Grout can easily become the cause of a wide range of restroom odors.

Dirt and urine droplets travel down to the floor and make their way into the grout and cause odors that are hard to remove with regular cleaning methods. This is because grout is porous, and urine, dirt, and soils left on your floors can seep into the grout.

These contaminants become embedded into your grout, creating a breeding ground for odor-causing bacteria to grow.

Cleaning and fully removing odors from your grouted floors is difficult once the dirt makes its way in, so you may want to avoid odors forming entirely.

In this article, we’ll cover 3 key ways your facility can avoid odors from forming in the grout of your commercial restroom.

What Causes Odors In Restroom Grout?

Urine causes 90% of commercial restroom odors.

Urine contains uric acid, proteins, carbohydrates, and other byproducts that attract harmful bacteria. Whether urine is splashed onto the floor from toilets or is just from “bad aim”, once it settles into the grout, it becomes a host and food source for harmful bacteria.

Warm uric acid combined with the typical humid restroom environment makes it easy for the bacteria to continue growing. Harmful bacteria will feed on the urine and multiply for as long as the urine remains. As bacteria continues to multiply and grow, the foul urine odor will grow.

As long as the urine is present in the grout of your restroom, the odor will also be present.

How Can I Avoid Odors in My Commercial Restroom Grout?

The easiest way to avoid odors in your grout is to prevent soil, moisture, and urine from seeping into the porous surface.

We suggest 3 commercial restroom odor control products for keeping your facility’s  grouted floors free of malodors:

1. Toilet/Urinal Mats
2. Splash Guards/Urinal Screen
3. Grout Sealer

1. Toilet/Urinal Mats

Not only can urine travel into your grout due to splashing or flushing, but your guests can track urine across your floor on the bottom of their shoes.

Placing a toilet or urinal mat can help avoid this by holding any urine, moisture, and soils that may make their way to your floor. 

Toilet or urinal mats should be placed at the base of the toilet or beneath the urinal, where splashing is most likely to occur.

These mats can either be reusable or disposable.

The reusable toilet mats can be washed easily once they become soiled during use. Though these mats will not be a permanent solution, they can be replaced once they become too dirty.

Disposable toilet or urinal mats can be thrown out after a few weeks of use. These mats reduce the risk of urine seeping into the grouted floors and causing odors.

2. Splash Guards/Urinal Screen

Splash guards also commonly referred to as urinal screens, can greatly reduce the risk of your guests splashing urine when they use the restroom.

A splash guard can be installed on the bottom of a urinal to keep urine droplets from splashing out of the toilet and onto the floors.

Depending on the type of odor control system you’re using in your restroom, you can use a splash guard that has a scent embedded in it. A splash guard with a scent can reduce the smell of urine in the restroom.

3. Grout Sealer

Another way to avoid odors in your restroom floor is to seal your commercial grout. 

Since grout is very porous, it is common for dirt, debris, moisture, and urine to seep into the grout and cause odors. This is why you should seal the grout in your restroom.

Grout sealer is a protective layer that is used to seal grout and help your cleaning staff avoid having to deal with odors. 

Instead of having to clean urine and odor-causing bacteria from your restroom grout, your janitorial team will just have to worry about cleaning the surface of your floors.

Grout sealer can also help prevent the growth of mold and mildew, which can contribute to grout odors in your restroom.

How Do You Get The Smell Out Of Grout?

If you don’t use the right product to clean your grouted floors, you could be facing a lingering odor that doesn’t go away with simple daily cleaning.