will remain, because people walk into the stall, say "eew" and go to another stall, but don't tell anyone.
This concludes Stacie the Cleaning Industry Writer's public service announcement. (Yes, I do write about this stuff for a living.)
And, on edit -- I noticed a few comments upthread that people noticed urine odors. Everything I said here is true for urine odors, but they're more frequent because, well, people (even women) miss the toilet all the time. They don't do that so often with #2, although I have been in the occasional shit-smeared stall, 2 a.m. in a Denny's, that sort of thing. (And, yes, I do discreetly notify the hostess that the women's restroom is in dire need of attention.)
And, I should add -- I did not cause the aforementioned Denny's stall. Just clearing that up.
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