Bathroom Maintenance

Much like the kitchen, a bathroom is constantly being maintained or could always be maintained a little more. Bathtubs, sinks, and toilets need regular cleaning to keep them looking their best and not feeling gross. Depending on the climate, the frequency of use, and your own personal definition of clean, toilets and wash basins might need to be cleaned once a week, and certainly once a month. However, bathroom maintenance is more than just scrubbing the tub and washing the bathmats. There are some maintenance ideas that will help your bathroom perform and look its best.

Bathtub Maintenance and Shower Maintenance
For showers and bathtubs, having a good bead of caulk is key. If you have tile, make certain that the grout is solid and not full of holes or missing in some spots. Obviously, if there is some caulk or grout absent in a part of the shower that does not get much water, this is not a big problem. But if you are grouting or caulking anyway, you might as well secure the whole area.

If the caulking is worn and allows water to get behind the tile or the vinyl walls, you won't know how much is getting back there and you won't know there is damage until there is a lot of it. Caulk and grout ensures that all the water that hits those surfaces leaves through the drain. Caulk at least once year, but a better practice is to caulk when you notice an area where the caulk's integrity has been compromised. Also, be sure to have a good seal around the fixtures. Click this link to read about working with bathroom contractors.

Shower Doors and Shower Curtains
These can get pretty filthy if you're not paying attention. Any time you notice white film or black mold, particularly on the bottom of the door or curtain, pull out the curtain or door and scrub it down with an abrasive cleaner.

Once you have the shower door out, check the tracks for mold or standing water. If water is standing in the tracks, drill small holes in discrete areas so that this water can drain back into the tub basin. Be sure to angle the drill in such a way that expedites the water out of the tracks more easily. These tracks often lose their caulking first because they endure a lot of wear and tear. Check this caulk a little more often than other areas.

If you are considering a bathroom remodel, click here to read about bathroom prep steps.

Toilet Maintenance
This can be a dirty job if you don't clean your toilet on a regular basis. If you stay up with this, the task will never take very long or be very much work. Aside from regular cleaning, take a rag around the base of the toilet every so often or just when you think of it to test for water. Often, small amounts of water will begin to seep out from the base. This is an early sign that the sealing ring is worn or no longer viable and bigger leaks are on their way.

Also, open the back of the toilet to see if everything looks to be in good shape. Plumbers can often diagnose a problem in seconds just by opening the back. If the water level seems off, or the floatation device isn't floating, or something just doesn't seem right, call a plumber. This is their job, and they can fix most problems quickly.

Bathroom Sink Maintenance
It may shock you to know that bathroom sinks are often dirtier than kitchen sinks. Even though kitchen sinks see all the food traffic, they have disposals and built in bacteria to break these things down. Imagine all that goes down a bathroom sink: toothpaste, spit, blood, makeup, hair, shaving cream, not to mention the occasional cotton swab, Q-Tip, jewelry, and other small objects. And with no disposal, many of these things can often hang out around the sink, or a little way down the drain.

As often as you can stomach it, pull the drain stopper and clean it thoroughly. Scrub it off, soak it in vinegar, then toss it in the dishwasher. This process should remove the mold and gunk that can build up in there without a solid cleaning. Of course, make sure you scrub the sink a least once a month if not every couple a weeks, and try to wipe it down daily with some toilet paper just to keep beard clippings and dried toothpaste from getting a good foothold.

Don't forget to check around the fixtures for leaks. The sink is a hard place to spot leaks, even though they are more visible, because water is always getting splashed around from daily use, and the origin of the water id difficult to discern.

Bathroom remodels can be tricky and quite a bit of work. Make sure you know what you're in for. Click this link to find out more about what to expect with bathroom construction.

Bathroom Floors
If you think about the bathmats, they see dirty feet on the way in and wet feet on the way out, not to mention all the shoe-clad foot traffic. Bathmats are typically plush and fuzzy to be able to hide the amount of dirt that gets tracked on them. Because of the amount of water that they absorb, these mats really need to be washed at least once a month. They can become grimy and moldy much quicker than you think.

Depending on the material of your bathroom floor, whether it be tile, linoleum, wood, or carpet, be aware that it will be getting wet often, and because of this dirt, hair, and debris will stick to the floor more easily. This floor will need to be cleaned just as often as your kitchen floors and other high-traffic areas.

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