Is there any way to prevent mold from growing on my bathroom ceiling? Is there anything when cleaning it off, I can put on to help? My bf tries getting me to shower with the door open, to not have such a build up of moisture, but I get too cold.
Mold prevention?
bleach. it really works. wear gloves and something to protect your eyes/head from drips. soak a scrub brush (or any sponge on a stick kind of thing) in bleach and dab it onto the problem area.
Reply:Most good paint store sell a mold resistant paint.I have it in my three bathrooms and it works great.
Reply:there are mold blocking cleaners that you can wash the ceiling with and maybe some mold resistant primer and paint. if worst comes to worst you can put a plastic type covering over your current ceiling. Get some of the plastic type stuff like in your shower and apply to your ceiling after you clean the mold off and paint the area with mold resistant cleaner
Kilz is one brand of mold resistant primer.
You can also try one of those Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower cleaners it has a solution that does real well on the shower if it wouod reach your ceiling.
Reply:How can I prevent mildew in my bathroom?
By far the most important mildew control remedy is to increase the ventilation in the bathroom. Leave the bathroom door open after you shower or bathe, and use the bathroom exhaust fan. If you live in an older home without an exhaust fan, install one, and be sure it is vented to the outside, or you may transfer your mildew problem to the attic!
Existing mildew on most surfaces can be killed with a mixture of 50% household chlorine bleach with 50% water. Use a hand sprayer to apply it to the surface, allow it to remain for a few minutes or until the blackish, dirty-looking mildew color disappears and then rinse thoroughly with water. If the surface is covered with soap scum, the mildew might be more difficult to kill. In that case, perform a thorough cleaning first with either TSP, a TSP equivalent or a commercial soap scum remover. Then use a mildew wash, even if it "looks" as though the mildew is all gone.
There are commercial cleaners that combine bleach with a cleaning product. I have found them to generally be less effective at killing the mildew so my advice is to keep your killin' and cleanin' separate!
Unfortunately, the mildew will return eventually unless you seal the walls by proper repainting. Mildew attack increases the porosity of the paint film, making reinfestation a certainty. Applying the proper paints after killing the mildew will assure longer-term mildew resistance.
By the numbers
Kill all mildew using bleach, as described above. Wash all walls with a prepainting detergent such as Soilax. If the ceiling is a spray texture ceiling, do not attempt to wash it or the texture will come off. If the texture is mildewed but still firmly attached to the ceiling, spray the bleach solution, let it dry thoroughly, and then continue to the next step, priming.
Let the surfaces dry thoroughly and then prime the affected walls completely with one coat of an oil based, fast drying primer such as Kilz.
After the primer is dry, finish painting the walls with two coats using a semigloss or eggshell finish latex paint, or a specially formulated bathroom/kitchen paint. Because of its limited washability, flat wall or ceiling paint is not recommended in bathrooms, especially where it will be directly exposed to water such as around the top of a tub or shower enclosure.
The paint you choose must be treated with a mildewcide which you can purchase at the paint store. Do yourself a favor... have your paint store add the mildewcide for you before shaking the can... it is difficult to evenly mix the mildewcide by hand! The exception would be bathroom and kitchen paints which normally have a mildewcide in their formula, making extra additives are unnecessary.
Mildewed caulk and grout in tubs and showers often resist bleach and other cleaners. Why? Because the mildew is growing inside the caulk or grout ! The only way to fully eliminate it is to remove the old caulk and replace it with a mildew-resistant caulk designed for bathrooms. Ditto for the grout, except you should replace it with a latex-fortified grout. These newer grouts are much less porous than old style cement grouts and more strongly resist mildew!
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How can I prevent mildew in my bathroom?
By far the most important mildew control remedy is to increase the ventilation in the bathroom. Leave the bathroom door open after you shower or bathe, and use the bathroom exhaust fan. If you live in an older home without an exhaust fan, install one, and be sure it is vented to the outside, or you may transfer your mildew problem to the attic!
Existing mildew on most surfaces can be killed with a mixture of 50% household chlorine bleach with 50% water. Use a hand sprayer to apply it to the surface, allow it to remain for a few minutes or until the blackish, dirty-looking mildew color disappears and then rinse thoroughly with water. If the surface is covered with soap scum, the mildew might be more difficult to kill. In that case, perform a thorough cleaning first with either TSP, a TSP equivalent or a commercial soap scum remover. Then use a mildew wash, even if it "looks" as though the mildew is all gone.
There are commercial cleaners that combine bleach with a cleaning product. I have found them to generally be less effective at killing the mildew so my advice is to keep your killin' and cleanin' separate!
Unfortunately, the mildew will return eventually unless you seal the walls by proper repainting. Mildew attack increases the porosity of the paint film, making reinfestation a certainty. Applying the proper paints after killing the mildew will assure longer-term mildew resistance.
By the numbers
Kill all mildew using bleach, as described above. Wash all walls with a prepainting detergent such as Soilax. If the ceiling is a spray texture ceiling, do not attempt to wash it or the texture will come off. If the texture is mildewed but still firmly attached to the ceiling, spray the bleach solution, let it dry thoroughly, and then continue to the next step, priming.
Let the surfaces dry thoroughly and then prime the affected walls completely with one coat of an oil based, fast drying primer such as Kilz.
After the primer is dry, finish painting the walls with two coats using a semigloss or eggshell finish latex paint, or a specially formulated bathroom/kitchen paint. Because of its limited washability, flat wall or ceiling paint is not recommended in bathrooms, especially where it will be directly exposed to water such as around the top of a tub or shower enclosure.
The paint you choose must be treated with a mildewcide which you can purchase at the paint store. Do yourself a favor... have your paint store add the mildewcide for you before shaking the can... it is difficult to evenly mix the mildewcide by hand! The exception would be bathroom and kitchen paints which normally have a mildewcide in their formula, making extra additives are unnecessary.
Mildewed caulk and grout in tubs and showers often resist bleach and other cleaners. Why? Because the mildew is growing inside the caulk or grout ! The only way to fully eliminate it is to remove the old caulk and replace it with a mildew-resistant caulk designed for bathrooms. Ditto for the grout, except you should replace it with a latex-fortified grout. These newer grouts are much less porous than old style cement grouts and more strongly resist mildew!
air-articles | air-books | air- forum | air- news
ms and you | ms links | ms news | ms glossary
Top of Page
airbrains.org optimized for
•Microsoft Internet Explorer
AIRBRAINS™ - Solutions for Indoor Pollutions / Energy Efficiency
Copyright © 2000 - 07 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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