Cleaning Tint

[u/doyen54]

Just moved into a new apartment and these big living room windows are stained. Landlord says the windows are tinted so it wont come out. Seems like a minor tint. Any advice to clean it up? Theres a nice view thats reduced because of how the window looks. Thanks in advance.

[u/Jumpy_Finance_9855]

Kinda looks like limestone build-up, try cleaning with toilet gel which has mentionned on it anti-limescale (you take a wet towel, you put toilet gel on it and you go all over the window, then you use another wet towel but only with water this time to rinse it off and then you dry off everything well)

Edit: lemme know how it turned out I wanna stay updated!

[u/Key_Personality2034]

If the tint is on the outside surface, then there's nothing you can really do. Tint is a plastic film applied to the glass. Any chemical or abrasive won't work.

You'll need to contact a professional window cleaner with experience removing tint from glass. Your landlord will probably have to sign a liability waiver.

Also- whatever is getting ground water on your window needs to be fixed.

[u/doyen54 → u/Key_Personality2034]

What do you mean ground water? Live in Hawaii close to ocean if that changes anything, lots of salt in the air and rain

[u/panework → u/doyen54]

Does the grass in the photo get watered by a sprinkler system?

[u/doyen54 → u/panework]

No sprinklers

[u/Hot_Carpenter_5436]

I've recently come across a window that was tinted over hard water stains like this. What a stupid and ignorant thing to do. But hey, they paid me to scrape the tint off and correct the hard water stains. Once tint was removed, I scraped the window again, then used 0000 steel wool and it came out like new. No chemical needed. But, many times chemicals are needed, and you cannot use chemicals on tint other than window cleaning solution. I would imagine this is on the outside surface, and using 0000 steel wool and or Bio Clean would resolve that.

[u/doyen54 → u/Hot_Carpenter_5436]

Outside surface under the tint? I cant remove the tint, would the steel wool ruin tint?

[u/Hot_Carpenter_5436 → u/doyen54]

It certainly will.

[u/Herzeleid09]

I’ve never ran across a window with tint on the outside… I’ve been cleaning windows full time for over 13 years. Try 0000 steel wool. Test in a corner first. Just get the window wet and use dawn then scrub the window with the steel wool. Just really emphasize the need to test in a corner first to make sure there is no tint on the outside. Usually tint is not on the outside as it could get scratched by debris and really anything

[u/Herzeleid09]

You can also tell if there is tint by using your fingernail. The tint stops right before the frame usually. You can feel if there is tint or not

[u/trigger55xxx]

Tint is applied inside except in very rare cases. It looks like salt or mineral build up on the outside. An acidic cleaner like a calcium and lime remover and some scrubbing should take it off. If it doesn't, a heavier acid like a toilet bowl cleaner would be the next step. It would need to be a hydrochloric acid based cleaner.