Our 1 year old home is on a well water based public water system, and the water hardness is off-the-scale. We installed a water softener within a couple of months after move-in, and use potassium chloride as the agent; however, we now have hard water spots on the shower floor, and would like to get rid of them. Can you tell us how to do this?

 

Dear John:

In the stone business there's only one instance – and one instance only – when the perceived problem corresponds exactly to the actual problem: when a piece of stone is broken – End of the list. In all other instances, the perceived problem could be the actual problem, but then again, all too often it is not.

I had many calls about hard-water spots in natural stone shower stalls: I never verified any of them! They always turned out being something else.

Either etching (marks of corrosion) created by a something pH active (probably in the acidic side) that was silt on your tiles (maybe the wrong cleaning agent). Or maybe efflorescence due to the fact that water had found its way behind and under those tiles… No matter what, never once was hard-water staining! In fact, true hard-water stains come off very easily with a damp cloth, for they are merely mineral deposits inconsequentially sitting on the surface of the stone.

Under the circumstances, I would suggest that your best course of action is to consult with a local bona fide stone restoration contractor to assess the real problem, opposed to the perceived one.

 

May I ask you now to please read and e-sign our Statement of Purpose at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/purpose.htm?

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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