2 Ways to Remove Hard Water Stains from Tiles

Calcium and magnesium hard water molecules leaves white, cloudy stains on surfaces such as bathroom tiles, which makes the bathroom floor look and feel dirty.

Fortunately, there are several easy ways to remove and prevent hard water stains on tiles, such as cleaning the tiles with a white vinegar solution or using a pumice stone to scrub the floor.

How to Remove Hard Water Stains from Tiles

Although you can use detergents made with a variety of heavy chemicals to remove hard water stains from your bathroom tiles, we don’t recommend this method simply because exposure to such chemicals in gas form can be toxic to your health.

2 best methods to remove hard water stains from tiles:

White vinegar solution
Pumice stone

1. Use a White Vinegar Solution

Minerals are naturally alkaline, and the best way to fight alkali is with acid. Fortunately, white vinegar is an acidic liquid that is also non-toxic and safe to use on tiles.

White vinegar is also one of the most common methods used to sanitize water softening devices to eliminate mineral buildup within the system. Moreover, there are lots of people who use this acidic liquid as a water softener for their washing machine because they don’t want to expose their clothes to the chemicals in water softening tablets or liquids.

How to use vinegar solution to remove hard water stains on tiles:

Mix two cups of white vinegar with one cup of warm water and a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent
Put the mixture you made in a bottle that has a spraying function
Spray the solution directly onto the hard water stains and wait for it to react with mineral molecules for about 10 to 15 minutes
After you’ve allowed enough time for the mixture to decrease the hold of molecules on the surface, grab a sponge and scrub the stained surface
If the stains don’t disappear on your first try, spray and scrub, and repeat the sequence until they’re all gone

2. Scrub Tiles with Pumice Stone

Pumice stone is a 100% natural mixture of water and lava. Although it’s most commonly used for removing dry and dead skin from the human body, especially from feet, it has a wide variety of other uses, including removing stubborn stains like mineral buildup from surfaces like tiles.

How to use pumice stone to remove hard water stains on tiles:

Wet the surface you want to clean with warm water. Pumice stone is an abrasive cleaner. If the surface isn’t wet, it might damage your tiles.
Rub the stained parts of the surface gently with the pumice stone
Don’t worry when you see a foamy, paste-like substance forming. That simply indicates that the stone is doing its job.
Rinse the surface clean with enough water
If you’re not happy with the stain reduction, repeat the process

How to Protect Your Tiles from Hard Water Stains

The best way to protect your tiles from hard water stains is to find a permanent solution to the calcium and magnesium minerals in your water. This would involve flushing out the hard water minerals, and water softeners are the best tool for this.

Water softeners are water treatment systems made specially to remove hard water minerals and contaminants.

There are 3 types of water softeners:

Salt-based water softener: Uses sodium or potassium chloride salt to separate the calcium and magnesium molecules in water through a process known as Ion-exchange. We recommend you to buy the Springwell SS1 Salt-Based Water Softener.
Salt-free water softener: Uses Template Assisted Crystallization (TAC) to crystallize hard water minerals. We recommend you to buy the Kind Water Systems E-2000 Water Softener.
Water Descaler: Uses electromagnetic pulses to prevent calcium and magnesium molecules from binding with water molecules.

See Springwell SS1 Photos & Price

Kind Water Systems E-2000 Photos & Price

Conclusion

Use acidic solutions prepared with non-toxic liquids such as white vinegar to get rid of water spots on tiles. Scrubbing the floor with pumice stone is also another effective way to get rid of the stains.