Steam cleaning of shower glass

You did not see it happen. The shower wall was clear when the bathroom was new, and somewhere between then and now it turned milky white. Now you see the silhouette of the tiles behind it instead of the tiles themselves. You have tried vinegar, you have tried a shop-bought product, and you have ended up with a slightly lighter milky-white glass.

The reason is that it is not dirt you are washing off. It is minerals from the water that have built up in layers, and they are mechanically fixed in place.

What we actually do

Steam is the tool that makes the rest of the job possible.

1. Diagnosis first. We feel the glass and check whether the coating is limescale, soap residue or etching. The three require entirely different responses, and etched glass cannot be saved by any of them — we tell you this at the inspection, not afterwards.
2. Heating with steam. A warm glass surface softens the limescale layer and opens it up. This is the entire reason we use steam: it lets us use milder chemicals and a shorter dwell time than a cold surface would require.
3. Limescale-dissolving agent with controlled dwell time. The agent gets exactly the time it needs, and no more — too long a dwell time on a silicone seal is not free.
4. Mechanical removal. With tools made for glass. Never steel wool, never abrasive cleaner, never a green scouring pad — all three create micro-scratches in the glass, and scratched glass becomes permanently dull and gets dirty faster than before.
5. Both sides, and everything around them. Frames, tracks, hinges, handles and the silicone seal along the bottom. Limescale in a track is what makes the door start to grind.
6. Drying and polishing until the glass is streak-free.

Why it pays off

Limescale is not only an aesthetic matter. The limescale layer is rough, and the roughness gives soap, skin oils and bacteria more places to attach to. This is why a limescale-covered shower glass gets dirty faster than a clean one — the problem accelerates.

Worse: if the limescale is left long enough, the minerals etch into the glass surface itself. At that point the job is no longer to remove something from the glass, but to grind away a layer of the glass itself — or to replace the shower wall. Removing the limescale before it sets is therefore considerably cheaper.

At a property handover, the shower glass is also one of the things that almost always gets commented on. It is easy to see, and it reads as a signal of how the rest of the home has been looked after.

How often should you have it done?

Once a year for a bathroom in daily use. If you squeegee the glass after every shower — fifteen seconds — several years can pass between each professional round. It is the simplest maintenance advice we give, and it works.

How long does it take?

Around 1,5 hours for one shower wall in normal condition. We are happy to combine it with other work in the same bathroom visit.

Book an inspection for steam cleaning of shower glass — you will receive a fixed price in writing within one working day, and we will not start until you have approved it.