We moved into our (not so) new house two years ago, and since then I’ve been telling myself I willget our leaky bathroom faucet fixed. To be fair: it wasn’t that bad when we initially moved in.
Recently, though, thanks to limescale build-up, it’s gotten ten times worse, and as a result, our bathtub has suffered. Despite this room being rarely used by guests or us, it has ended up becoming some sort of haven for limescale.
So, without replacing our entire tub (because that’s a job for when the kids have grown out of bath bombs and crayons), I’ve been trying several methods to try to remove the limescale from my tub. And I think I’ve finally found a winning combination.
Armed with a great limescale cleaner and this clever trick, you should be able to rid any surface of limescale, and believe me when I say that mine was very bad, so I’d be shocked if this also didn’t work for you.
How I got rid of limescale (with the help of a coin)
You probably already have a trusty limescale cleaner that you use to clean your bathrooms and kitchen.
First, spray your limescale cleaner, ensuring you coat the area, and remove grime with just your cleaning cloth. You’d be surprised at how easily some of the thinner flakes of limescale come off, especially if the solution is left for 5-10 minutes to settle in.
After rinsing area with water, give this spot another generous spray with limescale remover and find a copper coin in your purse. This is your golden (well, copper) tool that will wow you. Use this tool to scrub the flakes of limescale away from your tub.
In my case, this wasn’t an easy or fast task. I had to do it in shifts, as eventually, my fingers started to hurt. I found it easier to scrub off the deposits around the edges of my tub than on the bottom of the tub, even though this section is flat.
It did take a bit of elbow grease, and initially, I was worried about scratching my tub as I ended up having to scrub quite roughly in some spots. I noticed that the coin was leaving dark scratches behind. Alas, once I washed this section away and wiped it with a cloth, these scratches were gone—as was the limescale.
Admittedly, I struggled with the thicker limescale that had formed in my tub. So I made the decision to leave it to soak again in the remover, but this time I covered it with a wet cloth to help with absorption.
I left it for 20 minutes and went back in with my trusty coin. It definitely made a difference, but by this point, I was ready to tap out, and I was a liiiitle worried about all of the fumes I’d been inhaling.
After a few days, I managed to remove pretty much all of the limescale, bar the worst parts around my faucet, where the faucet drips all day long.
Admittedly, this took a lotof dedication and a little bit of sweating. Plus, my fingers hurt afterwards. But it for sure works. Just prepare yourself to put in some elbow grease. Still, it’s cheaper than getting a new tub or a professional to come in and blast it away.
Top tips
It’d be smart to test this cleaning hack on a conspicous spot of your tub before going to town on it and scrubbing, just in case it scratches yours. It did scratch my tub in one tiny spot, where the limescale was its thickest. Probably because I scrubbed soooo hard. This doesn’t hugely bother me as it’s an old tub, but good to note. And definitely do not use it on metal, like your faucet, or anything that’s coated.
For really tough limescale, I found that turning the coin on its head and scrubbing it flat on the tub worked well to remove a thin layer, which then made it easier to scrub overall.
Admittedly, this did take me quite some time—it definitely wasn’t a 5 minute wonder. It goes without saying that the worse the limescale build-up, the longer the cleaning job. Now, I just need to get my leaky faucet fixed and until then, I must keep ontop of the limescale removal. I’ve definitely learned the hard way, that’s for sure… and my finger tips are paying for it.
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