My husband and I own a small rental property in Morrow, Georgia. The tenant moved out after having stiffed us for rent. Of course we had to repaint, put in new carpet, fix the bathroom floor (it had developed a crack) and then found out that the master shower walls were in need of repair.
That's okay though, we have good people to call to do the work that we can't do like installing carpet. We can paint, but don't like to, so we hired a painter. We've got a great handyman and he took care of redoing the tile floor in the hall bath and he is fixing the walls in the master shower.
I've pitched in with some cleaning. I don't know why I get stuck cleaning somebody else's filth! Seems like some people have no concept of how to clean the house! My husband ran the self cleaning oven. Normally there is a light film that you just wipe out, but when I opened the door after the cycle, I kid you not, there was two inches of ash! I don't know what he burned up in there! The shower doors in the master shower were just disgusting. I did those the hard way, Scrubbing Bubbles, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Dawn Power Scrub and A LOT of elbow grease.
The wall in the hall bath surround was positively BROWN. This is a 1970's era house and the tile is white and harvest gold speckled. With the new tile floor, it really doesn't look bad. But boy, was that tile dirty! Take a look at this picture below.
Thank God for my contractor, Mike Waldner, who mentioned the best way to get the wall clean was with Easy Off oven cleaner in the blue can which is lemon scented. I couldn't believe how easy the wall got cleaned. It saved me hours of scrubbing! All I had to do was spray it on and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Then I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and gloves and warm water and just wiped it down. I followed with scrubbing Bubbles, but probably really didn't need that. What a miracle! I wish I'd had that to clean the shower doors which took me hours to do.
Try it. It will save you lots of time. The tiles are ceramic and the oven is enamel. So, if its safe for the oven it's safe for the tile. You won't be disappointed.
Also Google it. There are many more testimonials about this method.
But, while my mind was wandering while I was cleaning, I wondered, do the companies that make these various cleaners also make the soaps that leave all this residue? Must research that.....