Bathroom mold is more common than most of us want to admit. If you’ve never noticed it, try taking a more complex look in the corners of your bathroom – around the ceiling and edges of your shower, especially. It’s one of the most common issues we can run into – but it’s also one of the easiest to prevent and repair… as long as you get it early. Read on to learn about bathroom mold and how you can clean it up if it is hiding in the cracks and crevices of your bathroom.
Why Does This Happen?
Mold loves damp, dark, and lonely places. We usually don’t spend a lot of time in the bathroom, but the bathroom is a constant moisture source. This gives mold a perfect place to spread out and lay its roots, as just showering or bathing can provide a mold spore all it needs to get a colony started. A lack of ventilation can keep moisture locked in your bathroom and give mold plenty of humidity to thrive in, as can leaky pipes and faucets, and damp materials like rugs and drywall.
Locating Your Mold
If you can smell mold, if you can see mold, you have mold. Bathroom mold can be sneaky, however. It isn’t always in prominent places like cracks in the shower tile or hanging down from the ceiling. It can be under the sink, in the shower curtain’s folds, behind shelves, or even in crawl spaces and basements adjacent to the bathroom, which get even less airflow and foot traffic. Be sure to check everywhere that might have a moisture issue.
Mold Prevention
Rather than dealing with mold when it happens, prevention happens to be the best medicine in this case. If you don’t have a mold problem now, you can keep it that way by using your bathroom’s ventilation fan whenever you shower or bathe and leave it on for a half-hour after you finish. If you don’t have a ventilation fan, you’re going to want to install one. Anything you can do to get moisture to exit the bathroom is worth doing. Monitor your household humidity levels and keep them under 50% humidity – Air conditioners and dehumidifiers can help. Wash your shower curtain frequently, or replace it if that isn’t an option. Don’t keep things like loofas, shampoo bottles, soap bottles, or bath toys in the bathroom. These are porous surfaces that mold loves to grow on. As far as bathroom rugs are concerned, wash them frequently if you decide they’re worth the effort.
Removing Mold
If mold is already present in your bathroom, you can get discouraged pretty quickly. Spraying it with bleach only seems to crush it for a little while, and it’s back to bother you in no time. Unfortunately, taking care of mold might become a regular part of your cleaning routine until your ventilation and moisture issues can be addressed.
However, as long as your mold infestation isn’t severe, you can take steps to fix the problem yourself. Be sure to strip away and discard any caulk or grout that has mold growing in it – A sealant is an excellent place for mold to grow. Be sure to replace lost sealant, too, to prevent moisture from getting into sensitive places. Using bleach is a good idea – As is peroxide. Just don’t use these products together, as it can lead to toxic reactions.
As always with cleaning and especially when dealing with mold, open windows to let fresh air circulate. However, if your mold problem is more extensive than ten feet, you’ll need professional help. Figuring out why you have the mold is the first step to stop coming back, then killing it and removing it comes next. Severe infestations may require entire remodels, so it is essential to get it early.