Hey what do you guys all use to treat Hard Water Damage? How long does it usually take you to treat HW Damaged Glass? How much do you charge? Any tips or advice on what to do with the product you use? Have you seen any helpful videos online to teach me? A lot of questions I know…but I know very little when it comes to HWD and will take any advice I can get!
thanks guys you have all been incredibly helpful!
I have used that messy stuff from Ettore, and the powder fro but I gotta tell ya, the best stuff that I have seen and I still use is called Shower Power or Tub Scrub from a place called CM Supply in San Diego. Its a gel that comes in a bottle that you can put a spray head on. You just spray the gel on after you wet the window, let it sit for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes (depending on how hot it is outside, dont want it to dry or it screws up the glass) and rewet the glass and BAM! Its all gone. Dude, I have tried several methods, even using a car buffer with a white buffer pad that they use to buff floors with (using the ettore product) and nothing works like the stuff I mentioned.
As far as price, I charge 15 bucks per pane that needs to have the hard water taken off, IN ADDITION to the window cleaning. Also, if it has been there for some time, you need to let them know about the ghost spots that are gonna stay there unless you know how to take those out…and I am one who DOES NOT know how to get those out. Chenk out some of the threads on glass restoration for that.
Take a look at Presto products. The website has a video of their stuff in action. www.prestorestorationproducts.com
I just bought some hard water/limescale remover from Simple Green - not used it yet!
It’s also good to know if you’re dealing w/ stage 1 or stage 2 corrosion. If it’s stage 2 the glass is etched and you’ll need a scratch removal system to fix it.
are you talking about hard water damage on the inside or the outside of a home? For the outside I get the best results from CC550. I will warn you though, it is not as safe as other brands like “safe restore”
we also use cc550 for hard water stains and have been for years. You just need to wear gloves when you use it because it is a mile acid and can burn your skin. Also, you can’t leave it on the windows too long but it works really well. We generally don’t charge extra for the service unless it is a lot of windows that need to be treated. You can charge a couple of dollars for the treatments or even more, I guess it up to you. We don’t charge more than $3.00 fpr a window unless its a huge window.
CC550 is good but you need to be careful or you can jack the window if its the Tin side of the glass. You wont know if its the tin side of the glass unless you check first by doing a field test in the lower corner with a q-tip. Otherwise you could end up buying their windows. You will get tin etch haze.
You could try Bruces GSR. scrub it on wet with a white pad, let it dry and use a small hand sander with a white pad to take it off. Then clean the window like you normally would.
I have tested MDR and A1 hardwater stain remover from Titan labs - both seemed to leave minute, extremely hard to see scratches in a circlular pattern kind of like what you see on the floor of supermarkets after the buffer has gone over them. The window was cleaned before starting and I rubbed lightly with a white scrubber pad.
Is there any kind of chemical that can be used that doesn’t contain fine particles?
I charge at least $15 per window (if not more). I think the most I’ve charged was $30. I am not trying to boast (in fact, I think others charge more than I do), I just know that you can get away with charging more. It’s all in the way that you approach it. I let them know that such a service is not part of a general cleaning because the removal process takes a significant amount of time on each window and a special chemical has to be used. I charge according to the amount of time I think it will take. I include educating the customer about hard-water corrosion and I also seal the window for lasting protection. I let them know their options when it comes to preventing reoccuring damage.
How long does it normally take you to remove with cc550? I normally charge $10-15 per pane just due to the danger of using the stuff. For cut-ups I charge much more.
I do not use cc550 so I wouldn’t know. I use what seems to be a similar product. It’s called Spot Off. It takes 8 to 20 minutes of exposure to the chemical for the glass to recieve the maximum benefit. The mineral deposits will not always disappear entirely.
I am not sure what tin edge haze is. I used it on a glass plate and found that it removed the dark color from the outide of the glass completely. The window look dark except for the treated spot. It would have totally ruined the plate for sure.
All glass manufactured today comes out of the oven floating on a layer of melted tin. That means that one side of the glass has a tiny bit of tin embedded in it. Acids like cc550 can cause a reaction w/ the tin. It can show up as a discoloration in certain lighting.
By using a black light you can identify the tin side of glass. I’ll be doing a demo of this at the Midwest event in July.
What happened when I used it was it totally cleared a spot on a dark window…so that there was a hole of clarity right in the plate.
It was as though it dissolved whatever made the glass look dark…not a happy event.
I have used the Bioclean product for hard water stain removal. One tip though it says to use a sponge or wet cloth to scrub the stains but I have had great success using a window brush.
Tub and tile for me, and it is friendley for the environment. Does not turn metal frames white like some other products do.
I use the S product that I won’t write here but we all know the name. Anyway I charge double my window cleaning price which includes cleaning the window after the HW is taken off. $20 per window. I hate doing the work and charge accordingly. Cleaned a house the past friday and I felt so bad for the people. The whole back of the house was damaged. $600 job and now I have to tell the customer they need a HD removal and the cost is $1200. Honestly I felt so bad for the guy. They just bought the house and the last owner never took care of the windows. But I was in luck. The guy stated “Ah no big deal, just another issue we have found out about the home. When can you come back to do the work.” One part of me was happy :)
$1200 job whoo hooo. But then on the ride home I was thinking about the work itself and how I was not going to enjoy standing on the ladder face to face with the glass rubbing and rubbing and rubbing. GRRRRR…
Used today, works great - just sprayed on & porcupined in: 30 second to 1 minute dwell time & squeegee-d straight off after.
May be a solution for those who have sprinkler damage & don’t want to faff around with steel wool or scrapers etc.
I use a swimming pool descaler from Shasta pool supply, but you can get it from any pool supply co. Spray it on, let it soak on there for about 20 - 30 min. It will normally come off. If it has been on there for a while and sun has really baked it on, it may take a few cleanings to get it off. I charge about $5-$7 per pane, depending on how many panes and how large they are. Good Luck!!
