Recycle Less: Does a Pumice Stone Work Removing Limescale From Shower Walls?!

While I’m on team it was fake with regards to the Will Smith Chris Rock Oscar slap, (is that ancient news already as it’s now 3 days old or something?), sometimes aggression is needed to remove remarks marks. 

natjtan is about leading a more sustainable lifestyle, sharing cute animal photos, nature photos, beauty finds while trying to lead that more sustainable lifestyle which unless live off grid, sometimes seems impossible. A UK supermarket, Tesco slogan’s every little helps is the way many of us can lead a more sustainable lifestyle. More so by what we choose to purchase or choose not purchase.

Which is great until it comes to the bathroom in a hard water area. Limescale no matter how many vinegar bio eco bathroom cleaners you buy, mixing up your own vinegar and bicarb soda solutions and scrubbing with an old toothbrush, using a loofah or eco sponge, limescale won’t budge. 

I remembered a Buzzfeed article on something like household cleaning tips, hacks or something that one tip was using a pumice stone to remove limescale build up in the toilet bowl. Off course I had to try it out to see if it worked. Pumice stones are quite cheap, widely available in beauty departments, supermarkets and are renewable and sustainable as volcanic. Sadly many come wrapped in plastic. As they’re quite coarse they’re prefect for removing scrapping away limescale, itself a hard chalky deposit of calcium and magnesium found in hard water.

I soak the toilet bowl weekly with white wine vinegar when I clean it which is cheap as chips in Spain, to help dissolve the build up through an acid attack, yet it does’t remove much. I remembered the Buzzfeed tip and gave it a go.

Gloved up as nobody wants to shove a bare hand in a toilet bowl it did work. At a cost of the porcelain scratched and 10-15 minutes of elbow grease (you can buy as I’ve found out scratch free toilet bowl pumice ‘brushes’). As it’s not my toilet bowl, I abandoned that idea. However the idea was there to try the pumice stone on other things: 

Build up around the *tap pipes in the bath by the wall (I’ve no idea the official word for these).

It did remove the limescale around the pipes on the tiles and on the pipes, tap etc. At a cost of scratching the metal. I only use it sparing now around taps and metal bits I don’t know the official name of.

Build up of limescale in the tap filter thingys.

Does work to a degree but doesn’t remove the limescale caught in the filter. For that if you can unscrew it, leave to soak in a bicarb and vinegar solution to help dislodge the limescale and further scrub with the dedicated bathroom cleaning toothbrush. Every bathroom has one I’m sure! Or soak a rag in the a bicarb soda vinegar solution, leaving it wrapped around the tap for a while secured with an elastic band followed by scrubbing to dislodge the limescale.

Build up of limescale on shower walls/titles 

Works a treat! The limescale isn’t always visible on the titles but you can feel it and sometimes see it cleaning. Out of curiosity, after spraying the wall with bathroom cleaner, I used the flat side of the pumice stone as I would wiping down a wall with more pressure. It streaked with a brownish build up despite wiping and cleaning the shower walls once a week! After wiping down all the walls with the pumice stone, rinse with water from the shower and wipe down stubborn marks or rather discoloured streaks that refuse to rinse off, voila limescale reduced thanks to the pumice stone being **abrasive. The **bathroom tiles might ware down a little, but hey, bathroom feels cleaner! I do this about once a month and it’s keeping on top of any limescale build up.

*faucet for North Americans. 

** Pumice stone will also wear down.

*** Probably do not use on marble. Check before use as marble is composition of calcium carbonate.

How do you remove limescale from the bathroom? Please share in the comments below!

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