Mold and mildew

[wooden head]

I use kanberra gel to keep mold at bay they also make wipes and spray cleaner. It basically is eucalyptus and tea tree oil left on board it vaprizes and permeates soft surfaces killing mold and leaving a residual that prevents growth. Its not a substitute for cleaning but an effective control agent. Also makes the head smell better. I have an old wood boat with a wet bilge so I have to stay on top of it at least untill I refasten and caulk, this really helps.

[Maka]

More Grateful thanks for your advice and useful input.

Met w the boat cleaning "Expert" yesterday.
He want to steam clean her.

My concerns are ll the beautiful wood and its finishes ..although he says no problem... and adding more moisture to the interior of the boat. I learned from you all that moisture is what mold thrives on.
Besides, he can only steam clean what he can see. I know there is mold in every nook and cranny we cant see, including behind all that beautiful wood, that is laid in the fiberglass hull.

Right now I'm thinking dehumidifier and bring the RH down below 55% and kill EVERYTHING, then wipe clean the mold off of surfaces I can access.

What say you?

Maka

[Maka]

Originally Posted by wooden head

I use kanberra gel to keep mold at bay they also make wipes and spray cleaner. It basically is eucalyptus and tea tree oil left on board it vaprizes and permeates soft surfaces killing mold and leaving a residual that prevents growth. Its not a substitute for cleaning but an effective control agent. Also makes the head smell better. I have an old wood boat with a wet bilge so I have to stay on top of it at least untill I refasten and caulk, this really helps.

I was able to find it on Amazon as a air freshener. Not cheap either, $25 USD for 4 oz. But reviews good so with that and your recommendation Im going to try it.
Thanks

[belizesailor]

What about some combination of dehumidifier an ozone generator to get the deeply hidden mold...anybody try that?

[CarlF]

To make the job easier, throw out things that are hard to clean but easy to replace - especially foam and paper - cushions, foam sound insulation, vinyl overhead, books, charts.

Do the best cleaning job you can with one of the recommended cleaning solutions. Bleach is just too risky to use for long periods in a comfined space. Even with the others, use large fans to get fresh air in the boat.

With much of the mold dead after cleaning, the trick then is to stop the return. I know people who have had great results fogging with Concrobium

Eliminate, Clean & Prevent Mold with Concrobium Mold Removal Products

The fogging gets into the inaccesible areas.

And don't do this just once. Treat once a month for 3-4 months. If you see even a bit of mold or smell anything - treat again immediately. It's a war.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Mold and Mildew problems, cleaning, and issues have been discussed many times in CF.

Here is a quick search that has many linked threads. Lots of reading you can do here on this topic on this forum.

mold mildew - Google Search


I think that the boat environment is challenging and once the mold has taken over a boat, I would not want to inhabit that boat. That is my choice. I have been on "musty, mildew ridden," boats. But I would not live in one or spend much time below on them.

Everyone will need to determine their own tolerance for living with it.
________________

Personal Experience

I have a low tolerance for mold and mildew, because they make it very difficult to breathe (for me).

I once stayed in a 1960s ranch house (as a guest) and was assigned to the guest room. This was a house with carpet. The room was stuffy when I entered it. I had to stay there (I was a special guest and it was a remote ranch with nowhere else to stay and many miles from anything else). I did not want to offend my hosts.

The room was very uncomfortable to stay in because of the "smell" of mildew and mold. The mildew was permeated in the floor and carpet and walls because the room shared a wall with a bathroom and the bath/shower leaked water under the floor that then migrated to the carpet of the guest room.

As quickly as I could, I moved from that room to another room at the other end of the house.

Then a couple of young women came to the ranch as guests. They went into the Guest Room. I mentioned they should keep the window open, but they closed it due to bugs (no screens). Later that night one of the women had an asthma attack! This was because of the mold/mildew she told me. She was really having a very hard time breathing, and insisted that she must leave the house ASAP.

_________________

Below I will attach a few photos of mold on a boat that has been closed up for a while. Look for the patches of white/gray stuff on the walls and everywhere. That is the visible stuff. It is the hidden stuff that would be difficult to eliminate.

[hellosailor]

After six years of uninhibited growth, if you want to get rid of it all you have to nuke to boat. You need a way to clean under and behind every possible opening and access, and live steam is not a bad idea because it can remove large amounts of sticky crud. Along with six year neglected varnish or other finish, since the woodwork may need a light sanding or scraping and refinishing in any case.


Whatever you do to clean...consider running an ozone generator for several days afterwards, after it has dried out, to again penetrate and kill in all the inaccessible places. And drying out will mean thorough ventilation and perhaps heat to keep the moisture down.


Adding some of those Nicro solar vents is also not a bad idea.


In the janitorial supply houses, you can get a "quatanary" cleaner, which prevents molds from regrowing. Almost impossible to find in supermarkets though, but it is what the professionals use in hospitals and cruise ships, among other places.

[Dave Lochner]

Just dealt with some mold and crud in the bilge. Used a mixture of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide in equal proportions.

Clorox makes a commercial (primarily for health care facilities) that uses a similar formula. Found it by googling and then looking at the MSDS for the active ingredients.

So far it has worked well. It will discolor some varnish finishes but it does kill mold and mildew and does not produce toxic vapors.

I put it in a spray bottle and sprayed the bilge and under the floor boards. After a few minutes rinsed with a hose and pumped it out of the bilge.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by CarlF

To make the job easier, throw out things that are hard to clean but easy to replace - especially foam and paper - cushions, foam sound insulation, vinyl overhead, books, charts.

Do the best cleaning job you can with one of the recommended cleaning solutions. Bleach is just too risky to use for long periods in a comfined space. Even with the others, use large fans to get fresh air in the boat.

With much of the mold dead after cleaning, the trick then is to stop the return. I know people who have had great results fogging with Concrobium

Eliminate, Clean & Prevent Mold with Concrobium Mold Removal Products

The fogging gets into the inaccesible areas.

And don't do this just once. Treat once a month for 3-4 months. If you see even a bit of mold or smell anything - treat again immediately. It's a war.

And you can formulate your own for pennies. It is a very simple formula:

1 quart hot water
1 tablespoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
2 tablespoons washing soda (sodium carbonate)
2 tablespoons trisodium phosphate (TSP)


I've tested this and the borax formula along side vinegar (makes it worse in many cases, since vinegar is mold food), bleach (doesn't last and damages many surfaces), and quat amines (just not as effective).


Go with these simple formulations. Do your own tests with wood or bits of toweling, if you like. The results are repeatable.

[dpddj]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

Mold and Mildew problems, cleaning, and issues have been discussed many times in CF.

Below I will attach a few photos of mold on a boat that has been closed up for a while. Look for the patches of white/gray stuff on the walls and everywhere. That is the visible stuff. It is the hidden stuff that would be difficult to eliminate.

Looks like the stuff in our basement that wife does not want to get rid of.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by dpddj

Looks like the stuff in our basement that wife does not want to get rid of.

Well…it may just be that you need more time. You know what they say about mold and mildew:

"Give it enough time and it will grow on you."

[dannc]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

What about some combination of dehumidifier an ozone generator to get the deeply hidden mold...anybody try that?

My parents had to use an ozone generator in the house to remove mold caused by leaky plumbing. It worked....

But you don't want to breath the ozone. They had to leave the house when the generator was in use. Seems like I read the ozone generators can cause problems with rubber components depending on length of exposure and how much ozone builds up.

Hurricane Floyd flooded large areas of eastern NC and I went down to help with the disaster. I was in numerous houses looking for bodies and thankfully found none. I went back later to help clean up houses as well. When I was first down there, the flood waters were just starting to go down but the mold had already started. The mold started FAST. Even with a short dashes into houses over a 10-12 hour period, at the end of the day I was coughing up multi colored goo.

Later, when working to clean out houses, we were wearing N95 masks which helped but were all but impossible to work in. At the end of the day I was coughing up multi colored goo.

We had a house that had leaky shower tile that had mold in the walls as a result. I fixed this but when I was doing the tear out I wore a really good quality mask that could handle mold and some chemicals. I bought the mask at Home Depot or Lowes for about $30. Well worth the money. At the end of the day I was NOT coughing up multi colored goo.

I also ran a HEPA filter in the bathroom when doing the tear out.

Mold can mess you up.

Later,
Dan

[Stu Jackson]

Steady Hand's Google search makes sense. This is about the zillionith "What do I do about mold on a boat?" question. No intent to offend, but think about it, yup, mold grows on boats, I'm on a boating forum, gee, I can use the search engine on the forum to find 801 boat mold questions & answers, none of which has changed in the last decade. Good luck. Really.

[wooden head]

The big trend in proffesional mold abatement is liquid co2 freezes and drys as opposed to wet cleaners. Havent seen it done but have read about it in hvac trade magazines

[Lojanica]

SunPac kills mold and mildew spores


formaldehyde. Close the boat up tight and put these pacs throughout up high in cloth bags. Will kill the mold after a few weeks. Then air it out and wipe it down with the liquids recommended by our fellow CF'ers.