Stained Bath

silverlady_2 · 3 August 2004 at 11:29AM

I have just bought a house with an enameled cast iron bath which has no chips or rust but it appears some-one has used something which has left discoloured run type marks on the surface.
Can any one help and suggest how I can remove these marks? I know the bath can be re-surfaced but that's expensive.
Thanks

potty_2 · 3 August 2004 at 1:07PM

I was thinking this yesterday when steam ckeaning my bathroom. Mine look like tea stains, but seem under the enamel.

For limescale and other marks, I use Harpic 100% limescale remover (the blue bottle) It is the only cleaning product I use on a regular basis. Good for all kinds of stains, but check on a small area first.

Oh, dont use it on the loo seat. A workman wee'd in my loo (or should I say all over, under, and behind my loo) and it stank, I was pooly, and I moaned to a mate, who knows of my harpic and a clean loo fetish, and she covered my whole loo in it, it has taken the shiny surface off the black plastic loo seat, and now it looks like wee stains all over my loo seat, I am fed up of apologising, and will be writing a loo seat poem to explain to visitors.

cathy_3 · 3 August 2004 at 3:04PM

Dilute vinegar approximately 50:50 with water. Using a soft cloth, rub only the lime scale area with the diluted vinegar. Avoid getting the vinegar on the enamel surface surrounding the lime scale and rinse frequently.

When all of the lime scale has been removed, rinse well and dry the enamel surface.

This is a job that is often better approached by the ‘little and often’ method! a very soft baby tooth brush is useful, especially around the taps.

heres a tip that was in the “Daily Express”

"Tip of the Week - This is the old favourite. Getting limescale off a bath is a nightmare and I have yet to find the perfect product. I have tried lemon and vinegar and they help but don't shift it totally. However, I have found one way of removing it. Get an implement that is less hard than the bath enamel - I used the blunt end of a disposable razor handle; and then apply sheer elbow grease. After an hour's rubbing, the limescale had completely gone, and one bath looked fantastic and it hadn't harmed the enamel one bit."

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silverlady_2 · 3 August 2004 at 4:29PM

Thanks for the tips but the marks are not limescale.
It is difficult to explain but it looks as if some thing has been spray on the bath,possibly the wrong sort of cleaner, and it has run down the bath leaving the dis-coloured streaky marks.
It has not eaten into the enamel and I don't think it's under the enamel.
Any help please as I can't afford to replace or re-surface.
Thanks

potty_2 · 3 August 2004 at 10:46PM

maybe try your car cleaning wax, this I use for polishing all my white goods, and my tiles in the bathroom, then the water just runs off, when I finish I just buff it up with an old pair of jeans cut and hemmed into rags, very good polishers, old towels too, but not so good for polishing.

Turtle wax also stops limescale build up in the bath, but due to eczema I cant use it myself.

But the harpic is brill for bad limescale, or an initial boost, dont leave it on too long, squirt it on a bit of the bath, and use the loo brush (I have a few of these for cleaning everything but the loo) to scrub it all over, rinse well, very well and then dry and polish, each time you have a bath, just buff the bath with the rag of jeans.

Oh, before you empty the bath use an old nylon stocking type bath scrunchie to give a little scrub where needed, and no big jobs to clean the bath, just takes half a moment each time. Also economy bubble bath in an old wash up bottle squirted aroun the bath will clean it up well, I found this out by burning my whole body when I used it as bubblebath, the cheaper the better. And an old squash bottle will be useful to rinse the bath out after use too.

cathy_3 · 4 August 2004 at 12:10AM

ok, fill the bath up as high as it will go with hot water add a good mugfull of bio powder and leave overnight

are you sure the actual stains arnt the white bits and where the cleaner hasnt gone are the dark bits. someone might have left bleach on there too long

so soak the bath first tell me how it goes

;D

silverlady_2 · 4 August 2004 at 11:37AM

Thanks Cathy
Will do it straight away and let you know how it goes.
I don't know what has happened to the bath as we have only just bought the house. (last week)

silverlady_2 · 4 August 2004 at 12:04PM

Cathy
Might sound a silly question but should I use an expensive bio powder ariel type or is the value/cheapy ok to use?

silverlady_2 · 6 August 2004 at 8:00PM

soaked the bath with bio power but it didn't work

any one got any other suggestions?

cathy_3 · 7 August 2004 at 2:20AM

I think you need some 0000 wire wool and meths

B&Q the wool is superfine its what they use for polished furniture

soak it in meths and rub gently at first then hard as needed in a figure 8 motion

good luck

cathy_3 · 7 August 2004 at 2:24AM

bad stains need scrubing with a scrubbin brush dipped in a mixture of cream of tartar and peroxide

also old yellow water stains will come off with a mix of salt and turps

lemon juice and borax would be my choice in a paste and applied and left as long as poss

then rubbed in and rinsed off

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Stained Bath

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