Mold in shower?

[Deleted]

There is a little part of our shower (crevice under the glass door where glass meets ceramic) that has visible black mold. I scrubbed it with a toothbrush and straight bleach and it's not budging. I sprayed vinegar and it did nothing. Should I be worried about this? Am I going to be inhaling mold pores when my shower steams up the bathroom?

Tell me not to care. We are renters and are moving out in 7 months.
If I do need to care, how do I get rid of it?

The shower/tub is '07.

[anna7602]

I am curious to hear responses. I can't actually see mold in our shower, but every once in a while, it smells moldy. The shower basically sits right in our master bedroom, with no separate door, and little ventilation (the windows are on the other side of the room). Weird French apartment stuff.

I have also sprayed everything down with vinegar and bleach a billion times. I am also moving out of here within the next year.

But I don't want some weird lung problem.

[sa]

That's fairly normal for that to happen. Tilex mildew remover usually works for me - I usually just spray and let it sit for about an hour. If that doesn't work, talk to your landlord.

Once the mold is removed he should re-caulk that area to seal it off.

[Susie]

I really don't think you're going to wind up sick from shower mold that you've bleached.

As for a long term fix, this is one of those "yay I'm a renter!" moments.

[Deleted]

Yeah, our bathroom has no windows. I turn the apartment-wide fan on when I shower but I don't think SO does.

Interestingly I've never smelled mold. And my family has visited and they definitely would have said something if they did, so I think we're okay there?

[Pilsy]

I'm eager to hear other cleaning suggestions, but my advice to you is that you put on your blinders.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a clean person, and I would not want mold in my shower. But it sounds like a very small amount, which I don't consider dangerous, and you've already tried a couple things and won't be there forever. Focus on getting ahead of it (or avoiding showers with doors) in your new place.

[arch01]

Overall grand scheme of things, it's no big deal... but you do need to care because the landlord *could* come back and charge you for not keeping it clean. Not saying by any means that the shower in general isn't clean, but unfortunately some landlords are just a PITA like that (this is what I deal with on a daily basis for work).

Did you let the bleach sit before scrubbing? We've had success before with putting it in a spray bottle, letting it sit 10-15 minutes, then scrubbing.

[Deleted]

Hm sounds good!

If our landlord charges us, I think I will laugh at him. He is in Russia and we've never once met. He didn't come back to the states when we moved in - I received the keys from the last tenant.

Sounds like it's not too big of a deal. I'll let it soak longer in bleach or tilex when I get to it, but thanks for the permission to ignore my moldy apartment.

[arch01]

Ha I think you're going to be ok then

[aspentosh]

We had the same issue at our last place. No amount of bleach or vinegar worked. I think you'll be ok.

[Deleted]

I have never found that bleach works well on mold. I buy the mold cleaners and thoes work. Make sure it says mold and mildew on the bottle. Tilex makes one in a blue spray bottle.

[IIOY]

This is an ongoing problem for us and I've yet to find a real solution short of ripping out the old sealant and re-sealing because the mold is under our sealant. We own, so this one is on us, LOL.

[cherry1111]

We had this issue. No amount of cleaning was getting the mold to go away. When my H went to pull out the caulking, water came spilling out. There was water getting behind our tiles. We had to rip out our shower and the wall because the mold went 1/2 way up the wall. Since we were ripping out the old builder grade crap we went ahead and remodeled the whole bathroom. That was an expensive discovery, but on the plus side we have a pretty bathroom now.

[chessie]

We had this issue, we had to rip the tub out and put it back for temporary. There was water leaking behind. Sometimes you can tell by the access panel. Happens a lot actually if not done properly the first time.

[thatgirl2478]

believe it or not, not all mold that is black is the dangerous BLACK MOLD. (say that in an ominous voice people)

It's probably just basic mildew, and it generally stains. I don't think you can remove it. It's not harmful, just ugly.

[Deleted]

Is it actual mold or just a stain? I would think if it has been bleached then you should be OK.

[ladygrey]

That Tilex mold and mildew remover is awesome stuff! It does have really strong fumes, though, so make sure to crack a window when using it.

[magdala9]

Put a paste of baking soda over stain. Mix baking soda with water to form the paste. Using a spray bottle spritz vinegar over the baking soda. Don't touch. It will bubble up in a chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar. Rinse the whole area with boiling water. This gets rid of most types of mold. The room may smell a little bit of vinegar for the next couple of days.

[froggy76]

All the caulking in our shower is black and it never occurred to me that it would make me sick. I thought it was just mildew. I don't get the big deal, other than the fact it's ugly and looks dirty.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2012 8:34:13 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

believe it or not, not all mold that is black is the dangerous BLACK MOLD. (say that in an ominous voice people)

It's probably just basic mildew, and it generally stains. I don't think you can remove it. It's not harmful, just ugly.

Thank you. This thread has me laughing.

[agnes]

I usually use comet on our mold. Just wet the area, sprinkle a lot, sit for all day, scrub with a hard toothbrush.

But I think in your case, that might not work.

[80sjunkie]

Oct 4, 2012 8:09:30 GMT -5 cherry1111 said:

We had this issue. No amount of cleaning was getting the mold to go away. When my H went to pull out the caulking, water came spilling out. There was water getting behind our tiles. We had to rip out our shower and the wall because the mold went 1/2 way up the wall. Since we were ripping out the old builder grade crap we went ahead and remodeled the whole bathroom. That was an expensive discovery, but on the plus side we have a pretty bathroom now.

I'm worried we have this kind of issue though we have replaced the caulking before... We haven't called in a professional because in some ways we don't want to know. What was the damage if you don't mind me asking. What kind of professional did you call? Our handyman has looked at it but we think we need someone else.

Tacom my guess is that you have nothing to worry about.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2012 8:09:30 GMT -5 cherry1111 said:

We had this issue. No amount of cleaning was getting the mold to go away. When my H went to pull out the caulking, water came spilling out. There was water getting behind our tiles. We had to rip out our shower and the wall because the mold went 1/2 way up the wall. Since we were ripping out the old builder grade crap we went ahead and remodeled the whole bathroom. That was an expensive discovery, but on the plus side we have a pretty bathroom now.

This is us, exactly. We even had to rip out some of the carpet in my closet that had rotted.

[Deleted]

I don't think that's the kind of mold that kills.

But, even if it is, you won't be there forever.

[hamster]

Oct 4, 2012 9:21:27 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

All the caulking in our shower is black and it never occurred to me that it would make me sick. I thought it was just mildew. I don't get the big deal, other than the fact it's ugly and looks dirty.

Same here. I try to clean it, but it just doesn't go away. I figure we're going to redo the bathroom in a year or two and we'll deal with it then.

Not to say I'm not going to go buy some of this Tilex miracle worker at lunch though.

[jwright]

We called a professional when we were getting ready to put our house on the market because we had the mold in our shower grout/caulk. He essentially said it would be a huge job to regrout and very costly.

He recommended getting diatemacious earth (sp?). The stuff they use in pools. You mix that with some water and get it into a paste and spread it on the grout. Leave it on overnight and wash off the next day. Your house will smell like the YMCA pool, but it worked really really well for us. No scrubbing even required.

If you google diatemacious earth and mold, there are some resources for this. I highly recommend.

[monarch]

Oct 4, 2012 7:33:42 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

I'm eager to hear other cleaning suggestions, but my advice to you is that you put on your blinders.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a clean person, and I would not want mold in my shower. But it sounds like a very small amount, which I don't consider dangerous, and you've already tried a couple things and won't be there forever. Focus on getting ahead of it (or avoiding showers with doors) in your new place.

We have black mold on our shower (sounds like more than you) and I just ignore it....

[stellarose]

Okay, I've read up a lot about this recently and this is what worked for me:

Get the cotton strips that people use when perming their hair (from Sally or health beauty like stores). Soak that in bleach until it is completely damp. Lay the cotton strip over the stain completely covering it. It almost makes a paste or paper mache type material. Let it sit one day and then take it off. No scrubbing or anything and mine was gone...just as the article said.