How to Clean a Smelly Drain: DIY Cleaning Tips

A dirty drain is a common cause of bad smells in your kitchen, bathroom or other rooms. Over time, you get habitual of the smells, but it is embarrassing when guests come to your house, and their noses scrunch at the drain odour. Stinky drains are also a reason for concern at the end of a tenancy because if the rental property smells bad, you can lose your bond money. Hiring professionals performing end of lease cleaning in Melbourne is a practical and reliable solution to secure a complete bond refund. Plus, you must regularly sanitise drains in your home to prevent the build-up of gunk and bacteria besides getting professional help. Listed below are DIY drain cleaning tips you can use to sanitise and disinfect the fixtures expertly. Have a look.

Clean Drains With Detergent & Boiling Water

Before reaching for a commercial drain cleaner, use a solution of boiling water and degreasing detergent like dishwashing liquid. Soap and water solution often works great for removing grime and gunk, and you don’t need commercial cleaners that contain harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). All you need to do is boil a gallon of water and add a few squirts/scoops of the detergent. Pour half of the solution into the drain and cover for 10 minutes. Next, pour cold water to congeal any left-over grease, then pour the remaining hot solution to degrease the drains and remove any smells.

Use Bleach & Hot Water

Clogged drains are usually the culprits behind the pungent smell emitting from them. To tackle this issue:

• Pour hot water down the drain to clean any debris or dust accumulated in it.
• Next, pour ½ a cup of undiluted bleach in the drain and cover it for at least 30 minutes.
• After the dwell time is over, pour hot water in the drain again to remove the smell & clear the pipes.

This method will also discourage cockroaches, ants, and other pests from entering your home from the drains, as they dislike the smell of bleach. Therefore, many professionals performing end of lease cleaning Melbourne use such tricks to keep rental properties sanitary until the inspection.

Unleash The Power Of Vinegar & Baking Soda

Use these eco-friendly cleaning products if you don’t want to degrade the indoor air quality of your home with strong fumes of bleach or ammonia. They are excellent degreasers and deodorisers that can remove grime and smell from almost any household surface or fixture. Here is how to sanitise the drains with them.

• Pour boiling water in the drain, followed by a cup of baking soda.
• Let the powder dwell for 30 minutes then pour a cup of cleaning vinegar over it. Cleaning vinegar has 6% acetic acid, which makes it more potent.
• Wait again for 30 minutes, then pour boiling water again in the drain to wash any residues.

Clean the drains this way at night using eco-friendly cleaning products to get the best results and keep the fixtures with no smells longer.

Remove Gunk With A Drain Snake

Hair, lint, soap scum and other things can clog drains and make them hot spots for bad-smelling bacteria. To remove gunk from drains,

• Take off the lid and insert the drain snake in the pipe.
• Move it up and down to loosen the grime and take out the gunk.
• Next, pour hot water into the drain and repeat the process if necessary.
• Cover the drain again.

Sanitise Garbage Disposal With Vinegar Cubes

Garbage disposals are notorious for bad smells because they gather food bits, dirt, grease and many other contaminants. To keep these fixtures clean at all times, make cubes of white vinegar and lemon wedged. Drop these cubed in the disposal after turning on the water and the equipment every few weeks. Let the disposal blades cut through the cubes and wait for everything to dissolve before turning off the disposal and water. The vinegar cubes will degrease and clean the disposal, while the lemon will remove any bad smells emitting from the drain.

Hire Professional Cleaners

If the drains in your home smell even after you clean, you can see the assistance of professional cleaners. This step is crucial when ending a tenancy because you don’t want the rental property to smell bad on the final inspection day. Thus, book a professional end of lease cleaners in Melbourne to keep the property and sanitise the drains using expert methods and quality products.

The Bottom Line

Drains in households can smell bad because they are usually neglected during regular cleaning. If you follow the tips shared above, you can keep these fixtures clean and disinfected at all times. However, if the drains still smell, don’t hesitate to get them inspected and cleaned by expert cleaners.