How to remove rust from your fixtures with this guide.
So you own a home? That’s wonderful! You’ve matched the decor perfectly to your tastes and have done everything possible to make it completely neat and clean. But after some time, you start noticing a weird stain on your faucets, both in the kitchen and bathroom. And then, when you go for a nice relaxing shower, what you see instead is a stained showerhead with excessive corrosion. Now you’re wondering what to do.
While this scenario is indeed worrisome, it’s super common and can be fixed. Rust stains happen over time due to mineral deposits, especially iron, from hard water. It’s important to know how to fix these, as they’ll help maintain the aesthetics of your home while also keeping up your property value.
How to remove rust from fixtures?
Replacing your fixtures altogether might seem like a better option instead of getting rid of the rust, but the issue with this is that your costs go up for no reason. Plus getting someone to install these new fixtures would rake up your bills while also wasting your time.
Once you see rust developing, it’s important to take care of this as soon as possible as it might accumulate over time, causing your plumbing to go awry. You won’t be able to use water properly in your home. Rust can accumulate on fixtures of all types of materials including chrome surfaces, galvanized steel, porcelain, and more. Using the right methods to remove the stains should do the trick.
White Vinegar
Easily available on your bathroom shelf, white vinegar is a useful liquid for taking care of several stains, not only rust. It works by reacting with the rust and helping make it dissolve. Soak the affected fixture in rust for some hours and then wipe it off clean with a cloth. In case you can’t remove your fixture, don’t worry. Pour vinegar in a spray bottle and spritz your fixture. Let it sit for some hours, and spritz every half an hour or so. Then, wipe the rust clean with a cloth.
Baking soda and water
Mix baking soda and water to create a magical paste. Mix it until it becomes thick. Then comes the fun part! Spread it all over the rust stains you want to tackle. The key is letting it sit and being patient, so make sure to keep it on there for around an hour or two. Once the mixture has dried fully, you can use a brush to rinse it off. Then use a wipe soaked in warm water to take out any of the debris and you should be good.
Elbow grease
While this option is the most labor-intensive, it’s also the fastest. How this works is by taking a pumice stone, steel wool, or a brass scrubber with an abrasive surface to take our hard-to-remove rust stains. How they work is that with their rough surfaces, they break up the rust. Try using vinegar or soda too to help make the process even smoother, but let it sit for 10 minutes at first. After that’s done, scrub everything out. However, a risky factor here is that you might get scratches on your fixtures.
Lemon juice and Borax
Put equal parts of Borax and lemon juice inside a bowl and mix it. It should soon form a paste, and keep mixing this until it does. Apply this to the rusty areas and let them sit there for a bit. Make sure to keep doing this process until you can’t see the stain anymore. It might take a couple of tries, but it will be worth it in the end.
Aluminium foil scraper
The next option after the above is an aluminum foil scraper or aluminum foil. Use vinegar or soda along with this for a faster process. Fold the aluminum sheet into four. You need a pretty thick foil layer for this to work. Now scrunch the foil together to make a ball, but be careful as the foil has sharp edges. If you want, you can wear protective gloves so that you don’t get scratched.
Then, proceed to soak the ball inside cola or vinegar. Take the soaked ball out and then srub your fixtures until the rust is gone. You might need to soak it two to three times before the rust completely goes. While this is an effective way to do this, it could be very tiring, so be careful.
Removing stains from porcelain
If you have a porcelain bathtub, you may see rust stains cropping up ever so often. Since this is where you shower or soak, we know it’s not the best cleansing experience if you see rust stains all around you. You might also find these stains in the tiles.
To take care of these, you need an abrasive material such as a pumice stick or bar. You can find these in your local hardware store or can even order them online. After sourcing the bar, place it under a running tap. Once it’s fully soaked, rub it onto the rust stain with all your strength. It will create a pumice paste and once you think you have enough paste on the stain, make sure it stays for at least 10 minutes. Then, rinse the stain away with a wet cloth. Keep doing this until the stain has gone fully.
As an alternate to this, the Borax and lemon juice option listed above can also help. You can put the paste onto the rust-covered porcelain and let it sit for some time. Then rinse it all off.
How to prevent rust stains from forming?
One of the best ways to prevent rust stains from forming in the first place is to install a filter in your home, for your shower and bathroom sink. This will dissolve the hard minerals and prevent them from affecting your fixtures.
Another thing to keep a note of is taking care of rust stains as soon as they arise. When rust accumulates across a longer period, it can get tougher to tackle. Keep an eye out for these stains and do a check at least once a week.
Do you know now how to remove rust stains from your fixtures?
We hope this guide has helped you get a good idea of how to remove rust stains from your fixtures, both metal, and porcelain. Of course, the best option would be that they don’t develop in the first place, but in today’s day and age, it’s difficult to keep watch all the time. Make sure to install a water softener or clean smaller stains as they appear and whenever you notice them.
On the other hand, you can always take the help of professionals to help you with your plumbing woes. Octopus has a wide array of expert handymen who can help you with everything from plumbing to AC repair. Simply reach out to us on 800 3993.
