How to Clean Frosted Glass

There is one great difference between normal glass and frosted glass; normal glass is flat and transparent as well as shiny, whilst frosted glass is translucent and marked with pits, this is why we say that the glass is frosted. You can clean frosted glass in the same way as normal glass, but the pits of frosted glass can get very dirty, making it necessary to rub off the dirt with an abrasive sponge. Another disadvantage of frosted glass is that it can be easily damaged by objects that are made out of metal. You need wet-and-dry emery paper to remove the marks.

Step 1 – Wear Gloves

It is important to wear the gloves before you start cleaning the frosted glass. First of all as a safety precaution for your hands and also not to leave unsightly finger marks on your newly cleaned glass.

Step 2 – Spraying and Wiping the Glass

After you have put on the gloves, you need to spray the frosted glass with a glass cleaner and then rub the glass with newspaper or paper towels in circular movements. Old newspapers are known to clean well and leave glass sparkling. If the specific glass pane is very dirty, you need to use the abrasive sponge as well.

Step 3 – Careful Use of the Abrasive Sponge

Keep in mind that frosted glass is more difficult to clean than normal glass due to the chemical frosting process. If your glass is mounted in a wooden frame, be very careful when you are using the abrasive sponge so as not to go over the wooden frame since you might scratch the paint off the wood.

Step 4 – Using the Wet-and-Dry Emery Paper

Remove the metal marks from the frosted glass with a soaked wet-and-dry emery paper that has a roughness close to that of the frosted glass itself. If you use an emery paper on frosted paper that is too smooth, you may scratch it and therefore damage the glass. A good way to make sure that the emery paper is similar in texture as the glass is by directly comparing their feel with your bare hands.

Step 5 – Removing Streaks Made by Metal Objects

Rub the streak with the wet-and-dry emery paper in a circular movement as if you are normally cleaning the frosted glass. Keep rubbing until you see that the streak is gone. Rub also the pits around the streak to remove any other spots.

Step 6 – Final Cleaning of the Frosted Glass

When you have successfully managed to remove all streaks from your frosted glass with the wet-and-dry emery paper, you can now clean it with a regular window cleaner and wiping off and polishing it with a lint-free cloth.

Frosted glass is mainly found in bathroom windows and shower doors, this is because when light falls on this special type of glass, it scatters the light in various directions, therefore the image on the other side of the glass becomes blurred. Normal glass is frosted by sandblasting and etching it with acidic and abrasive chemicals, that is why this process is called acid etching.