LESLIE: Time to head into the bath with Mary in Massachusetts. What’s going on at your money pit?
MARY: Hi there. Yeah. I’ve got an old tub, a clawfoot tub, and it came with the house; the house built in early 1900s. And I don’t know if the finish is going on it or what but now when I let the water out, it’s like all yellow wherever the water was; not just a water line. And also, if I – even when it’s perfectly dry, if I put, let’s say, a plastic bottle of bleach or detergent in the tub just to get it out of the way and then …
TOM: Does that work?
MARY: It doesn’t leak or anything but when I pick up the bottle the next day out of the tub, it leaves a big, round, brown spot that doesn’t go away.
TOM: OK. You know, I wonder if you’ve got hard water. Have you thought about using a product called CLR?
MARY: CLR. No.
TOM: Yeah, it stands for …
LESLIE: Calcium, lime and rust.
TOM: Yeah. It’s a good cleaning product for mineral salt deposits. It’s called CLR. As Leslie said, it stands for calcium, lime, rust remover. Very common product; been around for many years; very effective. I’d try cleaning the tub with that and see what happens. You know, sometimes the old porcelain actually gets reasonably porous and it tends to build up some stains easier than it did, you know, when it was newer
MARY: Oh.
TOM: And that’s a good way to clean it. OK, Mary?
MARY: OK.
TOM: Mary, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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