The tough stains in bathrooms are the worst to remove. They make everything look horrible and normal cleaners just don’t seem to be able to deal with them at all. This leads to people who like keeping things clean getting annoyed by the tough stains they cannot remove. If your bathroom, like every other bathroom in the world, has problems with stains then you need to learn how to remove them. It isn’t very hard, only the way of cleaning is very different from normal stains.
What Causes These Stains
Once you understand why these stains appear you will understand why they are hard to clean. The stains are caused by minerals in your water. The water we get in our homes is treated to be safe, but there are still a lot of chemicals in them which are harmless for our health. Since they are harmless there isn’t a lot of focus on removing them before the water reaches our house. The minerals are usually calcium, iron, or magnesium.
They are structurally harmless for our plumbing equipment as well. The only issue is that a deposit of these minerals ends up causing the tough stains we all hate so much. This is also why they are so hard to clean. Usually, anything that can be mixed in water can easily be cleaned with just water. Anything that cannot be mixed in water needs soap. That is the basic purpose of most cleaners, to allow greasy stains to mix with the water so they can be easily wiped away.
The tough stains in our bathrooms are caused by the minerals reacting with the air and binding to the surface. Thus they don’t mix in water any more, but since they aren’t made of oils they aren’t cleaned by standard cleaners either. You can rub all the soap you want on the tough stains and it would be useless, because the soap is not having any actual effect on the stain.
Choosing the Right Cleaner
It is vital that you choose the right cleaner if you really want the stains to go away. The normal cleaners we use to clean the other surfaces in our homes are called surfactants. Surfactants are mild cleaners that are great at cleaning oily buildup and collected dust off from surfaces. What you need in order to combat the tough stains in your bathroom is a cleaner that is acidic.
Acidic Cleaners
Acidic cleaners can break down the compounds that make up tough stains and cause them to dissolve away like any other stain. Vinegar and Lemon Juice are both light acidic cleaners. They will not work for the tough stains, but if you have any similar stains elsewhere they might be useful. What you need is a cleaner that has phosphoric, sulfuric, or hydrochloric acid in it.
Word of Caution
Notice how we mentioned something that contains these acids and did not recommend the acids directly. These acids can be very harmful for people unless diluted to the right amount. You can ask the people at the store where you buy cleaning supplies from to give you the safest cleaning products that use these acids. Do note that if your skin is sensitive or if you have allergies we would not recommend you doing this yourself. Try contacting a cleaning specialist like us. If you do not have allergies or any sensitivity issues but still feel uncomfortable with the task leave it to the professionals.
How to Clean
Once you use the right cleaner you will immediately see the difference as you start wiping the stain. We would recommend using a sponge to apply the cleaner on the stain and letting it do its work before wiping it away. Try hard wipes in the beginning; apply pressure so the upper part of the stain is removed immediately. Once you have rubbed the stain vigorously and have made it much lighter, start applying cleaner and leave it on the stain.
Then start cleaning it. With every cycle of applying the cleaner and wiping the stain it will look cleaner. This is all it will take, repeat the steps for all the places where you can see the stains and you will see a huge difference. Another thing to keep in mind is that it is only this tough if you haven’t cleaned the stains for a long time. It will be hard the first time, after that make it a weekly habit and the stains will start going away with a single wipe.
If you start feeling even slightly dizzy, stop the cleaning work immediately and go to another room. Some people have sensitivity to strong cleaners; if you start feeling lightheaded do not take the risk of doing the work yourself. Ask one of your friends to do it, or contact NYC Steam Cleaning’s expert team to do it.
