One of the oddest things I discovered when we moved into our house upstate was a series of hazy blue stains on just about every porcelain and tile surface. From sinks and toilets to the floor of the shower, there seemed to be a bright blue stain that, to me, looked like toothpaste had been sitting there for 40 years. I’d never dealt with copper pipes before, so I didn’t know they left blue stains, and I tried just about every cure under the sun until I found a simple vinegar trick that got rid of them in a hot (literally) second. So for today’s Home Ec post, I decided to tackle the stubborn sink and tub stains. From rust and lime to copper and calcium, these tricks will have your sink shiny and clean in no-time. Stay tuned for more cleaning tips for non-porcelain next week… xo, grace *Image above, Alape Bucket Sink at Rejuvenation Home *WARNING: Bleach can damage colored porcelain surfaces, so use with caution if you choose to use it. 1. Clean your sink/tub with a mild soap and warm water, allow to dry completely.

2. Attack with your least abrasive cleaners possible (a combination of baking soda and ammonia) to cut grease and help with surface stains. 3. Taking it to the next level, any of the combinations below will help you tackle tougher stains. Rust Stains: I’ve found rust to be the easiest stain to remove so far, as it seems to relent completely when faced with a pumice stick. I ordered the one above and it has obliterated all our remaining rust stains, especially on tough antique bathroom sinks. I used this cleaning set to help me get in between small parts of the sink drain. Copper Stains: I tried everything under the sun until I found this rather drawn-out video on Youtube. I’ll cut to the chase and say her tip works! Combine one cup of white vinegar with 1 tbsp of salt and boil until the salt dissolves. Then dip a cotton rag or towel in the liquid and place directly on top of the copper stain. I repeated this process twice and got rid of ALL our copper stains. Soap or Grease Rings and Build-Up: These are gross, but they’re easier to tackle than rust, so I don’t mind them.

Combine 1 gallon of water with 1 tbsp of ammonia and douse the affected area with the liquid, scrubbing on the sections most stained. Repeat until the stains are gone. Hard Water/Lime Stains: When we had our water tested after moving upstate we found out the water hardness was off the charts. Best Washer And Dryer In UsaWhich would explain why my hair was plastered to my head after taking a shower. Blue Seat Covers EbayIt weighs everything down and leaves behind a heavy scale from the lime or mineral deposits in water. Old Navy T-Shirts 4th Of JulyTo remove these stains from your hardware, soak a cotton rag or paper towel in vinegar and wrap it around your faucets (you can hold it in place with a rubber band). Let it sit for an hour before wiping down the hardware with a clean dry cloth.

You can also try making a paste from baking soda and water (3 parts baking soda to 1 part water) and applying that paste to the hardware, and then letting it sit for an hour before removing. To remove general hard water stains from your tub or sink, spray them with a mixture of vinegar and lemon to break down the mineral deposits. Spot Stains: Some spot stains are hard to identify but can be caused by cleansers or other minerals in your water system. For these, try a mixture of baking soda and/or salt on top of a lemon (cut in half). The lemon adds acid to break down the stain, liquid to create a paste with the powder and it gives you a good surface to hold on to while you scour the stain away with the paste. This post and the Home Ec section are brought to you by Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day. Visit the Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Home-Grown Inspiration section featuring 20 DIYs, including seven from Design*Sponge!It only took about a month of enjoying the glistening sheen of my freshly gel-coated fiberglass pool surface before I began to notice a faint, dark ring subtly form around the water line.

The optimist in me wanted to believe it was a shadow, an illusion cast by the angle of the sun. When I realized this darkening stain around my immaculate pool wasn’t going away, I was faced with guilt-ridden questions; What did I do wrong? How could this happen? How much dirt did these kids track into the pool? Ultimately I resolved to do everything in my power to make sure to remove this black mark on the pool’s history and vowed to become an expert in fiberglass pool stains! Fiberglass Pools will Stain: I really like the fiberglass pool surface. One of the advantages of a gel-coated fiberglass pool is that it isn’t porous like a plaster pool, and doesn’t become etched and rough. No pool toes, fiberglass is smooth and less susceptible to algae growth and stains because it’s super slick. Nonetheless, gelcoat can stain easily – as I found out. Stains don’t just Happen: There are several causes of stains for a fiberglass surface just like any pool surface.

Top of the list are imbalanced chemicals or minerals, high levels of metals or foreign objects can all stain the pool. In my pool, one of the main causes of the bathtub ring around my pool was oily swimmers and sunblock. Water Balance is Important: Daily testing can help maintain the optimal water balance. It is best to have a pH balance at 7.2-7.4 and the total alkalinity needs to be at 80-100 parts per million. Maintain your chlorine at or above 1 ppm and the calcium hardness at 200 to 400 ppm. If any of these numbers get out of line, stains can develop. Simply restoring balance to your pool water’s universe is the easy way to prevent pool stains. Water Line Stains: Before you ban your swimmers from applying sunblock; the bathtub ring can be removed with Clean & Perfect enzyme cleaner to dissolve it before your eyes, naturally. To prevent bathtub rings, try Pool Magic, to remove oily gunk from the pool – it really works! You can also use Comet® cleanser and a kitchen sponge.

I once spent several hours using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser® (actually I used about 20 of them) and scrubbed each smudge until the gel-coat glistened like it had been restored. It worked well but was very time consuming, and were my arms tired! Rust Stains: Directly scrubbing rusty or crusty stains with a Stain Eraser has worked several times for me, but this year I am going to attack the problem before it starts by adding Culator Metal Eliminator. It’s non-toxic and works on well water to actually remove metals from the water, like a sponge. Works with mineral purifiers and copper algaecides, too! Dirt Stains: If your fiberglass pool has an all-over dirty dullness, ascorbic acid is great way to safely acid wash your fiberglass surfaces, without draining the pool. Closely follow the instructions when using ascorbic acid as your pH and alkalinity may need adjustment. Stain Free is an natural Vitamin C product (ascorbic acid) that gently cleans fiberglass pools. Organic Stains: Leaves, worms, branches.

Running your filter system longer and more frequently during the early swim season while the air is heavy with pollen and tree debris will help to prevent stains from forming on a fiberglass pool surface. In addition to clean water, keep the pool as clean as possible. After heavy storms, remove the big stuff carefully, so sticks don’t get dragged around by a pool cleaner. Again, proper pool chemical balance and sufficient sanitizer is very important. You are not alone in the world of fiberglass surface pool stains, there is help out there. You don’t have to struggle alone! We’re behind you 100%. Identifying the source of the stain is the beginning of recovering your impeccably clean fiberglass pool surface. Once you know the cause there are many simple ways to prevent and remove fiberglass pool stains. Like these 20 different chemicals in our Pool Stain Removal section on our website. If you want to talk about your specific fiberglass pool stains ~ give us a call, we can swap stories!