Mold!

Winkfish · Aug 31, 2010

First, I would kill the mold. There's some stuff i used on my fiberglass motor boat called X-14. Hard to find in stores around here, but there was one store that carried it in their bathroom cleaning department. You can get it online as well.

Once the mold is gone, when you re-paint, preparation is key - sand it down, get a good clean surface, then paint. As for what kind, I'll leave that to others more knowledgeable.

Also, I think mold does better in warm air than cold (having had 6' of mold in my house after Hurricane Katrina).

JonnyQuest · Aug 31, 2010

I have a small solar fan above the head and vents in the engine compartment for intake. Very minimal mold in the recesses an the boat is in swampy Louisiana. Keep the surfaces clean; that will help. After killing the mold you can try a vinegar solution as a preventative. Another idea I might consider is a dehumidifier while at dock.

Tom Hoffman · Sep 1, 2010

While I didn't have mold in my boat, I did elect to get rid of the mustard yellow interior color of the fiberglass.

I used EasyPoxy from Petit available at Jamestown Distributors. It is really nice paint and goes on well with a roller and tips well with a brush. I also used it to paint the bottom of my boat, for fresh water use. It is classified as a top sides and bottom paint.

A diluted Clorox bleach solution should kill the mold. Just ventilate well during application. Big Fan....

kenn · Sep 2, 2010

There was a little mold in our boat initially, but by improving ventilation, and especially by ventilating while we're overnighting, the moisture stays down and the mold stays away.

We also try to allow for air circulation under the boat cover during the winter.

kirbyc1goo said:
My sailboat is a 74' ...

Wow. I'd love to see the trailer for THAT

Merlin Clark · Sep 13, 2010

kirbyc1goo said:
Haha, Fixed.

Would ventilation during the late hours benefit more so than the daily hours? Im wondering because the solar panels I have wont work at night. But I do believe they do make some that would, im just not going to pay for them.

I've got one of these, but not as tall
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|6880|45749|320599|845201&id=46208
above the anchorline locker (I use it for the hawespipe), which is open to the v-berth and one of these
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|6880|48504&id=47488
inside the cockpit combing on both sides.
Having one of the deck plates open and the cowl towards the wind (as well as a gap between the slider and top companionway board) keeps my boat pretty well ventilated down here in sunny Florida. Ventilation is key to avoiding mold.

tami · Sep 14, 2010

I recently discovered CONCROBIUM Mold Control. Spray-on stuff. It's at Lowe's in, of all things, the ROOFING aisle way at the back.

I've always just bleached but this stuff works to clean and its doing a better job of keeping the mold away, plus it's not nasty.

Deucer · Sep 14, 2010

Looking for something different, I found a recommendation NOT to use chlorine bleach. It will kill the surface mold, but leave water behind...just what mold needs (we fight this all the time in our homes in Mississippi). I'm going to look for the stuff at Lowes. Sounds good.

Merlin Clark · Sep 14, 2010

tami said:
I recently discovered CONCROBIUM Mold Control. Spray-on stuff. It's at Lowe's in, of all things, the ROOFING aisle way at the back.

I've always just bleached but this stuff works to clean and its doing a better job of keeping the mold away, plus it's not nasty.

Sounds a lot better than bleach, thanks!

Don S/V ILLusion · Sep 14, 2010

Deucer said:
Looking for something different, I found a recommendation NOT to use chlorine bleach. It will kill the surface mold, but leave water behind...just what mold needs (we fight this all the time in our homes in Mississippi). I'm going to look for the stuff at Lowes. Sounds good.

As the manufacturer clearly states, this product is essentially baking soda, sodium carbonate in a dilute solution with water and an antimicrobial agent and it only encapsulates the mold. Anyplace where the mold currently exists can and likely will be further disturbed by water or mechanical abrasion thereby breaking the encapsulation - the metaphor of putting a bandage on an infected wound comes to mind. Conversely, a disinfectant such as a chlorine solution will eliminate the mold and dries as quickly as you allow leaving no residual water you can't remove if you want. If there is anyplace where mold is more of a problem than in Mississippi, it's here in Florida...

zeehag · Sep 14, 2010

i use vinegar on mold. works well. changes pH so spores dont survive as well over time.

tami · Sep 14, 2010

Don,

I prolly didn't make it clear, but I've used bleach all my life on my boats and houses. I'm from Louisiana, I live in coastal Mississippi (and went thru Katrina). You may believe that I think the world of bleach, I've used it on walls etc. and it saved our bacon after the storm.

As for my boat, I've always sprayed it on, cleaned the mold off, and then sprayed again and left the bleach on the surfaces. Within a week or two, give or take, the mold would reappear. FWIW, I do keep the boat pretty well ventilated - I have small aftermarket ports that I leave open (they don't take rain the way they're placed).

I heard about CONCROBIUM via the F-boat forum, and thought I'd give it a try. I'm honestly impressed. It's my experience that the mold has not reappeared, or is very much reduced, with the concrobe vs. the bleach.

zeehag · Sep 14, 2010

beach colors mold white but does NOT kill it. use vinegar and it will go away. not come back,. it will come back with bleach as it isnt dead. is alive. spores live thru bleach but not thru acid.lol vinegar is acid. dont just color it white-- kill it. i used to use bleach also until i did a side by side test. vinegar hands down.

kloudie1 · Sep 14, 2010

I have one for ya !! I use swimming pool algaecide .. use the 10% kind (available up to 60%) and spray it on with a spray bottle.. Not chlorine, and not the blue copper stuff, but the stuff labeled as non-metallic algaecide. it is a stuff known to the chemical boys as Quat .. a quaternary something-or-other.. DImethyl-benzyl amonium chloride is a part .. Spritz it on and wipe after a couple of hours.. I spritzed it on again.. didn't look like it was doing anything.. but the next week when I opened the locker, it was WHITE .. and the mold has not returned .. Use lots of ventilation when you are spritzing. HAS worked very well in reoving mildew in lockers where the roving printed thru.. almost impossible to get the mold out until I used the algaecide. Wally World carries it in quart bottles, or you can go to a pool store.

zeehag · Sep 14, 2010

kloudie1 said:
I have one for ya !! I use swimming pool algaecide .. use the 10% kind (available up to 60%) and spray it on with a spray bottle.. Not chlorine, and not the blue copper stuff, but the stuff labeled as non-metallic algaecide. it is a stuff known to the chemical boys as Quat .. a quaternary something-or-other.. DImethyl-benzyl amonium chloride is a part .. Spritz it on and wipe after a couple of hours.. I spritzed it on again.. didn't look like it was doing anything.. but the next week when I opened the locker, it was WHITE .. and the mold has not returned .. Use lots of ventilation when you are spritzing. HAS worked very well in reoving mildew in lockers where the roving printed thru.. almost impossible to get the mold out until I used the algaecide. Wally World carries it in quart bottles, or you can go to a pool store.

now THAT is cooool!!!!! mold is incredibly hard to kill--i can see how an algaecide could do it....sounds like the perfect answer to formosa mold-lives in chain locker on overhead--eewwww..

kloudie1 · Sep 14, 2010

Give that a shot as a trial, Karen.. I think you'll be happy with the results.. Anchor locker lid, cockpit locker lids and such.. I wouldn't use it inside without a lot of ventilation when it is still wet.. I was poking around looking at what the professional mold guys are using and saw a familiar label listing the dimethyl benzyl stuff.. Tried some and found it really worked well in the damp lockers.
Hope your boat work is going well! The North Shore is cool tonight .. No AC required for a welcome change.

Winkfish · Sep 15, 2010

kloudie1 said:
The North Shore is cool tonight .. No AC required for a welcome change.

Yeah, man! I actually kept my long pants on yesterday evening. Maybe we're out of this stinking hot summer?? Can we hope??

Futsal Fred · Sep 22, 2010

I've been forced to become a lower case expert on mold this summer due to some problems with a house I own.

Basically there's so much foolishness out there about it that you hvae to really dig to get actual unbiased facts.

Some things I've learned:

- You don't need to kill mold to remove it. Any decent cleaning agent will do just fine.

- Mold is a fungus, not a bacteria or a microbe. Sanitizing agents, anti-microbials, anti-bacterials, etc. don't bother it a bit. Scrubbing with them, however, does work, as does scrubbing with anything else.

- With all due respect to the guy above, chlorine bleach does in fact kill mold. Go to the EPA website and look at their suggestion as to how to treat mold in elementary schools for example. They tell you to spray it with chlorine bleach. So does the CDC and, well, everyone else. Bleach kills mold.

- The bigger problem with mold is the stains. Leave it there very long and you get black stains that are very hard to get up. The mold can be as dead as Julius Caesar but the stain remains and good luck.

- Mold is the most common thing in the world. Mold spores are around us, all the time, everywhere. You cannot keep them out without creating million dollar negative pressure chambers and the like. Not terribly practical.

- The enemy is not mold it's moisture. If you have a wet environment mold will grow because mold spores are always present. Ventilation is the key. Dehumidifying is even better. Get a small dehumidifier from your big bix store for under 100 bucks, run a cord and let it run every now and again. Let it wring the moisture out of the thing. The rest of the time you're going to have to figure out how to get fresh air through it.

Bottom line, scare tactics aside it's not at all dangerous unless you're highly allergic. Otherise you can roll in a barre of it and nothing will happen to you.

zeehag · Sep 22, 2010

yes mold has always been a fungus , and fungi grow spores which should be killed to maintain lack of regrowth. vinegar is an answer and this compound sounds like it could be a good one too. many boats that are not wet also grow mold. if you are a botanist, then you are a mold expert. there are very few compounds that kill mold spores. they grow in moist or dry environs. mold spores are not good to breathe. they DO cause respiratory problems. they are NOT harmless. the mold that usually infiltrates the inner parts of boats is a black mold and causes more problems than many of the other molds.
there is a difference between mold and mildew. mildew is wet based/ mold as in black mold grow on dry surfaces in dry environs despite ventilation.
the respiratory difficulties do not appear the first time one is introduced to the mold. the symptoms come on gradually and worsen with each exposure.
we found in the hospitals i worked in over the 30+ yrs i did nursing that mold is not killed by chlorine bleach. the spores remain. sorry. bleach merely turns it white. there are chemicals used in hospitals that DO kill molds--they are very caustic and unavailable to public. we used a really good one in my post anesthesia care unit and the or to which it was attached and associated in lost angels long ago. bleach is an inadequate and over rated cleaning chemical. that is why the hospitals use stronger stuff to make sure you donot acquire any hospital borne infections. bleach is an inadequate and over rated chemical. if it were efficient as you say, then we would have been allowed to use it instead of other stuff more caustic to clean our intrinsic molds and mold potential. it is from these medical based findings that i base my info.
molds and fungi are very difficult to remove from inside a human body. it is very easy to get them inside the human body-just inhale in a moldy environment-- yes mold can kill ye even without any allergies to it.