The famous children’s book says it all: everyone poops. No matter how true that is, no one wants to see skid marks in the toilet. Not only are skid marks unsightly, but they are also downright unsanitary. If you’ve noticed skid marks in your bathroom, you want them gone- fast.
In this article, we’ll tell you if skid marks in the toilet are normal and what causes them. We’ll also give you some tips to get rid of those skid marks and keep them from returning.
What Causes Skid Marks In Toilets?
Before we get into skid mark removal, we first need to consider what causes them. The truth is, there could be several reasons that you or your housemates are leaving skid marks in the toilet.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common culprits.
Lack of fiber: If you don’t eat enough fiber, your stool will become hard and may leave marks behind when you flush the toilet. The average adult needs to eat 25-35 grams of fiber every day, so keep that number in mind when you plan your meals.
Not getting enough fluids: Dehydration can also make your stool hard. On average, you should try to drink a minimum of eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily.
Certain medications: Some medications can cause constipation, resulting in bulkier, harder stool that is likely to leave skid marks in the toilet bowl. To combat this side effect, you should boost your fiber intake and drink more water to keep your stool soft.
Holding it too long: If you don’t go to the bathroom as often as you need to, you’ll become constipated. The long stool sits in your colon, the more water is removed from it, thus making it hard and prone to leaving skid marks. To prevent this disaster, always use the bathroom as soon as you feel the urge to go.
Toilet composition: Most toilets are made of either ceramic or porcelain. Porcelain is harder than ceramic, so there’s more friction between your stool and the toilet bowl when you flush.
How To Get Rid Of Skid Marks In Toilet Bowls
Now that you know what causes skid marks, let’s talk about how you can remove them when you see them.
1. Use A Toilet Brush
For many people, the toilet brush is the first line of defense against skid marks. While this method works very well, we don’t recommend using a traditional toilet brush to do it.
Since these toilet brushes are meant to be used more than once, scraping off a skid mark will make it very unhygienic to put back in its holder.
If you choose to remove skid marks with a toilet brush, you should get a disposable toilet brush system. We recommend the flushable kind since the other type will still leave a soiled brush head behind in your bathroom waste basket.
If the toilet with skid marks in it has a handheld bidet attached to it, you can remove the marks quickly and easily by aiming the bidet at the stain and spraying it away.
No muss, no fuss, and no more telltale signs that you’ve recently used the bathroom.
3. Flush A Few Times
Obviously, this isn’t the most economical solution, but if you’ve left skid marks behind and there’s no other way to remove them, you can try flushing again.
The water pressure might be enough to remove some of the feces from the bowl. This is a particularly useful method in public restrooms where you don’t have access to cleaning products and in countries where bidets are uncommon.
The water pressure in a public toilet is usually much stronger than in a residential toilet and might be strong enough to clean the bowl (WD-40 is also a great cleaner).
How To Prevent Skid Marks In Toilets
Now that you know how to get skid marks off the toilet bowl when you see them, let’s talk about how you can prevent them from showing up in the first place.
1. Apply A Slippery Toilet Coating Product
In 2019, scientists at Penn State University developed a toilet coating product that is even more slippery than Teflon. This coating can withstand up to 500 flushes and prevents poop from sticking to the toilet bowl 90% of the time.
Although we have yet to see it in our local superstores, you can buy various toilet coating products online. These products have outstanding testimonials and reduce the frequency of all stains building up in toilet bowls, thereby allowing you to clean your toilet less often.
Toilet coating products are easy to apply. To get started, you’ll want to turn off the water to your toilet and flush so the bowl is empty, then clean the bowl and dry it thoroughly, so the coating will stick well.
Shake the product, spray it inside your toilet, and wipe it around the bowl with a clean cloth to ensure an even coating. Allow it to dry for 5 minutes, then use your toilet as usual.
2. Flush Before Using The Toilet
Skid marks are caused by friction between your poop and the toilet bowl when you flush. A dry toilet bowl will allow more friction to build up than a wet one, so an easy method of preventing skid marks is to flush before you go.
3. Install a Bidet
Bidets are rare in some countries, so it’s possible you haven’t heard of one, let alone used one. They come in all shapes, sizes, and styles and have one primary purpose: to clean your bottom after you use the toilet.
You can install a handheld bidet or a toilet seat/bidet combination.
Many modern bidets even include a warm water option for optimal comfort, and some toilet seat bidets have warm air blowers to dry you quickly.
If you choose a handheld bidet that attaches to the side of your toilet, it can be used for many purposes other than cleaning your bottom, including bathing your pets and rinsing out cloth diapers.
As you may have guessed from its description, the handheld bidet is the way to go if you want to use it to remove skid marks. Installing one of these bidets is an easy DIY project if you purchase a kit that includes all the pieces you need.
Follow these steps to get your bidet installed in no time.
Turn off the water: Before you begin the installation, turn off the water to the toilet and flush it to get the rest of the water out of the tank.
Connect the T-valve: When the tank is empty, you can unscrew the ballcock valve under your toilet and connect the T-valve included in your kit to the toilet’s fill valve.
Connect the bidet: Connect your water line to the bottom of the T-valve, then attach the bidet’s hose to the side of the T-valve and attach the bidet sprayer to the other end of the hose.
Mount the holster: Mount the bidet holster to the toilet by removing your tank lid, hanging the included mounting hook, and replacing the lid.
Check for leaks: When everything is connected, you can turn the water on and check for leaks. If you find any, turn the water off and flush it out of the tank, then unscrew the leaky connection, apply seal tape, and reconnect the bidet.
4. Use A Tank Tab
Using a cleaning tab in your toilet tank provides continuous cleaning with every flush. This extra cleaning step will keep your toilet bowl a little more slippery, reducing friction and preventing skid marks.
You can also use the little gel spots that you place under the rim of the toilet bowl for the same effect.
5. Change Your Diet
Instead of attacking the skid marks in the toilet, you can tackle the other end of the problem- your end. Typically, diets high in fat and low in fiber can create stool that may leave skid marks in your toilet.
You can mitigate this by adding more fiber to your diet by eating more leafy greens, chia seeds, lentils, and apples. Aim for 25-35 grams of fiber each day.
To remove excess fats from your diet, cut out fast foods and other fried foods.
Are Skid Marks Normal?
Skid marks are a normal part of life for some people, while others don’t have to deal with them at all. It really depends on your diet, the type of toilet you have, and how often you clean your toilet.
Just because it’s normal doesn’t mean you have to accept it, though; using any of the methods above can get rid of those unsightly stains for good.
Yes, being constipated can cause skid marks. The longer your stool sits in your colon, the less water is in it when you finally go to the bathroom. When your poop is hard, it causes more friction with the bowl when you flush it and leaves stains behind.
How do you clean skid marks off a toilet brush?
If you used a traditional toilet brush to remove skid marks, you’ve just transferred the poo from your toilet bowl to the brush. To get the poop off the toilet brush, clean your toilet, then pour extra cleaning solution into the bowl.
Place the brush into the toilet and let it sit for at least an hour. When your brush is finished soaking, you can let it air dry by placing the handle between the rim and the toilet seat with the brush above the toilet.
Conclusion
Although everyone poops, no one likes to see a reminder of that fact in the form of skid marks in the toilet. The truth is that skid marks are unsightly, unsanitary, and, let’s face it- they’re just plain gross.
The good news is that you can easily remove skid marks you leave behind after flushing by using a disposable toilet brush, using a bidet, or by flushing a few times.
You can eliminate skid marks before they occur by changing your diet to include more fiber, increasing your water intake, and using the bathroom as soon as you need to go.
To prevent others from leaving skid marks in your toilet, you can apply a toilet coating that keeps stools from sticking to the bowl or install a handheld bidet so anyone that leaves skid marks can remove them quickly and easily.
Hi, my name is Shauna Stone and I love improving my home to make it perfect. Researching new cleaning techniques is one of my favorite things to do - have you ever fallen into the rabbit hole that is cleaning TikToks?
I think my love of cleaning and home pride came from my time at college. I know that college kids are meant to be messy - but some of my roommates were on another level altogether. I don’t even want to recount the images I saw throughout college… *shudder*
A tidy house is a tidy mind, after all, and I cannot get anything done if my house is a mess. I like to think of it as my safe haven, and I don’t want my safe haven to be anything less than perfect!
If you’re like me and want to improve your home through cleaning and DIYs, I hope you’ll love my website. I want to impart my knowledge to anyone who finds cleaning to be as therapeutic as me - enjoy!
