My sister has a pretty bad mold problem in her shower, what does she need to do?
Question:The caulking has come loose in the corners of the shower and there is mold buildup all around the corners and around the top of the tub. She's tried several things to clean it up, but nothing is working.. what does he need to do? This can be a very harmful situation, I'm assuming?
Answers:
It may be permanently stained in terms of appearance. She may need to re-grout or re-caulk.
To prevent this in the future she needs better ventilation- open a window after showering or turn on the fan in the room. (or install a fan in the room).
Tilex sells a product that can be used after each shower to spray around and prevent mildew. It helps.
Good luck!
she should try cleaning it with a bleach solution
Use bleach. Will disappear fast!
tell her to get Scrub Free with bleach and spray everyday. I have a tile shower and it was growing mold in the cornors and in the grout then I discovered this and it is cheap 2 bucks and it really works, I don't have to use comet all the time
If there is a super bad mold then the EPA gets involved to remove it because it's dangerous to a person's health.
If I were working with that I'd probably use heavy duty gloves, turn on all the fans and pour a gallon of clorox on it, and that would depend on how deep and thick the mold is and if there is a fan in the room. If it's gotten into the wall then the wall would need to be replaced.
Mold forms because of no air movement, and over time can cause some real breathing problems and alergies and sickness. However, when she tears down the wall she should have the plumbing fixed as the pipes inside the wall are probably leaking and causing the mold, not just lack of air movement. Have her call a professional if the problem is bad because they will need to get city permits to fix it.
If you have an old electric toothbrush this can help in the removal of the mold. Essentially, the caulking needs to be redone, and all the mold needs to be removed so as the problem does not reoccur. Black mold, which is common in bathrooms, can lead to the cause of respiratory problems for your family members.
First, the caulking needs to go. Mold could be under the whole thing and no amount of cleaning will work if that's the case. Then clean with a bleach-containing product. That will kill the mold. Investigate why there is mold present in the first place and fix that. She needs to leave the shower curtain open and let the shower air out after every use. If moisture is enclosed then it makes for an ideal environment for mold.
Once the shower is completely dried out (use a fan), replace the caulking or better yet, replace it with vinyl or rubber tub gasket.
I would re-caulk for one. To prevent mold wipe the shower down after each use! Do not let your shower air dry. You can buy shower squeegees or just use a towel.
If you do get a bit of mold drench a rag in bleach and let it sit on the moldy spot for 10 minutes. That will get rid of it.
I second the Scrub Free. It is very cheap, usually sold in the grocery store where I lived in USA for under $2 and works GREAT. I have never used a better shower cleaner than Scrub Freee. It works good on mold spots and residue in general.
you can try taking off moldings and caulk, Spray tilex, wait until dry and reccaulk everything, use a caulk that resists mold, if if happens again, It means the board behind the tile is getting wet or got wet and you need to take everything to stud and use a green wall board, which is water proff, then retile or put in a plastic enclosure
Yes it can make you sick. I would get a small clean spray bottle and put half bleach and half water in it. I'd spray it down with the spray bottle and wait a couple of hours. I'd then go back and check it. If It's still black I'd spray it again and use a scrub brush on it. I've done this a number of times and it works for me. I have also worked for company that cleaned for the military.
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