A common question we receive is what is the best method of cleaning and maintaining your new solid surface over the years. Below are some basic guidelines that will help you keep your solid surface clean and looking as good as new.

Floor or Shower Pan

The floor or shower Pan area that you stand on should be cleaned using a 3M green scotch brite pad, in circular motions. This green pad has the proper abrasive to remove any built up soap scum or anything appearing to be discoloring the Solid Surface. Two important facts, removing the soap residue with the green pad will maintain the matte finish that allows for non-slip surface. The green pad will also remove a micro layer of material and expose a fresh layer which is the original color and also it will be stain and dirt free now that the layer with any debris or dirt on it is washed down the drain.

If you have a dark colored pan, you may want to use the white colored 3M pad after the green pad, to buff out the finish which can get a hazy look sometimes following the green pad only, but only when working with dark colors, light colors have no real noticeable affect. You are basically just mimicking the sanded finish we applied to the floor at the shop, or when we completed the install, so it will appear the same. Dark colors sometimes need a bit more attention as far as higher grit abrasives.

Shower or Bath Walls

Although on the walls, you can use the white, or blue (no scratch) 3M scotch brite pads because walls don’t get as dirty as floors, so the green is not normally needed. Although, if their is something built up on the walls over time, making it appear dirty, you can use the green one to remove that quickly and then go to the white and/or blue pads. If you clean regularly with this method, you will find you will have no accumulated build up of any kind of soap or dirt. White or blue on the walls and green on the floor, will be your regular cleaning tools, and your shower will stay like the first day it was installed.

You should also add some soap to the pads when cleaning, any type of cleaning soap is fine (409, Scrubbing bubbles, Fantastic, Lysol, Clorox Bleach and/or Clorox cleaners doesn’t really matter which one, even dish soap works great.. what the soap does, it helps cut through soap scum, skin and oils that get left behind and make the cleaning faster by allowing that dirt to flow away and not get stuck on the pad and cover the abrasives in it, which would slow down the cleaning ability of the pad. The soap helps release the dirt and oils to go down the drain along with the soap suds.

Non-Seamless Showers or Baths

If you have any difficulties with silicone, you can mix bleach and water 50/50min a spray bottle, or use tilex which is basically the same thing, and saturate any problematic areas that has mildew. This should remedy the situation. Although if their is a few persistent spots that appear under or behind the silicone, this is due to the edge of the silicone probably has become feathered away, and the moisture can fester behind or in the groove created, and stay wet, which is the home of mildew. If this is happening, we can swing by your home when we are in the area and scrape those areas clear and clean, and reapply a fresh bead. This will eliminate any ongoing silicone issues. This we do every so often when a customer requests it, it’s simple , fast and it’s free of charge as long as we can schedule it to be in conjunction with another job in your area. The wait won’t be long, because it won’t take long until we are working somewhere around your home as history has shown.

We also purchase and ship to hawaii, a special type of sandpaper/polishing pads which can accomplish any sort of sheen replacement needed for countertops, shower walls, shower pans, sinks, and any other products we install. So if the scotch brite is too aggressive or not aggressive enough depending on the matte, satin or glossy nature of the piece we installed, you can call us to arrange a purchase of a set of pads which are color coded and are used in sequenced order to achieve any finish or sheen you need.

INsolid Micro Magic Pads

It’s truly the only product we have found that actually does what we and you need it todo, and that is replicate the finish achieved with power sanders and polishers,that were present when the product was originally sanded, yet achievable simply by circular hand motion as you sand, which in essence is exactly that…hand sanding. It won’t look like sanding though it will appear as cleaning successfully and then polishing back to match the surrounding area so it blends in. We call them INsolid Micro Magic Pads. They last a really long time, and the price is reasonable. They also work great on toilets (much better then pumice stones), sinks, stainless steel, painted surfaces (if done correctly), chrome (also if done correctly), appliances, some glass applications, most plastics and a long list of other surfaces which can benefit from these miraculous cleaning pads. The success of these pads, simply rests on how the abrasive moves in a special “proprietary” way in its binding matrix, when cleaning, and also the size of the abrasive on the different pads and how they work together in sequence. It’s the same product used to clean and polish; fighter jet and helicopter cockpit canopies in the military. Clean and polish to optical clarity, those are demanding industries with demanding results needed and these pads make the grade and have been for many years. We are the only company in Hawaii, that we know of, that incorporates these finishing products into our finishing techniques, one of the reasons our work is done at higher levels of quality. Higher quality through researching, locating and utilizing better technology. This technological edge – helps us deliver on our mission, creating and building smarter designs for better living.

It’s our pleasure, to help keep your shower beautiful by ways of cleaning advise, cleaning products or a silicone correction. We stand behind our work as we have since we opened in 1999. You are our friends, families and neighbors, not simply past customers. So we strive to enhance the community, we live in too, by being good neighbors and helping where we can.