It’s happened to all of us – you’ve just had the windows cleaned and the children turn the hose on and helpfully spray the windows for you, leaving gazillions of lovely little drip marks all over the surface. What are these blasted little marks, and how can you get rid of them?
Hard water spots are caused by minerals like calcium and magnesium in your water. When a surface gets wet, the water evaporates but it generously leaves all its mineral hitchikers behind. Sprinklers, car washes, and showers can all cause hard water spots to form on glass. Chemically, these deposits are alkali, so they require an acid to remove them. With a few household ingredients, you can remove and prevent further mineral deposits.
1 – Fill a squirt bottle with half water and half vinegar. The best vinegar to use is plain white distilled vinegar, which is cheap, cheerful and fabulously effective. A higher concentration of vinegar works even better, so adjust the vinegar to water ratio based on the severity of the water spots (and how quickly you want to be done).
2 – Spray the vinegar solution on the glass. Spray the solution on the glass, being sure to thoroughly soak any stubborn areas. Allow the vinegar to sit and soak, and reapply a couple of times for particularly dirty areas.
3 – Saturate a towel with the vinegar solution. This is a duel-pronged attack! Soak a rough towel in vinegar and water, and spread it over the sprayed area of glass. You can allow the towel to sit over the area so that the vinegar can soak in thoroughly.
4 – Scrub the glass lightly with the towel. Use your rough, soaked towel to scrub at the glass. The bumps on the towel will act as an abrasive to help remove the spots and allow the vinegar to penetrate the mineral build-up. Kind of like giving the glass a facial, only with some pretty serious microdermabrasion.
5 – Allow the vinegar solution to sit. The worse the stains are, the longer the vinegar will need to do its work. Let the vinegar soak in, and reapply liberally if it seems to be drying out.
6 – Remove the vinegar solution with a dry towel or squeegee. You may want to spray the area once more with your vinegar solution or plain water, then towel off with a clean, dry towel (or paper towel) or use a squeegee to remove the water. Don’t allow the vinegar solution or water to dry on the surface of the glass, as this will leave more spots (slightly counter-productive).
If your best efforts fail or the above just sounds like a lot of elbow grease, give the professionals at Stone & Surface Specialists a call today at 801 856 0164.
How To Remove Hard Water Spots From Glass
How To Remove Hard Water Spots From Glass
It’s happened to all of us – you’ve just had the windows cleaned and the children turn the hose on and helpfully spray the windows for you, leaving gazillions of lovely little drip marks all over the surface. What are these blasted little marks, and how can you get rid of them?
Hard water spots are caused by minerals like calcium and magnesium in your water. When a surface gets wet, the water evaporates but it generously leaves all its mineral hitchikers behind. Sprinklers, car washes, and showers can all cause hard water spots to form on glass. Chemically, these deposits are alkali, so they require an acid to remove them. With a few household ingredients, you can remove and prevent further mineral deposits.
1 – Fill a squirt bottle with half water and half vinegar. The best vinegar to use is plain white distilled vinegar, which is cheap, cheerful and fabulously effective. A higher concentration of vinegar works even better, so adjust the vinegar to water ratio based on the severity of the water spots (and how quickly you want to be done).
2 – Spray the vinegar solution on the glass. Spray the solution on the glass, being sure to thoroughly soak any stubborn areas. Allow the vinegar to sit and soak, and reapply a couple of times for particularly dirty areas.
3 – Saturate a towel with the vinegar solution. This is a duel-pronged attack! Soak a rough towel in vinegar and water, and spread it over the sprayed area of glass. You can allow the towel to sit over the area so that the vinegar can soak in thoroughly.
4 – Scrub the glass lightly with the towel. Use your rough, soaked towel to scrub at the glass. The bumps on the towel will act as an abrasive to help remove the spots and allow the vinegar to penetrate the mineral build-up. Kind of like giving the glass a facial, only with some pretty serious microdermabrasion.
5 – Allow the vinegar solution to sit. The worse the stains are, the longer the vinegar will need to do its work. Let the vinegar soak in, and reapply liberally if it seems to be drying out.
6 – Remove the vinegar solution with a dry towel or squeegee. You may want to spray the area once more with your vinegar solution or plain water, then towel off with a clean, dry towel (or paper towel) or use a squeegee to remove the water. Don’t allow the vinegar solution or water to dry on the surface of the glass, as this will leave more spots (slightly counter-productive).
If your best efforts fail or the above just sounds like a lot of elbow grease, give the professionals at Stone & Surface Specialists a call today at 801 856 0164.