It's the worst fear of homeowners everywhere... large mold colonies growing in their houses! Mold stains can be one of the most frightening stains to fix in your house, for all sorts of reasons. Not only can it damage the property, but it can also be hazardous to your family's health. In this Stain Solver Cleaning Tip, we're going to do a deep dive into what mold is, why it grows in your house, and how you can use Stain Solver as a safe and effective mold remover all over your home.
How and Why Does Mold Grow?
When you discover mold growing anywhere, one of the first things to do is to see if you can identify the source of the mold problem. This requires a little bit of understanding of how mold forms, and where it's most likely to grow. It all comes down to one main thing: moisture.
Mold forms when spores, which are always present in the air, land on a surface that is moist and warm. The spores can then multiply and grow, leading to the formation of mold. Common sources of moisture in a home include leaks, flooding, high humidity, and condensation. Mold can grow on a variety of surfaces, including walls, ceilings, floors, and even furniture.
How to Prevent Mold Growth in the First Place
The best way to keep mold from growing in your home is to make sure that you're keeping the humidity levels of your house in check. The best ways to do this are by keeping your HVAC system well maintained, promptly fixing leaks that you find in your house, and doing your best to make sure that any mold growth is caught early.
But if you've found some mold somewhere in your home (perhaps bathrooms with poor ventilation, laundry rooms, or other warm, moist environments) don't worry, Stain Solver is here to help you get rid of mold around your whole house!
Different types of Mold and Mildew
Mold and mildew are both types of fungi that thrive in damp environments. However, there are some differences between the two. Mold is usually fuzzy or slimy in texture and can come in a variety of colors, including black, green, and white. Mildew, on the other hand, is typically white or gray and has a powdery texture. While both can cause health issues, mold is typically more dangerous than mildew, especially black mold.
Stachybotrys chartarum, also known as black mold, is considered one of the most dangerous types of mold. It produces mycotoxins that can cause severe health problems when inhaled, including respiratory issues, headaches, and fatigue. If you suspect that you have a substantial amount of black mold in your home, we recommend consulting a professional remediation service, so that they can remove it safely and entirely. Black mold removal and mold remediation is a job best left to the professionals!
For less dangerous types of mold, or getting rid of mildew, Stain Solver is your mold removal solution!
Mold Removal Safety Precautions
Most of the jobs that you'll tackle with Stain Solver are just a little gross, but with mold removal, it can be more than that. It's especially important that you take proper safety measures when working to remove mold. Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is something that you should strongly consider when taking on moldy areas.
Here's the PPE that we recommend:
- Rubber gloves.
- Safety glasses.
- A well-fitting mask.
These things will help protect you from any mold spores that get released over the course of your cleaning project.
How To Use Stain Solver to Solve Your Mold Stains
Mold is one of Stain Solver's specialties! The chemical reaction that occurs when Stain Solver is mixed with water removes the mold from whatever surface it is clinging to, allowing you to go in and turn the mold prone area into a fresh and clean zone in your house.
We're going to go over a few common mold removal projects, but first, we need to talk about how to mix and use Stain Solver most effectively.
Before you Start your mold removal process, you should get all of your mold removal products together and ready to go. Here's what you'll need:
- Stain Solver
- Hot Water
- A Sponge or Scrub Brush (depending on what you're cleaning)
- A Spray Bottle
- PPE (as talked about above)
Once you have everything together you can mix your Stain Solver solution. You can either mix it in a spray bottle, or in a bucket, just ensure that the powder is completely dissolved for best results!
Check out our How-To page for specific mixing guidance, or you can just mix one cup of Stain Solver with one gallon of hot water.
Once your solution has been mixed and your PPE is on, you're ready to attack your project of choice! We're covering five of the most common mold scenarios in this article, bust Stain Solver will work wherever mold appears in your home!
How to Clean Mold in Bathrooms
As you may have guessed, the Bathroom is one of the most common places where mold can grow. All of that moisture along with warm temperatures and limited ventilation makes this room the ideal place for moldy surfaces. Luckily, we have some guides to make sure you can get rid of all of the mold you might find in your bathroom.
How to Get Rid of Mold from Plastic Shower Curtains and Liners
Your shower curtain is one of the most common places to find mold in your house, especially if it doesn't dry completely. Luckily it's one of the easiest fabric items to get rid of mold on. There are two options.
First, if there's only a small amount of mold, you can use your sprayer to apply the Stain Solver solution to the moldy curtain. Let this sit for a half hour to an hour, then scrub with a brush or sponge and rinse with warm water. You can let the affected area air dry.
If mold has grown on a larger portion of the curtain, we recommend giving it a full soak. First, prepare a sink or bucket full of Stain Solver solution, then remove the curtain from your shower, and fully submerge it in the solution. Let it sit for an hour, and then rinse it off. All the mold will be gone!
How To Remove Mold From Shower Tiles and Grout
Often you'll find mold growing in the nooks and crannies of your bathroom, especially in places like shower tiles, grout, or around the bathroom door. Removing mold in these tough-to-reach spaces can be tricky, but with Stain Solver it'll be done in no time!
Mix up your solution in a sprayer, and apply it to the affected area. Let it sit for an hour, then scrub with a stiff-bristled brush and rinse with water.
You can also check out our article specifically on grout cleaning!
Pro Tip: Check Your Bathroom Ceiling Fan!
This is one place where mold can really build up in humid rooms, and maybe not the first place you'd check! Take a look at your bathroom ceiling fan to ensure that there is no dangerous mold hiding up there. If there is, use your sprayer with Stain Solver to attack the surface mold that's growing up there. If there is a lot of build-up you may want to take the fan out and scrub it off.
How to Remove Mold from Walls and Ceilings
Removing mold from the walls of your house is an easy job with Stain Solver, but there is a caveat here... if you're finding mold on the baseboards of your wall, you might have a bigger issue. Moisture stuck inside of your walls can cause mold to appear on the outside, which is bad enough, but it also can cause much more serious degradation of your wall framing. If you're having recurring issues with a moldy area in a place you don't expect it, you might want to consider calling in a professional to take a look.
The same thing goes with ceilings, but even more so! If mold is affecting the structural integrity of your home, you might have bigger concerns than allergic reactions and runny noses.
If it's only a little bit of mold and you want to take care of it yourself, grab that spray bottle and go to town! Use the same process as above: spray, let sit, scrub, and rinse.
Removing Mold from Leather
This is a project that we took on here when one of the back seats in the Stain Solver-Mobile (the trusty Negen Family 2006 Toyota Sienna) had grown some gross mold after not being used for a long time.
Here's what it looked like before:
Super gross, and a nasty shock when I unfolded them for the first time this spring. Luckily Stain Solver is a great mold remover, and took care of it with a minimum of fuss!
Here's what I did:
- Filled a Sprayer with Stain Solver solution.
- Applied liberally to the moldy surfaces.
- Waited an hour.
- Used paper towels to wipe off the first layer of mold.
Check out this photo of where I had wiped off versus where I hadn't:
After I had wiped off the seat for the first time I needed to repeat the process to get the rest of the mold entirely gone. After another round of Stain Solver, the seat looked good as new! I rinsed off the seat to keep any residue from sticking to it, and it was like the mold was never even there! Here's the after photo:
This process will work on leather of all sorts! Just make sure to test the Stain Solver on an inconspicuous spot first to ensure that no discoloration occurs.
How to Get Rid Of Mold From Wood
Oftentimes mold can grow on wood or other organic surfaces. To use Stain Solver on moldy wood we recommend applying the solution with a spraying bottle as outlined above, or for bigger jobs use a garden sprayer. Once the Stain Solver has done its work on the surface, rinse with plain water.
We also recommend using mold-resistant paint for surfaces that are particularly mold prone.
When is Mold Remediation the Answer?
Sometimes a mold removal job is too big for you to take on on your own, no matter how good of a mold remover you have. This is when it's time to call in the pros and have someone perform professional mold remediation on your mold problem. The people who do this specialize in removing mold safely and effectively.
Here are some examples of situations where mold remediation is a good idea:
- You find more than two square feet of mold, especially black mold, in your home.
- You find mold growing out of the base of a wall or from the ceiling.
- You think that mold might be growing inside of your walls.
This is not an exhaustive list, but in general, if there's a lot of mold, someone in your home is particularly sensitive to it, or you think it's affecting something structural in your home, it's time to call in an expert and have it removed immediately.
How to get rid of mold spores in the air
While this isn't our area of expertise, and there's no way to entirely remove all mold spores from the air, using a HEPA filter can help trap spores and keep them out of your home's air. The best way to prevent mold spores from becoming a problem in your home is to make sure that you have adequate ventilation in humid and warm areas.
Does Stain Solver Kill Mold?
Technically, no, Stain Solver removes mold. Because Stain Solver isn't a toxic chemical like bleach, it won't kill the mold spores immediately. BUT it will remove them from where they're growing, which will cause them to die, and most importantly, not cause any more damage to your health or property.
Final Thoughts
Whew! That was a lot! As you can see, Stain Solver is excellent at removing mold all over your home. Best of all, it does this without releasing any toxic fumes or other harsh chemicals!