no chemicals can remove hard water and soap scum like an old school razor blade. How do I know this? because I have tried acid based, alkaline based cleaners, scrub pads ranging from very abrasive to mild, and power tools like a polisher. it all comes back to the old school razor. My business is called Shower Pros. I’m located in Roseville California and serve the greater sacramento valley area.
Travertine shower with hard water deposits on surfaces. No chemicals can remove this stuff! Acid based cleaners which do eat away hard water can’t be used on because the stone is an calcium based material and will be permanently etched. You can’t use acid on any calcium based material period. Alkaline based products won’t touch this either but is safe on these types of materials. So, grab your razor scraper, a bunch of new blades and start scraping. Keep the blade flat on the surface to prevent scratching the travertine and change those blades often. I like to use this razor scraper from Titan.
Once you are done scraping all the surfaces, use a vacuum and wipe down the walls with a clean micro fiber cloth. Your next step is to scrub the remaining hard water and soap scum off the walls with nylon scrub pads and a mechanical rotary car detail polisher if you have one. Those steps will be covered here.