How do you remove hard-water stains?
July 3, 2004 | 12:00am
Dear Home 911,
How do you maintain a clean bathroom? Our toilet bowl has developed black spots all over. I’m able to remove them with ordinary bathroom cleaner but they come back just after two days.
Nina
How do you clean hard-water stains on showerheads and faucets? Stains disappear right after cleaning and come back again. Though my bathroom is clean, it bugs me that the showerhead and faucet look dirty.
Marica
Ah, bathroom problems. People are often judged on the state of their bathroom more than any other part of the house. You can have a pile of dead leaves on the living room floor and blame the wind for blowing them in and your visitors will clack their tongues in sympathy. But when you have a dirty bathroom, you have no one to blame but yourself. No wonder women spend half their lives on their knees scrubbing away. It’s almost like having bad breath – you just notice your friends don’t drop by anymore and nobody has the heart to tell you that your bathroom is shit.
Nina’s question first. To maintain the cleanliness of your bathroom, clean it every day. That’s the only way to do it. Soap scum builds up, so do stains, whether from urine or hard water. Make it a habit to quickly clean the bowl and floor before or after you take a shower. Then devote a longer time on the weekend or maybe twice a week by working on the walls as well.
As for the black ring in the toilet bowl, use chlorine or any laundry bleach. Just let it soak in the water for half an hour and then clean it with a toilet bowl brush. It would be a disaster of untold magnitude if you mistakenly clean it with your long-handle loofah and then forget that you did.
If the stains are above the water level, soak paper towels in bleach and put them over the stains for half an hour and then remove them before flushing. Don’t use muriatic acid as this will dull the porcelain finish, which then makes stains harder to remove.
I looked at some websites on the Internet such as bobvila.com and some letter writers were raving about a product called Puricle (www.puricle.com).You put it in the water closet and it dispenses cleaners directly into the bowl. Its promise is you "never have to scrub again." It might be worth checking out when you’re abroad (I haven’t seen it in local stores).
Now for Marica’s question. First, let’s define what "hard water" is. According to the "Science of Cleaning" (I swear, there is such a thing), hard water is "water that contains calcium and magnesium salts that have dissolved from the rocks over which the water has flowed. Water that does not contain these salts is called ‘soft water.’ There are two types of hardness – temporary hardness, which can be removed relatively easy, and permanent hardness, which is more difficult to remove."
So when people complain of "calcium or mineral deposits," it is more or less the same as hard-water stains. It’s that white, chalky stain that goes back right after the faucet or showerhead is dry.
Now there are imported commercial products that are made specifically to remove hard-water stains whether on glass or shower doors, or on chrome fixtures. They remove lime, calcium, magnesium and other minerals in hard water. One is Works Tub & Shower Cleaner, another is Spot-X, and a third is Simple Solution. Handyman and True Value are your best shots for these brands or any other brand because they have a lot of imported items from the US.
Or try this homemade recipe from recipegoldmine.com: Mix a tablespoon of white vinegar in 1 cup of water. Simmer for 30 minutes, and use this to soak the stain and then scrub it with a mild scouring pad to loosen the deposit. To polish chrome, take a sheet of aluminum foil and turn the shiny side out. Dampen the chrome with water and polish with the foil, which will turn black, and your chrome will shine.
But I tell you now, hard-water stains, especially if they’ve been on the fixture for a long time, may prove very hard to remove.
Last week, I saw an infomercial on Channel 13 for a product called Restore 4 (www.valuevision.com.ph). I haven’t tried it, but it’s supposed to clean grout, tiles, shower doors, chrome fixtures, fiberglass, boats, pan bottoms, and grills faster than you can say "If you call within 15 minutes, you get 50 percent off on this amazing product!!!"
The infomercial showed very dirty bathrooms in homes and public toilets. The filthy gym showers in a school and a truck stop restroom were understandable, but if you saw the bathrooms in the homes, your reaction would undoubtedly be like mine: "What kind of pigs live here that the bathtub looks like they intentionally rubbed charcoal all over it?" And why is the voice-over guy British? And why is the dubbing so bad in those Japanese infomercials?
They did show that the product cleaned chrome fixtures and bathtubs – and even a boat – in a flash. In my experience – and my husband R.’s who’s such a sucker for these things he’s bought so many products, he even wanted to buy Robin Leach’s Silver Lightning years ago even if we didn’t have jewelry to use it for – TV testimonials can be OA. First of all, the bathroom was so gross the homeowners should have been jailed for it. I mean, really, even the laziest people could not have let their bathroom become so filthy – but hey, what a coincidence these guys turned up and volunteered to clean it with their product!
Restore 4 costs P1,999 ("if you call within 15 minutes blah-blah-blah!!!"), not exactly cheap, right? It’s up to you whether you believe the testimonials or not. Keep in mind, though, that this is from the same TV shopping block that sells Air-O-Space, an air bed that converts into a sofa. And they call it "elegant."
Carpet Catastrophe |
My husband smokes and has the habit of not killing his cigarette but just leaving it on the ashtray. On two occasions, the cigarette fell off and caused burn marks on the carpet which I recently bought. He says the marks are not noticeable but they are and they bother me. I don’t want to replace the carpet, how can I repair it?
Desperate Wife
Ever thought of replacing your husband? Or accidentally putting burn marks on his favorite shirt and telling him, "Honey, it’s not even noticeable, you can go to work wearing it"? Husbands just don’t seem to get that when they leave cigarette marks on a table, or chocolate stains on the upholstery (damn those sundae fudge), or car grease on the white bedsheet, we take it personally. We take it as damage to our property no matter who paid for it.
My husband’s computer table is filled with burn marks you’d think we didn’t have a single ashtray in the house. And while we’re on the subject, why do they let an ashtray overflow with 30 stubs before throwing the contents when there’s a trashcan two feet away? I don’t know if it’s laziness or they’re trying to break a world record, but it’s driving me nuts.
To mend your carpet, here’s what you do: Cut threads from an unnoticeable part of the carpet (maybe from the corners or from the part that’s covered by the coffee table if it’s in the living room and then glue them into the burn hole. Cover it with a towel and a book to weigh it down and dry for a day.
Unclogging Drains |
Do you know of a homemade remedy to unclog drains? As much as possible, I don’t want to use chemicals in our house and I know some products corrode the pipes, which could lead to bigger and more expensive problems later.
Marcus
The most common way to unclog sluggish drains is to pour hot water in it. If that alone doesn’t work, recipegoldmine.com suggests using equal amounts of baking soda and salt to pour into the drain, then follow it with boiling water, and then flush it with cold water.
If that still doesn’t work, try com-mercial products that are "environment safe." Look for Crocodile, available at big supermarkets, which promises not to corrode pipes because it has no harsh chemicals.
Pewter Problem |
When my husband worked in Malaysia, we collected a lot of pewter pieces such as ashtrays, shot glasses, figurines and small decorative plates. We used to display them on a shelf but now most of them have accumulated dirt and cleaners seem to make it worse. I want to throw them away because they do nothing but clutter up the house, except that nanghihinayang ako. What can I do to clean them?
Pewter Wife
Pewter shot glass…not exactly the classiest item on the market. Why did you need so much pewter pieces anyway? My experience with souvenirs is to not buy them – well, admittedly that was only after I realized I had too many theme park ashtrays. When we are in a foreign country, what seems like a good buy turns out to be screamingly ugly right after we unpack. It’s almost like that blouse that’s just a little bit tight around the midriff and we think, oh I’m going to lose weight in a month, and then five months later you try it on again and you look like suman.
In any case, there are commercial cleaners for pewter available at hardware stores. Or try this homemade method: Use a mild scouring pad with a dash of olive oil. If dirt won’t come off, rub kerosene on the piece and rinse with soap and water. For polished pewter, german-toasting-glasses.com recommends making your own polish by mixing vinegar, salt and flour and rubbing it on the pewter item in circular motion with a soft cloth.
Readers’ Comments |
From Susanna: "I read your column regarding the problem on exterminating ghosts and found it very funny and helpful. A friend of mine lives in an old house where they hear sounds and weird things go on in the night. They’ve had the house blessed again, this time in both Catholic and Born-Again Christian rites. I haven’t heard from her yet, but I suppose everything is now all right."
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