Field Report: Defeating the "Nasty Bathroom Stink"
If you’ve lived in a Taiwanese apartment for more than a week, you know the smell.
DOMESTIC OPERATIONS
Survive Taiwan
1/5/20263 min read
It’s a humid, sulfurous, sewage-adjacent odor that seems to rise from the floor tiles themselves. Most newcomers buy expensive candles or "scent beads" from PxMart.
That is a waste of resources. To kill the smell, you have to understand the grid.
The Intelligence: Why it Smells
Most Taiwanese bathrooms are designed as "wet rooms" with a floor drain. Unlike Western plumbing which uses deep P-traps, many older buildings use shallow U-traps or direct pipes. When the water in these traps evaporates (common in summer) or the pressure changes, sewer gas flows directly into your living space.
The Protocol: 3 Steps to Neutralization
1. The U-Trap Recharge
If you have a floor drain, this is a must do bi-weekly routine. If you have sink drains or a bathtub drain (lucky you), we do this routine for those drains as well as for the kitchen sink drain.
Action: Pour two liters of vinegar and hot water down every floor drain.
Intelligence: If the smell vanishes and returns in three days, your trap is shallow. You need a one-way floor drain core (available at Xiaobei/小北百貨). If you aren't handy enough to replace the drain core on your own, follow the next steps to combat the stink.
Action: Sprinkle baking soda and vinegar down each drain for a foamy abrasive clean once per month. For extra stink-protection, pour a couple of tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide down the drains. Hear that snap-crackle-pop? That's the liquid devouring bacteria.
Intelligence: This combination will not only help dissolve whatever nasty stuff living in your pipes, it will also help disinfect the areas closest to your point of contact!
2. The Debris Extraction (The "Hair Net")
The secondary cause is biological. Hair and soap scum get trapped in the stainless steel grate, creating a "biofilm" that reeks in the humidity. This can be done with the sink drain as well as the bathtub drain (lucky you).
Action: Unscrew the grate. Do not just wipe it. Use a 1:10 bleach solution and a stiff brush (go to Daiso for a cheap multitude of options). For the sink drain, you can either detach the lift rod and clean the slime off with a magic sponge and soak it in a vinegar, soap, and hot water solution, or simply spray some cleaner down the drain and use the stiff brush to clean. Warning: this is not for the faint of heart. However, it is necessary if you really want your bathroom to smell fresh.
Pro-Tip: Install a silicone "hair catcher" over the drain. It’s easier to clean a silicone mat than to dig slime out of a pipe.
3. The "Ibon" Solution (Chemical Warfare)
If the smell persists, the blockage is deeper in the building's stack. This is especially true if you live in an old Taiwanese building, like some of us at Survive Taiwan have.
Action: Look for "Pipe Clearing Agent" (水管疏通劑) at the supermarket.
Warning: Do not mix brands. Mixing acid-based and alkaline-based cleaners in a small Taiwanese bathroom is a recipe for toxic gas. Always keep the fan on and the door open. DO NOT USE BLEACH!
Action: Look inside your toilet tank. There will probably be a lot of scum and moldy black stuff built up on the tank itself and the components inside.
Solution: We recommend scrubbing the tank and components with baking soda, soap, and water. Once it is clean, you can add a cup of vinegar to the tank once a week to keep the tank clean. We like to add a few drops of essential oils (we buy the ones at Muji) for an extra burst of non-toxic scent.
Summary
Scent is a symptom, not the problem. Don't mask it; seal the pipe, clean the drains regularly, buy drain covers, clean your toilet tank, repeat.
Check the seals. If your toilet isn't properly caulked to the floor (a common "cutting corners" move during renovations), gas escapes from the base. Speak to your landlord and insist on a fix, or ask for permission to do it yourself. Plumbers are relatively cheap (if you ask a Taiwanese friend to speak on your behalf, it will be even cheaper).
Have a specific plumbing nightmare? [Submit a Field Report] and we'll send in the intelligence.
