The Very Many Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread ΛΓ

[Takhisis]

No point in practicing if I'm dead.

The point of practising is that you do it while alive, in order to stay alive.

 

[Cutlass]

No, I'm just running into an issue with my tub that I've exhausted not-handy-at-all-and-I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing options on. I don't really want to pay a plumber's two-hour minimum if the problem is easily solved DIY but I have absolutely no idea what to search for. You seem like the handyman of CFC so I figured I could mooch.

You rent. That's a landlord problem.

 

[Synobun]

You rent. That's a landlord problem.

Alas, after three years the landlord is not keen to play their part in the performance.

Edit: Also, it's mostly a cosmetic problem (I think). The tub still works since, well, it's a tub.

 

[Cutlass]

Alas, after three years the landlord is not keen to play their part in the performance.

Edit: Also, it's mostly a cosmetic problem (I think). The tub still works since, well, it's a tub.

Explain the problem.

 

[Synobun]

Explain the problem.

But I wanted to mooch off of Tim!

Alright, alright. So I have a bathtub. It's different than all the other bathtubs I've had in the past in that it came with an anti-slip surface built into it. No adhesive strips, no suction pads, but some kind of material on the tub surface itself.

After a few months, some orange-brown streaks formed near the drain. Almost like scratches except looking remarkably like dirt from a distance. Of note is that wherever the streaks were, the tub surface was smooth and not vaguely rough as the rest of the tub. I originally thought it was some kind of dirt because my first roommate worked in roofing. Try as I might, I could not get it clean.

Fast forward three years and these streaks have grown a little bit. Not by a huge amount but enough that it's easily noticeable when checking out the tub now. I've gone at it with everything I can think of. Bleach. Hydrogen peroxide. Vinegar. Baking soda. Even ventilated the room and tried bleach + vinegar. Your average household cleaners. Some consumer-grade "heavy duty" cleaners. Soaking it for a while, scrubbing at it, different scrubbing movements, intense shouting, and even harsh language. Nada.

So I figured hey, maybe it's just me being a weakling. I'll hire a professional cleaner! So I hired a cleaner to work on that tub for two straight hours and still no change. Didn't make it better, didn't make it worse. The tub sparkled but the streaks remained. $70 well spent.

This all leads me to believe that it isn't dirt and that it's instead something to do with the anti-slip surface on the tub. I mentioned earlier that the tub is smooth wherever the streaks are. The problem I run into here is that I have no idea what to do about it. The streaks look gross and while I'm at least confident now that it isn't a side effect of me being a dirty boy, I'm at a loss on what comes next. It gets mentioned by potential tenants every time my roommate gets replaced and the landlords themselves seems indifferent to it because you can still put water in the tub and therefore it is fine.

I just have no experience with tubs like these and have no idea what is required to fix a cosmetic/wear & tear problem like this. Is there some kind of applicator I can buy somewhere that I apply to the streaks and it'll make them go white like the rest of the tub? Some kind of spot treat I can do to re-apply the anti-slip treatment? What is the dealio and why am I trusted to be an adult?

Took a picture!

Spoiler :

 

[Takhisis]

Harpic might help with your streaking problem.

 

[Cutlass]

But I wanted to mooch off of Tim!

Alright, alright. So I have a bathtub. It's different than all the other bathtubs I've had in the past in that it came with an anti-slip surface built into it. No adhesive strips, no suction pads, but some kind of material on the tub surface itself.

After a few months, some orange-brown streaks formed near the drain. Almost like scratches except looking remarkably like dirt from a distance. Of note is that wherever the streaks were, the tub surface was smooth and not vaguely rough as the rest of the tub. I originally thought it was some kind of dirt because my first roommate worked in roofing. Try as I might, I could not get it clean.

Fast forward three years and these streaks have grown a little bit. Not by a huge amount but enough that it's easily noticeable when checking out the tub now. I've gone at it with everything I can think of. Bleach. Hydrogen peroxide. Vinegar. Baking soda. Even ventilated the room and tried bleach + vinegar. Your average household cleaners. Some consumer-grade "heavy duty" cleaners. Soaking it for a while, scrubbing at it, different scrubbing movements, intense shouting, and even harsh language. Nada.

So I figured hey, maybe it's just me being a weakling. I'll hire a professional cleaner! So I hired a cleaner to work on that tub for two straight hours and still no change. Didn't make it better, didn't make it worse. The tub sparkled but the streaks remained. $70 well spent.

This all leads me to believe that it isn't dirt and that it's instead something to do with the anti-slip surface on the tub. I mentioned earlier that the tub is smooth wherever the streaks are. The problem I run into here is that I have no idea what to do about it. The streaks look gross and while I'm at least confident now that it isn't a side effect of me being a dirty boy, I'm at a loss on what comes next. It gets mentioned by potential tenants every time my roommate gets replaced and the landlords themselves seems indifferent to it because you can still put water in the tub and therefore it is fine.

I just have no experience with tubs like these and have no idea what is required to fix a cosmetic/wear & tear problem like this. Is there some kind of applicator I can buy somewhere that I apply to the streaks and it'll make them go white like the rest of the tub? Some kind of spot treat I can do to re-apply the anti-slip treatment? What is the dealio and why am I trusted to be an adult?

Took a picture!

Spoiler :

Sounds to me like the non-skid material was baked into the glazing of the tub. (Glazing is what is used on iron materials to make a very long lasting coating. Like on pottery.) I think the coating is coming off, and the reddish brown is the tub rusting. There's nothing you can do about that.

 

[Synobun]

Harpic might help with your streaking problem.

Harpic isn't available here, but I have tried Lysol toilet bowl cleaner on it!

Sounds to me like the non-skid material was baked into the glazing of the tub. (Glazing is what is used on iron materials to make a very long lasting coating. Like on pottery.) I think the coating is coming off, and the reddish brown is the tub rusting. There's nothing you can do about that.

Not even to hide it?

 

[Cutlass]

Harpic isn't available here, but I have tried Lysol toilet bowl cleaner on it!



Not even to hide it?

Rust stains aren't really 'stains'. They are a discoloration. There is a product called CLR. It's made to deal with that specific thing. You could try that. But if the glaze has worn through to the point where the iron the tub is made of is being exposed to water, the problem will reoccur. I mean, I'm not there, so there's guesswork in what I'm saying. But I've had rust stains on stainless steel, and been unable to remove them.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sounds to me like the non-skid material was baked into the glazing of the tub. (Glazing is what is used on iron materials to make a very long lasting coating. Like on pottery.) I think the coating is coming off, and the reddish brown is the tub rusting. There's nothing you can do about that.

@Synsensa

This is correct. The non-skid glazing is basically glaze+sand to give it texture. Over time the glaze cracks and allows the sand grain to break free, allowing water to reach the iron. You can try cleaning with a rust removing cleaner and resealing the tub.

 

[Synobun]

Well, balls.

Good suggestion with CLR, though! I completely forgot that existed.

How does one reseal a tub? Or is that a "better let a professional do it" gig?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Something that no one with good sense would consider:

The root problem here is that when iron rusts it expands. So a failure in the glaze turns into this oozing sore of iron oxide. In a swimming pool a small failure in the plaster and rebar too close to the surface of the concrete creates a "fish eye." The black pupil is a pit erupting rust, and in a pool there's generally not a consistent rapid flow so the rust settles in a ring around it like the iris. In a bathtub the water heading steadily towards the drain deposits the iron oxide in a streak instead.

Now, if you were a pool customer I would tell you that draining the pool, chipping out the area around the fisheye, getting to the rusted rebar and grinding out the rust, then patching it over with plaster would probably work but would be kinda ugly unless they went for a full replaster because you can never really match existing aged pool plaster with a patch, and patches never hold for more than a couple years. The option to make a patch work longer is pool paint, which usually lasts about five years if applied properly.

I've heard people claim that if you put a wire brush on a drill to roughen the glazing you can coat a bathtub with pool paint. I've never tried it, but it seems maybe feasible. The downsides are:

1) Pool paint is very hard to work with. It has to be applied and allowed to cure under very narrow temperature and humidity conditions, and the fumes are less deadly than cyanide gas but not by all that much.

2) It's a very weird idea and no one is likely to do it for you since professionals hate doing weird things they may then get blamed for.

3) I don't know how durable pool paint would be under bathtub conditions.

EDIT: Oh, and one other thing...pool paint costs about a hundred dollars a gallon and to the best of my knowledge the smallest can you can buy is a gallon.

 

[Synobun]

Christ.

Okay. Yeah. That's not going to be a thing.

I honestly thought I was going insane for a while there. Thank you both for delaying that inevitability. I'll try CLR and see what that does.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Christ.

Okay. Yeah. That's not going to be a thing.

I honestly thought I was going insane for a while there. Thank you both for delaying that inevitability. I'll try CLR and see what that does.

If CLR takes off the deposits it will reduce the problem to tiny black dots that are the sources where the rust is welling up into the tub. If you need to "maintain through the sale" long enough to get a room mate, coat the tiny black dots with clear nail polish, reapplying every three or four times you use the tub. Not that I ever did any under the table work of a very temporary nature for real estate agents or anything.

 

[Synobun]

That pretty much sounds exactly like what I functionally need, so that's perfect! Thank you! I can be indifferent to it while living here but dealing with the 20+ separate occasions of "What's that?" gets annoying.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Once the new room mate moves in stop maintaining it and blame them when the streaks come back.

 

[Zelig]

If CLR takes off the deposits it will reduce the problem to tiny black dots that are the sources where the rust is welling up into the tub. If you need to "maintain through the sale" long enough to get a room mate, coat the tiny black dots with clear nail polish, reapplying every three or four times you use the tub. Not that I ever did any under the table work of a very temporary nature for real estate agents or anything.

Or you could probably use something like marine epoxy to last longer than nail polish.

I've been using it for snowboard repairs for the past couple winters, and have been very impressed with its strength and durability.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Or you could probably use something like marine epoxy to last longer than nail polish.

I've been using it for snowboard repairs for the past couple winters, and have been very impressed with its strength and durability.

Marine epoxy is more or less pool paint, so yeah.

 

[Cutlass]

On the up side, now that you have an explanation you can give that, and it doesn't look like you are dirty. "The tub's finish is wearing through, and the tub is rusting a bit." But there's also a less expensive, although not really long term fix. Actual tub paint.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

On the up side, now that you have an explanation you can give that, and it doesn't look like you are dirty. "The tub's finish is wearing through, and the tub is rusting a bit." But there's also a less expensive, although not really long term fix. Actual tub paint.

Wow, pool paint in a spray can! Very cool.