Water stains on patio tiles

[Sadie]

I have a drain in middle of patio and after rinsing and hosing the water that dries around drains seems to be causing the brown tiles to bleach white, any ideas on what I can use to stop it getting worse or clean it off looks like probably limescale thats the cause?

[spanish_lad]

agua fuerte, a broom, and a hose? scrub the stains off with a weak-ish solution, but make sure you do it on a sunny day so it dries quickly ?

[peteroldracer]

I have a new image of spanish_lad now - hair in rollers, headscarf, pinny.........and those lovely slippers with the pink bobbles!

[spanish_lad]

[geegee]

Vinegar works on stains from the hard water which I am guessing is your problem. Neat vinegar if it is really bad, leave for an hour or so then gently scrub/rinse off. Otherwise for light stains and water marks just put a cupful in the mop bucket instead of your usual floor cleaner. Its my solution for everything that gets calcified, from loos, taps and shower heads to floors and terraces!

[Sadie]

Thanks everyone, will try vinegar first and then if need be will try the agua fuerte.

[Kamila]

geegee, I am exactly the same as you. I use vinegar for everything. My friend laughs at me and she even bought me a "Vinegar book" for my birthday. I also spray vinegar around edges of my patio garden to deter cats to come in and poop in my plant pots.

[spanish_lad]

kamilla, dont that stink ?

[Kamila]

smells of vinegar when I spray it but the smell soon disappears. It is not that bad. And it is better then coming to my garden in the morning and smelling cat's mess. I don't have to spray it very often now because the cats have got used to going to other places.

[karandjon]

g My friend laughs at me and she even bought me a "Vinegar book" for my birthday.

Hi Kamila, my mum has recently sent me that book. It really has quite a few interesting and useful uses....that have surprisingly worked!!!

[costapacket]

Vinegar can be used as a conditioner in your washing machine. The wash doesn't smell of vinegar though. I use white vinegar. I don't use it all the time though but works well on towels that have become a bit smelly - I live with teenage boys who leave wet towels on their bedroom floor

[Kamila]

Hi karandjon, yes, I have tried a few thing with vinegar and the worked. I love the book. I always descale my kettle with it, much better then using chemicals.
costapacket, I have also heard and read in my book that you can use vinegar in your dishwasher instead of rinse aid.

[alexander1]

Also makes hair shiny as a rinse after shampooing.

[pigs-might-fly]

Try CILLIT BANG (terrible name) multi-power cleaner in the purple spray bottle. It's a cleaner as well as anti-cal, so it is pretty much multi purpose. Obviously it has acid (probably phosphoric) in it for the dissolving of lime-scale, but it also works on the brown stains which can appear on tiles after over-generous watering of plants, in pots which contain compost.
It's also very good for cleaning glass shower screens, although half a lemon works well, too, and is cheaper.

[pigs-might-fly]

much better then using chemicals.

But vinegar IS a chemical!

The chemical ingredients are acetic acid (IUPAC: ethanoic acid) and water.

The chemical elements are hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

[Martin Page]

Once you have managed to remove all the 'staining' - you could try sealing the tiles with a thin filn of new ordinary car type oil or better still Silicone oil - NOT vegatable oil.

This will will soak into the tile making it waterproof which in turn will prevent the water staining again.

There are preporatory sealers that do the same thing.