I had my worst ever shower restoration today and after 3 hours i had to walk away a little fedup to re-group in my head and tell the customer id be back.
Ive purchased all the right kit from the top suppliers that are known tbrough WCR etc and that claim there cutting compounds are the best but todays staining was hardly touched.
Does anyone recomend using a window scraper thats set on an angle to phisically scrape the windows before getting down to the glass? Im a little nervous on the thought of doing it!
I recommend not going back and cutting your loss and being way less angry about the work.
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A razor blade will have little to zero effect on thatā¦or worse.
What did you use on it?
Did you do it by hand or with a power tool?
lol
i would give them a phone number of a glass replacement company and a micro fiber to wipe down the new glass after every use with lol
ounce of prevention . . .
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Probably too far gone like others have said but I have found the best results just using CLR. How to clean calcium deposit build up off faucets, shower glass doors and tile grout! - YouTube
There is probably etching already done and after cleaning the deposits it would need to be polished but I bet the CLR method would have some good results on that door.
I so far used a polishing machine with cutting compound and foam.
I may try some other product if anyone can recomend
Im not sure if its the same over there, but here CLR was changed many years ago becuase of the phosphates.
CLR now has no phosphoric acid in it so its pretty much useless on hard water stains.
However there is another product called RCL70 which is 70% phosphoric acid. While it might remove some of it like the other guys have said and if you have already using cutting compounds with a polisher then I would call it, non cleanable replacement required.
Once they get replacement glass see if you can talk them into nano treatment to repel the stains.
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It has been ignored for far too long. Could try scraping the deposits hard surface first with a couple of fresh blades, then wet and use extra fine bronze wool and Diamond Magic; rinse repeat. Lots of work, thereās a charge for that. Often once the hard outer surface of the hard water deposits is broken then DM can do its magic - with some elbow grease.
Better option? Have them replace the glass, and offer them a shower squeegee to dry the glass after each use; problem solved.
The only reason I mention it is because we had a shower door in our rental unit that I was about to replace. I tried polishing compound on an orbital sander, steel wool and a few other things. Before I gave up I found that CLR video and it did the trick easier than everything else. Cleaned up the chrome really nice as well. Itās not perfect but it went from like a 20% satisfaction to an 85% satisfaction.
I think it also depends on what minerals are in your water. CLR worked great with whatever we have in ours.
I do agree youāre not going to get that glass back to original but I think you could make an improvement on it.
The customer txt me and said what i had done already looked great and a massive inprovement on the double shower so that was a bit of a lift for me, however id like to get the thing finished without spendind too much time on it, i think anytning now over 70% shel be happy
Here is my hard water rule if it doesnt come off like rubbing a babys back I dont do it. Its too hard to predict time and I refuse to work on an agreed upon hourly rate with a customer hovering over me because of time
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What pad did you use with your cutting compound? I use the JFlint kit. The Mr. Hard Water powder is a larger abrasive particle and its 1st used with a steel wool pad or bronze wool pad. A deeper step above that is the pro kit from glass renu which is a sanding process basically. I like their cerium polish for the final step with their felt pad. But yes as others have said breaking down the heavier deposits with an acid is a step you could take. Did you have a final pic of how it looks now? So far I havenāt come across something that hasnāt polished out so far with the wool pads and powder and ive done some severely abused glass. We have pretty hard water. For most residential windows though i use the liquid polish.
Side note though i havenāt used the mr hard water pads for awhile bc they had changed suppliers or something as the newer pads were very lightweight vs the original. I found some similar on amazon though. They are the 5" pads from Surehold i believe. And for lighter things instead of the mesh pads from MHW i use the Glass Renu felt pads as i mentioned and their cerium. Hope any of that helps and hope its smooth for you either way.
Thanks for that you seem like you have seen your fair share.im actually back on it in a few weeks time.ive thrown all my arsonal at this one, its a large double shower.
Some of my products are glassrenu,A1 hard water stain remover which have all been fantastic in the past.
I actually forgot i have this product called āBAR KEEPERS FRIENDā which is amazing when used with felt pad and polisher, i think its a matter of getting the top layers off first.
Btw that restoration on your pics looks A1
See if a fresh razor blade can take off the top layer, then use your compound to do the rest.
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For sure. When you get it cleared definitely post up the after pics (see the vote of confidence there)
but dont feel bad if it doesnt work out since thats alot of neglect and there are plenty of things that have just been damaged too farā¦like homes where its just time to demo and start over 
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Yes will definatly do befofe and after pics. Ive definatly learned alot and think that i maybe over sold myself as i did a special in the area i live in. 9 of the restorations came up mint and they were all sight unseen.
Ive been applying a nano coat of protection aswell and customers love it.Both showers at my house have it now.
Happy wife happy lifeš
Would really love some closeup pics of those!
Henry
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The king of stain removal would use a silicon carbide paper to grind off the deposits. Creating a beautiful opague white finish. Then ping it back to perfect clarity with a high tech cerium slurry. He has developed his own blend. There are several other guys around the country and beyond that use this technique.
So this is an after picture of the nightmare shower.the whole thing took me 6 hours.its now 90% restored but i had enough of it and the customer was so happy that i could get it to this point.A learning curve with a mixture of my own technique and bought products
I have to askā¦ how much did u charge for that
