Black mould

[Killick69]

What is the best way to get rid of black mould? There is some is the accessible places and a lot more in the far recesses of our boat. Have sealed off most (or all) the leaks.Cheers, John

[bearmcnally]

HAVE YOU TRIED TYRE BLACK ?

Bear

[john lewis]

DONT BE RACIST BEAR!!! MOULD ONLY GROWS ON MK 1 S

[bearmcnally]

John , try that "30 seconds " in a spray bottle it will work better than Tyre black .

Cheers Bear

[storm petrel]

Ignore Bear, he just can't help himself! A lot of things will take off black mould, even metho from your stove. When I first got my boat it had quite a bit of mould. I found a premixed spray bottle of sugar soap and a Scotchbright scourer pad (red I think) worked pretty well. For really tough bits I think I used Gumption with a scouring pad. Because I still had stains on my headliner I ended up painting it with a couple of coats of anti-mold bathroom satin paint a few years back. This was a good move because it still looks great.

Mark
'Storm Petrel'

[bearmcnally]

John like any mould you have to kill the spores ? white vinegar is the best ,80% mixed with water spray on and wipe off . You might have to have a couple of goes at it .Use that 30 seconds after the vinegar then paint . Metho and such will wipe off the mould but it won't kill it and painting it will on cover it up until it grows again .I agree with Mark with the paint you can use an marine grade paint and add some mould killer to it .

cheers Bear

[storm petrel]

Sugar soap is highly alkaline and will also kill mould sporers, as bleach will.

[bearmcnally]

Bleach has a high pH which makes it ineffective to kill mould. The mould detects the bleach as a chemical attack and defends itself with exo-enzymes and a good defending membrane. The exo-enzymes makes the chlorine compounds in the bleach inert which then the fungi uses it as a food source. So when we put bleach on mould we are actually feeding it. Visually it looks like the mould is disappearing because bleach “bleaches” which means it strips the melanin compounds out of the hyphal membrane (just like the melanin in our skin when we get a sun tan). Three weeks later the fungi hyphae recovers the melanin content and the mould becomes visible again so it was actually never gone.


Bear

[Phillip]

S _ _ t!

Anybody want to buy a couple of gallons of bleach?


Phillip.

[storm petrel]

Bear, the information you quoted(without reference) from the commercial web site (Mycologia Australia) is not from a refereed journal (as far as I can tell) and I suspect it overstates the case for commercial reasons. The only scientific study I could find suggested that some microflora may remain after bleaching mould and with the right conditions this could result in mould reappearing. Nevertheless I will try an acidic solution next time as you suggest to see how it compares.