How to Remove Limescale From The Bottom Of The Toilet

If you have hard water or are on tank water, limescale can build up at the bottom of your toilet – making it look dirty all the time. 

No amount of bleach or scrubbing seems to get this awful looking brown build-up off the bottom of the loo.

Bleach may look like it is working, but it is just bleaching the actual scale – and it will go back to looking manky fairly quickly. It looks disgusting. If you aren’t familiar with what limescale on the bottom of the toilet looks like – here is a picture:

BUT, there is a solution!

And today, we’ll go through what to do to get your toilet sparkling clean and white again!

What actually is Limescale?

Well, limescale is a hard mineral deposit that ‘grabs’ onto any imperfections on the bottom of the toilet bowl. The more the limescale accumulates, the more scale it collects. The only thing that will remove the limescale is an acid-based cleaner.

Step 1: Empty the water from the bowl.

Turn off the tap that adjoins your toilet suite. Grab a small bucket and a scoop of some description. We used an old soup ladle which worked a treat. Using the ladle, scoop out the water in the toilet. Once as much water is out of the bowl as possible, try to dry out the bottom. Use old rags or paper towels to ‘sop up’ some of the water right down the bottom. Make sure you wear a good pair of disposable gloves doing this – you don’t want toilet water on your hands!

Allow it to dry out for an hour or so – then go to step 2!

Step 2: Fill the Toilet bowl with acid cleaner.

Today, we are using CLR Clear which is available at all supermarkets and hardware stores. Once the majority of the limescale has been removed, you can use plain white vinegar instead. But as this is a big job, we need to bring out the big guns.

Pour a whole bottle of CLR Clear into the bowl. Allow it to sit and work its magic – preferably overnight or at least 8 hours. Every so often, use the toilet brush to give it a good scrub and help the dissolving limescale to move so that the acid can get right into the scale.

Step 3: Don’t flush yet. Grab some steel wool or pumice stone.

Some bits of limescale can be particularly hard to remove. Whilst wearing your protective gloves, use some steel wool or a small piece of a pumice stone to ‘scrub off’ the remaining limescale. Steel wool and pumice stone won’t scratch your porcelain bowl.

Once this is done, either flush – or if you are on septic – scoop out the acid cleaner and dispose of it in a sealed container, and place it in the garbage bin.

Flush the toilet a few times.

Step 4: There is Still Some Limescale in There.

A particularly bad case of limescale may take a few goes to get the last remaining bits off the bottom. Keep persisting.

Step 5: Keeping your toilet clear of limescale.

Once your toilet is back to sparkling white, you want to keep it that way. To do that, do a white vinegar wash once a week. To do that, add four cups of white vinegar to the toilet bowl – and allow it to sit overnight before flushing (white vinegar won’t hurt a septic tank). This not only gets rid of minor limescale problems but will also neutralize any urine smells.

There you have it! This is the same method I use at home – as I have really hard water out here in Gympie and my toilets look manky on a regular basis!

Good luck and let us know how you go!