You are not alone. Most people are losing the battle against nasty shower mildew. This is especially true if the shower is used daily. Here are a few tips to keep your shower looking new.
Tilex Mildew Root Remover – This is not the regular Tilex. I can only find it at Lowes. All other cleaners have failed me but this stuff works. Spray the shower down after every use. You don’t have scrub it in. You probably could not handle fumes if you tried. Run the exhaust fan and vacate the area. After several treatments you can back off the schedule to once or twice a week.
Cracked grout/ caulk in the corners – The walls should be grouted but the corners or where the walls meet the tub need to be caulked. In the corners, scrape out the old grout or caulk with a putty knife, paint tool, utility knife or grout saw. Use care not to harm the tile, tub or yourself. Spray the corners with Tilex a few times to kill the life forms. The mistake everyone makes now is that they use grout instead of caulk. Wherever two intersecting planes meet there is going to be movement. Caulk can stretch with the movement and grout will crack. The best caulk to use can be found in the tile section of the home store. This caulk is color matched to the most common grout colors and can be purchased either sanded or unsanded to match the texture you have. For a clean looking caulk bead do the following: Tape the corner on both sides of the corner leaving a 1/8 inch gap. Caulk the joint and then smooth it out with your finger. When it looks good, pull the tape off right away. It takes a little practice but you should have a neat looking joint. The caulk is going to look a little different than the grout. If this bothers you than do this: Let the caulk cure for a day. Mix up a small amount of grout. Smear it into the corners with your finger. Let it harden for 30 minutes and clean the grout off the surrounding tile with a sponge. Do this artfully to maintain a consistent look.
Seal it and maintain it – Once you get the shower to a mildew and crack free state you can seal it. Purchase a tile and grout sealer. Wipe down all the tile. When it dries seal it again. This should help the water bead and absorb less into the grout. To maintain it, remember to keep the shower door open and run the exhaust fan after each shower. Stay on top of it with the Tilex and your maintain your standard cleaning routine.