So we have moved into a nice rental house in Ohio. The bathroom has doors on the tub, which I hate (for one thing, they’re hard to keep the tracks clean). We got permission from the owner to remove them, which we’ve done. The problem is that where the tracks were is a long stripe of brown gunk. We think it’s a mixture of years and years of tub ick combined with whatever adhesive was used to seal the track to the tub itself. Scraping with a razor removes some of it, but when it comes off, it seems to be pulling up some of the glaze from the tub itself. Is there a better way of doing this? Keep in mind we don’t have a lot of money to put into something like, say, reglazing the tub.
Try an adhesive remover. I’ve had good luck with lots of projects using Goof off
I don’t know if this makes any difference but it’s hard, not gooey. Will something like Goof Off get off something that is essentially rock-hard?
I’m sure the commercial stuff (Goop Off??) is fine, but you can also try just plain ol’ vegetable oil, like canola or corn oil. Paint the gunk with it liberally, leave it for a while, and then just scrape up the residue with a plastic scraper. Repeat as necessary. It may take several applications and a bit of time.
Hope this helps.
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is my all-purpose answer for cleaning quandaries. It’s worth a try.
Hmm… this is a thick cement-like substance, not just a discoloration or stain, or a residue.
If it’s a metal (steel or cast iron) tub, the glaze should be harder than a razor blade. It sounds like your tub is fiberglass, and yes, those things can scratch just by looking at it.
In addition to the vegetable oil idea, you can alo try saturating it with WD-40 or Goo Gone. (Note that this is very different stuff than Goof-Off - you can buy Goo Gone in most larger supermarkets. It’s citrus-based, so it’s safe to breathe, and won’t aggressively try to dissolve whatever it touches - Goof-Off will really spoil your day if it gets onto some plastics, and is not something you want to be in a small bathroom with without a wide open window and maybe even a fan.
The key with Goo Gone or WD-40 is patience. Soak the gunk and ignore it for half an hour or even an hour. Come back and poke it with a plastic scraper. If it comes up, great. If not, re-apply if needed, and come back later. The gunk has been there for years. Don’t expect to be able to wave your hands and say “Be gone!” and have it disappear in moments.
You may need to hit the remains with something like CLR once you get the gunk up as there’s probably a fair bit of hard water mineral deposits.
If the stuff is really stubborn, and you wind up scraping up the edge of the tub, Plan B would be to get a five-foot piece of the stick-on grip stuff that’s usually used on tub bottoms. It might look odd in that location, but if it’s laid down smoothly, it can at least look intentional.
I thought this was the perfect Self-Fulfilling Typo until I did a search and found that this is a real product (I was previously familiar with “Goo Gone”, and assumed you meant to refer to something similar)
Precisely my thought while reading the OP.