Air Quality for Liveaboards

[ssullivan]

Thanks, Richhh! Very helpful. Even thought I used bleach in my first round with this mold, I was careful to make sure I scrubbed and rinsed away all dead mold. Bilges are sparkly white and clean to a "white glove" standard.

Thanks to everyone who helped me figure this one out.

[Sandero]

When cleaning up mildew and other nasty contaminants.. how do you get to locations which are essentially inaccessible? It would see that the nasties CAN gst there and set up house... but how are YOU to roust them from those hidden places?

[redwitch]

With all these discussion I should restart our Moldbusters only just for boats. We sold it last Dec and bought our boat. the sailing god to be fair gave us a boat full of mold, witch in my joy of buying a boat, I fail to see the full exend of the problem. There are many things that can cause the systoms that you are showing one is mold. It is important to never wipe mold you only sporealate the entire area. "Killing" the mold will keep it from growing yes but the body and spore will still be pressent and causing your problems. You have to rid the boat and air of the spores. Also with exsporure and time you will develope and sinsativity to the type of mold;so it will take smaller amounts for you to react. sorry! You can have air sample taken to find out what is bothering you and have a plan designed to fix the problem. With a good air quailty comp. the cost is not high. We charged around 500 for testing and report with a protocol.
I would look for a hepa filter the best is an Oreck. Good Luck contact me
and I'll help B

[CSY Man]

but how are YOU to roust them from those hidden places?

With a rag on a stick and plenty of Acetone.

Granted, there may be hidden corners ya can't reach.
Strong stuff in a spray bottle may be the best medicine for such corners.

[redwitch]

What we used in homes, schools, offices, winerys and hospitals was swimming pool clorine mix 50/50 with water and spray never wipe. The odor will last for 3 to 4 hrs and with exsporure to light it will clear in 24 to 48 hrs

[ssullivan]

For the sake of those reading the thread, I should add that I have no allergies, I have never been allergic to anything, including poison ivy for a while as a kid. I have never had any breathing symptom until the very first week we moved aboard this boat, and I have owned and taken long vacations aboard my own other boats over the past 20 years as well as crewed aboard megayachts in the Carib.

In all this time on boats, this one is the only one that has given me trouble.

Jef asked about how to reach the small spaces. This time, I'm using a spray bottle, as there is really no other way to get in there without damaging the boat. I'm spraying straight clorox in there with the spray bottle and hoping to at least hit some of the mold that might be lurking and unreachable. The project will be done at the end of this week, so I'll update you all with the results.

There are places you will never be able to reach on a boat, so this is why I was so attracted to the ozone idea or some type of bomb, like the kind you can use for cockroaches.

It's a very difficult battle.

[GordMay]

Stop Mold
New Concrobium Mold Control Ditch the bleach. Break the mold.
http://www.concrobium.com/?gclid=CMb...FScyPgodpUGY5g
I don't know the product, but (perhaps serendipitously) noted the ad' at the top of this Forum thread.

[Richhh]

Gord
If you check the MSDS of this product, you'll find the active ingredient is trisodiumphosphate (TSP). TSP is available in most hardware and paint stores. Its the 'caustic' nature of these chemicals that dissolve the cells (including your own skin).

[ssullivan]

Good point, Richhh. Frighteningly for Google AdWords, I haven't looked at the ads they put at the top of threads on this board even once. Didn't notice it.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeah I know you may not have had allergies Sean, but it is an allergy that is causing your symptoms. Nothing else. Mold, dust, pollen, virus, bacteria or anything does NOT cause your nose/sinuse to block. It is your bodies reaction, or imune response, producing inflamation of the sinus membranes and producing mucas to wash away these iritants that cause the feeling you get. So if you are sniffly, it IS a form of allergy. To the extent the allergic symptoms become, depend on how your body reacts to things. It is a case that some particles set of people in a severe reaction and they get what we call "hayfever". All in all, we ALL have some form of reaction. If we didn't, we would die because our body would have no way of flushing the foriegn matter from our lungs etc.

Now here is some interesting points.
It is common for people to be highly allergic to just one thing. Other particles may have no noted reaction, then one particular particle will set someone off.
People can become sensitised to particles and can obtain an allergy problem that may never have been a problem in the past.
Exposure to paint dusts, fumes, solvents, epoxies etc etc can cause a sensitisation that will cause a person to become more and more sensitive to ANY foriegn particles as they get older. The chemicles in Epoxy are hidiuose at causing this health issue.
So to sum up, just because you have never had an allergy problem, doesn't mean you can't get one at anytime.

[ssullivan]

Agreed, Wheels. I just wanted to point out that it wasn't an existing problem before I moved onto the boat for the sake of the readers. If I am sensitive to mold, then it is by all means a reaction and/or allergy to mold I have developed since moving on board.

[Alan Wheeler]

Arrrrr right, understood.

[ssullivan]

And... to add more confusion to the thread, I am reading a lot of websites now that say bleach and the ozone generator are ineffective. They are suggesting using borate type soaps and leaving the borate on the surface, like Richhh says to do with TSP. I wonder why there are so many conflicting sources regarding mold removal. Maybe it's all the scammers and con artists that sell their snake oils that put out the disinformation.

[hellosailor]

Sean, maybe you're going about this the wrong way. Stop murdering innocent mold, convert to Jainism, and wear a moonsuit with an outside air line.<G>

The borates/borax sound like another good option, IIRC that would be an alkali salt and when you push the pH either way, critters stop growing.

Anything health related attracts scoundrels, look at all the water-quality and filter scams. It's an easy guilt game to play and afterwards folks always think their "new" water tastes better. Which it even might...although it often had no problems before. "Other people's food" always tastes better. Dogs and kids will teach you that.<G>

www.usamriid.army.mil
Stop by with a measuring cup and ask them if you can borrow some cleaners.<G>

[ssullivan]

Ha ha ha! Did you hire a writer, Hellosailor?? Because I have been laughing non-stop at your last few posts.

The good news is, that I have about half the mold gone. All of it is gone from the v-berth to the engine room (working my way back to the aft stateroom). The air quality has improved dramatically. No more sniffles, no more congestion, and a general better breathing atmosphere in here.

The bilges were horrible. We had to get this boat right into charter because we had reservations early this summer. I was to scrub them out after the season was over. Now that we stopped chartering, they didn't make my list. It was the bilge mold that was the worse, I think. It was that black stuff and it was everywhere. What I thought were "dirty" bilges turned out to be complete farms of mold.

Now that the bilges are cleaner than the deck, all symptoms are gone.

By the way, I settled on using borax laundry detergent mixed with bleach. I first sprayed down all mold with straight bleach, and then scrubbed it off with the laundry detergent/bleach wash water using a stiff bristle brush and/or a scotch brite pad and sponge.

Works pretty well, and I would suggest that approach to anyone who has mold issues.