What Are the Easiest Shower Walls to Clean?
- Ceramic tiles can be easy to clean, provided you make the grout-lines between them wide enough.ceramic tile image by Karin Lau from Fotolia.com
Dirty walls make poor surroundings for showers, which are supposed to be clean, sanitary spaces. Cleaning shower walls, however, can be a daunting, laborious and time-consuming task that you may frequently feel like setting aside. Fortunately, products are available that make cleaning easier. So if you are thinking of making bathroom renovations, or purchasing a new home, consider the following easy-to-clean types of walls for the shower. - According to Ask the Builder, plastic showers are easy to care for and will keep their glossy appearances with little effort on your part. The showers come in three basic varieties: backed-acrylic, which has structural composite supporting it; reinforced-acrylic, which has fiberglass supporting it, and gel-coated fiberglass, which features outer surfaces consisting of hardened liquid gel. While all provide similar appearances, Ask the Builder notes that gel-coated fiberglass showers are particularly durable. If they do suffer damage, you can repair them easily without leaving behind noticeable scars or blemishes. To clean your plastic shower walls, scrub them with a mild detergent or use a common household surface-cleaning spray.
- Stainless steel shower enclosures have nearly indestructible walls that can easily withstand daily abuse from soap, shampoos and water. Their smooth, non-porous surfaces mean that dirt, mold, mildew and other types of germ-spreading and stain-causing agents have no place to grab hold. According to Bath and Kitchen Studio, stainless steel is also resistant to rusting and fading, which means you will never have to worry about treating or refinishing. To clean stainless steel surfaces, give them a thorough scrubbing with a steel-cleaning solution, such as those that the companies Flitz and Blanco produce. Alternatively, as Creative Home Making recommends, you could use vinegar, club soda or baking soda.
- Ceramic tiles come in a wide array of shapes, sizes, textures, patterns and colors, allowing you to design stylistic shower walls. Tile can also be easy to clean. According to the general contractor Martin Moss, ceramic shower tiles feature clear, protective coatings, known as glazes, which workers bake on during the manufacturing process. These glazes seal out moisture, dirt and other potential contaminants. For the pesky grout-lines between tiles, Moss offers a simple solution: space your tiles farther apart so that each grout line is at least 3/16 inch wide. This will allow you to easily access the lines with a sponge or brush.
