Q. It is a long, long story, but the bottom line is that my ceramic tile shower is a mess. There is mildew everywhere and other really tough stains that are nearly impossible to remove. Is there a way to make the white grout look like new? What can I do to restore the shower to its original condition?
A. To restore your ceramic tile shower to near-perfect condition, you are going to need several things. Get a new scrub brush that has stiff nylon or plastic bristles, a roll of paper towels, a gallon of chlorine bleach, a gallon of white vinegar, a spray bathroom cleaner or ultramild abrasive cleaner, and your birthday suit.
The stains and dirt have taken months to accumulate. Don’t think you are going to complete this job in 30 minutes or less. The entire process is going to take place over a period of hours, or even possibly several days.
The first thing to do is to use the scrub brush to remove as much mildew, dirt, soap film, etc. as possible from the tile and grout. Get into the shower and scrub well. Rinse often and make the tile surfaces shine like a mirror. Don’t worry that the grout is still gray with deeply embedded mildew. We will deal with that shortly.
After this cleaning process, you will probably have some dull stains that won’t budge. These are very likely hard-water deposits. Remove them using some paper towels and white vinegar. Saturate some paper towels with the vinegar and place them over the hard-water stains. Do this on the floor and any vertical surfaces. The wet paper towels will readily cling to vertical surfaces. Vinegar is a very mild acid, and it works slowly but efficiently to dissolve the alkaline water deposits.
Get dressed or put on your robe and go relax for a while. Stop back every hour to make sure the towels are still wet with vinegar. Pull away the towel and scrub the deposits. They may completely wash away. If they do not, pour fresh vinegar on the towels to continue the cleansing chemical reaction. Heavy deposits can take up to eight hours or so to completely melt away. The trick is to keep fresh vinegar on the towels.
Once all of the hard-water deposits are removed, clean the shower again to remove all traces of vinegar. Then it’s time to attack any residual mildew that has stained the grout. Use the pure chlorine bleach and the remaining paper towels to accomplish this task.
Saturate as many towels as necessary, and put these in contact with the mildew-stained grout. It can take hours and possibly days to bleach out all of the mildew in the grout. Be careful not to splash the chlorine bleach in your eyes or on any fabrics. It can harm you, and it removes color from dyed fabrics.
Do not use the chlorine bleach with any other cleaner, chemical or soap. Mixing chlorine bleach with other chemicals can release dangerous chlorine gas fumes. If you have a septic system or do not like to use chlorine bleach, use oxygen bleach. It will also remove mildew but takes longer. The oxygen bleach is actually a beneficial addition to septic systems.
To prevent the staining problem in your shower, it helps to understand mildew. It is an organism that requires food and water to live. Showers and bath areas provide the moisture, and you provide the food every time you use soap, shampoo, cream rinse, etc. Even the dirt and oils you wash from your skin and hair are food for mildew. The best way to defeat mildew is to clean the shower every two weeks.
Plus, every day after you have showered, use a plastic cup to pour clean water down the sides of the tile. Then use a squeegee to quickly wipe down the tiles, directing as much water as possible to the shower drain. Open the shower curtain or shower door. Keep the bathroom door open as well. You want air to circulate. This will dry all bath surfaces quickly and rob any microscopic mildew of water.
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Write to Tim Carter, c/o the Chicago Tribune, P.O. Box 36352, Cincinnati, OH 45236-0352. Questions will be answered only in the column. For a list of recommended tile cleaners, sources of oxygen bleach and other mildew tips, please send $3 to the above address. Ask for Builder Bulletin No. 279.
