How to Remove Bathroom Mold & How to Prevent Future Mold Growth in Bathrooms

Mold cleaning and removal advice for bathrooms
When is it necessary to demolish a bathroom to deal with bathroom mold?
Where to caulk & seal bathroom tubs, walls, and vanities to avoid hidden mold growth, water damage, & rot.
Bathroom renovation tips listed here will help mold-proof the bathroom against future problems
Questions & Answers about cleaning up moldy bathrooms & preventing future mold growth
References

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How to clean up or remove mold in bathrooms: this document explains how to best to remove & prevent future mold contamination in bathrooms, including bathroom renovation tips - easy details that will help mold-proof your bathroom.

How to Remove and Prevent Bathroom Mold

This article is part of our series: FIND MOLD in buildings, HOW TO which describes how to find mold and test for mold in buildings, including how and where to collect mold samples using adhesive tape - an easy, inexpensive, low-tech but very effective mold testing method. (See TEST KITS for DUST, MOLD, PARTICLE TESTS for details).

This procedure helps identify the presence of or locate the probable sources of mold reservoirs in buildings, and helps decide which of these need more invasive, exhaustive inspection and testing.

How to Clean off mold on tile, grout, or caulk

Small amounts of mold can be removed simply by cleaning or removing infected materials, something most homeowners can handle. Use any household cleaner or bathroom cleaner to clean off mold from tile, grout, or other hard surfaces.

You can use a fungicidal cleaner such as the product shown at left if you like, but any household cleaner, even plain soap and water will do fine. It's the cleaning that is important, not surface infection, when we're removing mold. Preventing future mold growth can be assured more reliably by fixing the conditions that invited it in the first place, rather than by relying on mold killing sprays.

Bleach solution to clean off mold is not necessary - the object is to remove mold, not kill it. But since cleaning off surface mold may leave stains in the tile grout, you might prefer to bleach that surface anyway. If you are going to use bleach to clean mold anyway, perhaps for cosmetic reasons, see MOLD CLEANUP with BLEACH for more advice.

You may find that moldy caulk just won't clean up - you'll need to cut and remove the old moldy caulk, clean the tile or tub surfaces thoroughly (we use alcohol), and re-caulk with a mold-resistant bath caulk. You may read that your bathroom caulk is "mildew resistant" which is funny since there is no mildew in buildings - mildew (a sub group of the larger group of molds) grows on living plants - unless you are growing grapes in the bathroom, it's mold, not mildew. But forgive the sloppy language and buy mildew-resistant caulk anyway.

Guide to Renovating & Improving Bathrooms to Avoid Future Mold Growth

At Bathroom Vanity Cabinet Mold we explained how water running under or behind a bathroom vanity or sink base can cause hidden mold growth on the vanity back, under-side, and on the wall behind the unit. Our two photographs just below show mold that was found on the chipboard vanity base back surface and on the drywall behind the vanity.

The drywall behind the vanity looked bad enough that we explored the wall cavity to be sure that additional demolition above the moldy drywall itself was not needed.

Here we show the underside of the bathroom vanity cabinet. At the top of the photo, in particular, you can see that the chipboard vanity side was swollen and damaged by water that had passed along the bathroom floor.

We decided to toss out this vanity base rather than try to clean and repair it.

Placing our new bath sink vanity base upside down, we sealed the bottom edges as well as all other un-coated surfaces on the vanity back (and front kickboard) before the new unit was installed.

We continued mold-proofing this bathroom with the details listed just below.

How to Prevent Mold Growth in Bathrooms

After cleaning up a moldy bathroom, or when renovating or when constructing a new bathroom, we take these steps to reduce future mold growth:

Install a high capacity low sone (quiet) bath vent fan, making sure that the fan is properly vented to outdoors and that fan duct condensation will drain outside and not into the ceiling space. See HUMIDITY CONTROL TO PREVENT MOLD
Install sliding glass tub doors in baths where users are careless with shower curtains (that also grow mold, especially cloth shower curtains) and for people who splash water onto the bath floor
Seal the un-coated hidden sides of new vanity cabinets, such as the vanity bottom edges, back and under-side before installing the new vanity. We use a spray shellac but any water resistant coating will do. Coating these surfaces reduces their moisture uptake and thus increases mold resistance.
Select bathroom caulks & sealants that include a mold-resistant chemical additive. (Most modern bath caulks include this feature - which is a good reason to use caulks designed for use in the bath. You may read on the caulk label that the sealant is "mildew resistant" - which is ok, if technically nonsense (mildew, a subset of the huge mold family, grows only on living plants - see MILDEW in buildings ?).
Caulk the sink vanity to the floor to be sure that spilled water from a shower or tub does not run below the vanity as we explained at Photo Guide to Mold Under Vanity Cabinets. We used clear caulk at the exposed vanity edges where they contacted the floor, extending caulk up the vanity sides as well. Against a white drywall bathroom wall use white polyurethane caulk for better appearance and easy cleanup.
Caulk the floor trim at floor level - if installing new trim, run a small bead of caulk along the bottom edge of the trim boards before they are nailed in place - you won't see the caulk but you'll keep water out of the wall cavities when it spills onto the floor.
Clean the tile surfaces after showering - use a squeegee to clean water and soap scum off of tile walls and shower doors - they will look better and you'll be reducing the organic debris on those surfaces, thus reducing mold growth.
Do not leave very wet towels hung from hooks anywhere; spread them out on towel racks to dry, or put wet towels into the laundry. One of the moldiest closets we found in a home without other leaks was caused by an owner who daily hung his very wet towel on the back of the door to a tiny, clothes-filled closet, closing the door trapping moisture there.
See CONSTRUCTION DETAILS TO AVOID MOLD for additional details about mold-resistant construction.

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Technical Reviewers & References

Related Topics, found near the top of this page suggest articles closely related to this one.

Atlas of Clinical Fungi, 2nd Ed., GS deHoog, J Guarro, J Gene, & MJ Figueras, Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, 2000, ISBN 90-70351-43-9 (you can buy this book at Amazon) - The Atlas of Clinical Fungi is also available on CD ROM
"A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home", U.S. Environmental Protection Agency US EPA - includes basic advice for building owners, occupants, and mold cleanup operations. See http://www.epa.gov/mold/moldguide.htm
US EPA - Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Building [Copy on file at /sickhouse/EPA_Mold_Remediation_in_Schools.pdf ] - US EPA
US EPA - Una Breva Guia a Moho - Hongo [Copy on file as /sickhouse/EPA_Moho_Guia_sp.pdf - en Espanol
Allergen Tests in buildings advice about how to test, what to look for, in evaluating the level of dog, cat, or other animal allergens in a building
Building Floods: quick steps after a building flood or plumbing leak can prevent costly mold contamination
Classes of Mold: what types of cosmetic, allergenic, or toxic mold are a problem? Can mold be cleaned-up successfully?
Fungi, Identifying Filamentous, A Clinical Laboratory Handbook, Guy St-Germain, Richard Summerbell, Star Publishing, 1996, ISBN 0-89863-177-7 (English) (buy at Amazon)
Mycology, Fundamentals of Diagnostic, Fran Fisher, Norma B. Cook, W.B. Saunders Co. 1998, ISBN 0-7216-5006-6 (buy this book at Amazon)

Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair

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