Mould In Bathroom
Bathroom are one the places which suffer from mould contamination almost regularly. The main factor is the very high humidity and moisture in bathroom. It is very difficult to control mould in bathroom by traditional methods such as designs and ventilation and often mould resistant materials, additive and surface coatings have to be used. Mould in bathroom is one of the things almost everyone has encountered at some point. In most cases it is just an aesthetic issue and not a real problem.
One of the first sing on developing mould in your bathroom are little back spots around the bathroom seals and between the ceramic tiles. Do not confuse the mould with brown staining which is often but not all the time the result of mineral crystallisation. The mould is usually slow growing filing up the cracks and deteriorating the bathroom seals. Mould in the bathroom is generally of black colour due to the high moisture content and accumulation of debris and decomposition products. It does not mean that it is a toxic black mould and in any case if the extent of the mould covered area does not extent over half a meter squared that you do not need to be concerned with health risk.Removing mould in bathroom
Contrary to be widely promoted products you do not need anything special to remove mould in bathroom. There are several reasons for it. Most of the surfaces in the bathroom are impervious, meaning they do not absorb water and thus any antifungal agent you may apply to it. By this very nature regardless of what product you use it will have no long lasting effect. It is recommended to use mild chemical agent such as diluted bleach or any other detergent product. It is very likely that you will have to repeat the process on regular bases anyway.
When mould spread in grout between the ceramic tiles the only way to effectively remove it is to scrub it. This could be hard work and therefore it a good idea to do this frequently before the mould set too deep into the grout. If the grounding is too much degraded re-grouting may be the only option.
It is possible to remove mould from the surface of the silicon seals but it is only effective if you acted fast. Once the mould grows into the seal itself it will be impossible to remove it without removing the whole seal.
Mould on walls and ceiling
Mould on bathroom ceiling can become a serious problem. If your bathroom is suffering from ceiling and wall type of contamination than you might have a serious problem with extraction or maybe even a hidden leak in the wall cavities. One of the most important places to check is under the bathroom itself as many bathroom mould related problems originate in this area. When removing the mould only use wet cloth which will prevent mould spores to contaminate the air. Thoroughly dry the surface area before application of any coating. It is advisable to use paint and water resistant coating with antifungal properties in the bathroom areas. Most importantly you need to repair the leak which has caused the moulds in the first place.
Mould behind curtains and roller blinds.It is very common for the mould in bathroom to spread behind poorly ventilated areas such as back side of curtains or on wall under the curtain or blinds fittings. It is necessary to remove all the fitting to gain access to the mould, thoroughly dry the area and apply antifungal coating to prevent the mould to reappear.
Preventing mould in bathroom
There are several steps you can do to prevent mould in your bathroom. Apart from application of mould resistant materials and coating the most important factor is ventilation. The main point of the ventilation is to reduce the amount of moisture loaded air in the bathroom before it condenses on the walls and fittings. The most effective way to reduce the moisture content is to ventilate the bathroom by opening the windows. However it is important to leave the bathroom door closed because otherwise the moist are will be blown into the other areas of the house where it could condensate and cause mould problems. You really want to get the moist air out of the house using the shortest possible route.
If passive ventilation itself in not sufficient it might be necessary to install a bathroom fan. The selection of the right bathroom fan is important. Each fan has a certain capacity meaning that it can only remove a retain volume of air in a given time. The fan’s capacity is usually expressed in cubic metres or cubic feet per minute. You need to calculate the volume of your bathroom by multiplying the three room dimensions. Then you need to divide this number with the capacity of the fan. Make sure you use the same units for bathroom volume and fan capacity. By dividing these to numbers you will find out how many minutes it will take for the fan to extract volume of air of 1 bathroom. You need to set the timer on your bathroom fan for a period long enough to clear at least 2 bathroom volumes.
When installing the bathroom fan to prevent mould you need to make sure that the fan pipe work is as short as possible and as straight as possible. Any twist, bents and sharp angles will seriously reduce the capacity of your fan. Therefore it is important to consider the whole installation route before you purchase the fan to account for all the losses in suction due to the pipe work path.
