# mold! vinegar or bleach?



## oneKnight (Aug 4, 2006)

I am sorely afraid that my shower is leaking, not my toilet, in the teeeeny bathroom it's awful hard to tell what caused the puddle BUT I'm also tearing plywood off of my hardwood floors in the kitchen....this is what I found behind the fridge which is directly behind the shower:

Pic

Pic

The hardwood exposed on the left has greenish mold on it (the plywood on the right has linolium cement/glue on it so it looks funky greyish too)

SO the big question is: Should I whip out the vinegar or dig out my bottle of bleach? I'd much prefer someone to say that yes the vinegar will kill the mold, but I thought I'd ask. My fridge is in front of my kitchen sink and my stove is in the doorway, so I really need to do SOMETHING about it tonight so that I can cook dinner for DH in about 20 minutes


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## SneakyPie (Jan 13, 2002)

Bleach.


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## kdabbler (Feb 19, 2006)

Sorry, my vote is for the bleach too. Good luck.


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## kittyhead (Oct 28, 2005)

we live in a damp area and we get mold, too. i clean everythingwith vinegar, but vinegar just doesn't cut it with mold. bleach is the way to go.


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## hipmummy (May 25, 2007)

I am facing a similar issue in my leaky basement and i have decided to go with bleach as well. i will son the mask and gloves and open all of the windows


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## oneKnight (Aug 4, 2006)

I watched it really close last night while DH was in the shower and I didn't see any fresh leaks. I'm just wondering if it could have stayed wet/damp since July when the shower drain was fixed?
I'm thinking it could have because under the house doesn't exactly get great circulation, combined with the summer humidity, combined with the fact that the hardwood was covered up with plywood and linolium so no air circulation.
eh, I will probably have to do some work under the house so I will do a more thorough check then.

I cleaned it last night (the obvious mold is just on one piece of wood so not too bad, and I wiped all the rest with plain vinegar) and then turned a fan on it overnight to make sure it gets good and dry before I put the fridge back. The fridge is on wheels so I can easily push it forward enough to check on it later this week.


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## melalady (Nov 19, 2007)

Hello - I am new to here, my name is Cindy Gallo - I was a Math teacher before my kids now I am a MOM to Derek (4) and Alexandra (7) and I have a home-business teaching people about the toxins in their homes and our alternatives. I use products that contain Tree tea oil through out my home - if you want to know what I use - just e-mail me.

Mold is a very serious matter and you all need to know how to protect
yourselves! REMEMBER -- Chlorine (bleach) will NOT kill this organism!!!!!
Notes from a conference call with Dr. George Graham, a microbiologist from
Knoxville, TN., an authority on Mold:
Using household bleach on mold will only remove the color. It will not
kill it but the bleach will get you sick. Through lots of research, Dr. Graham discovered the properties in
Melaleuca alternafolia oil (Tea Tree oil) would kill mold. He placed an open bottle of the pure Melaleuca alternafolia oil along side a lab dish with mold on it and covered both with a dome cover. In 30 minutes the mold was killed.

Your best move is to get that bleach out of your home - it only bleaches out colors and gets us sick w/o killing anything you believe it does. Even in the bottle it is out-gassing into your home and making the air quality in your home poor
Cindy


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## Sustainer (Sep 26, 2002)

I use TTO.


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## ckberkey (Jan 7, 2006)

I would use Bac Out


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## Savoir Faire (Nov 17, 2007)

Try tea tree oil. It is supposed to help. We keep some in the bathroom for the shower curtain in a spray bottle.


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## GardenStream (Aug 21, 2007)

I really doubt you are going to get anything that will clean up your problem. Wood is pourus substance and the mold will be deep in there. You would have to completely soak the area in order to get a cleaner all the way in. I think you'll have to remove the damaged area and fix the leak in order to get rid of the mold. You can clean the surface with bleach, but the mold will probably keep coming back.

Just a note, when I worked in a mircobiology lab we ALWAYS used full strength bleach to clean the hard surfaces. Pipettes and swabs we knew were infected with mold or bacteria were fully submersed in bleach for 24 hours to be sure everything was killed.


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## NoMariposa (Apr 14, 2005)

Bleach... And ventilate well b/c the by product of bleach killing mold is toxic.

My mother uses Vinegar to wipe off mold on her wood stuffs, it always comes back.

I had mold in a kitchen wall once, we opened it up, removed everything to the studs and treated the studs to bleach water (more bleach than water) and let it dry out for months before we put it all back together. We even put heat lamps on it after the bleach dried on the surface to really dry the wood out.

Black mold in high concentrations is toxic. It isn't something to be played around with and that is what we had.

My mom has the green fuzz on her furntiure in a room she does not use and shuts off.


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## oneKnight (Aug 4, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *atobols* 
I really doubt you are going to get anything that will clean up your problem. Wood is pourus substance and the mold will be deep in there. You would have to completely soak the area in order to get a cleaner all the way in. I think you'll have to remove the damaged area and fix the leak in order to get rid of the mold. You can clean the surface with bleach, but the mold will probably keep coming back.
...


Technically the mold can't come back if I can get it and keep it dry enough, but I understand that it's still in the wood.

On another note, I also found black ants living right next to the moldy board. There seems to be NO END to the ant problem in this town. Between the fire ants, regular sugar ants and carpenter ants







:

Quote:


Originally Posted by *NoMariposa* 
I had mold in a kitchen wall once, we opened it up, removed everything to the studs and treated the studs to bleach water (more bleach than water) and let it dry out for months before we put it all back together. We even put heat lamps on it after the bleach dried on the surface to really dry the wood out.

Just curious, how the heck did you cook while your kitchen was drying out for MONTHS???


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## pradiata (Jul 4, 2004)

We have an adobe (kind of brick made of clay, mud and straw) house and our bedroom wall gets black with mold every couple of months - we're in a shady location in a cool climate in a foggy town: mold just LOVES us!

I have tried all strengths of vinegar, tto, borax, hydrogen peroxide (the super-strong 35% stuff sold by Ecover as a laundry bleach, and the 3% kind you get at the pharmacy), Mildew Stain Away (didn't do A THING to the mold!) and not one single thing has worked for me like bleach. I hate it, but I also hate the idea of us all living in a room with mold.

We had a dehumidifier for awhile and that helped out hugely until it broke (after about 6 months







)

I've heard that the best ways to get rid of/avoid mold are by keeping the humidity down, but also light and warmth and keeping the air moving all help.

I'm going to try putting up strings of the little white fairy lights all over the wall and keep them on whenever we're not sleeping and see if that helps. (I'll try to remember to post here after awhile if I have any results.)

Maybe you could put some kind of light down near where the mold is and leave it on for a long time? If you used a compact flourescent it wouldn't use up that much energy.


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## NoMariposa (Apr 14, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *oneKnight* 
Just curious, how the heck did you cook while your kitchen was drying out for MONTHS???

It was the sink wall and floor area, we did dishes in the bathtub, stove was in tact, refrigerator, etc just the sink counter was removed. It was not fun, but we certainly didn't want mold coming back. We had to do a lot of clean up under the crawl space as well. We dried the spot for 45 days during the day w the heat lamp, alternating wall, floor, and underneath sub floor from below -- we only had 1 heat lamp.







We had to rebuild the base of the counter too, the mold was in the partical board of the el cheap cabinets.


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## oneKnight (Aug 4, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *pradiata* 
Maybe you could put some kind of light down near where the mold is and leave it on for a long time? If you used a compact flourescent it wouldn't use up that much energy.

But CFLs also don't put out near as much heat as a "regular" lamp.

The way it is now, the refrigerator is blowing dry air on it constantly. It wasn't when the hardwood was under the plywood, but it's all uncovered now.
I became aware of this when I was working on it sitting directly behind the fridge getting blasted in the face everytime the fan came on!







:

I would really love to get under there and turn a light on it too though, there is even wiring, lights and electrical outlets under there - but none of it works! I'll hafta run an extention cord, but currently they're all pulgged into the Christmas lights. lol
Everything about this old house needs some work!


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## redhotmama (Nov 7, 2005)

If I were to wipe down moldy textured wallpaper in a bathroom, what would be a good ratio in a spray bottle of water and TTO?


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## mykidsmyworld (Jan 18, 2007)

Hi, I don't generally post here but wanted to say that we had the same problem in our home and had a few mold specialist come out, they said that bleach will only take it away temporarily but a good antimicrobial would do the trick, if you have a hardware store or home depot near by I am sure they carry some.
you can also do a search on google for antimicrobial spray for mold.
Hope that helps.


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## applecider (Jul 16, 2005)

This is the site that I have been reading lately. You see, we have mold growing in our bathroom. I found a MUSHROOM growing out of the wall! So this weekend we are gutting, taking care of the mold and redoing. We were going to redo eventually anyway. All the sites I have read say NOT to use bleach. There is something in bleach that mold eats? I don't know, that is what I read. They say to clean with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and then spray on a fungicide. Well, the hardware stores around here don't know what a fungicide is but I did find a mold removal/abatement kit at Home Depot and that is what we will be using. Anyway, not much help, but wanted to let you know you are not alone in this mold business!!







:


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## zeldabee (Aug 23, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *redhotmama* 
If I were to wipe down moldy textured wallpaper in a bathroom, what would be a good ratio in a spray bottle of water and TTO?

TTO is only effective if it's full strength or close to it. Also it will not mix with water. You can mix it half and half with alcohol, or spray it full strength.

I dislike the smell of TTO, and it lingers too long and makes me gag, so sadly, bleach is a better alternative. I only use it for mold.


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## Sustainer (Sep 26, 2002)

Actually I've heard you can put TTO in water in a ratio of about 10 drops per 8 oz., shake it up and spray it on mold.

Straight vinegar can be used on mold. Soak overnight for better results.


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## redhotmama (Nov 7, 2005)

Thanks! I'll get busy cleaning my wallpaper


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