How to get rid of mould

[Jason]

It was an incredibly wet Spring for much of eastern Australia this year, and many people are now battling mould in their homes. 

No doubt like many Workshop community members recently, I was up on a ladder on the weekend inspecting our gutters and roof tiles after discovering some mould on a bedroom ceiling. 

Next step will be to follow @MitchellMc's advice and add a quarter teaspoon of oil of cloves in a litre of water to clean the ceiling. 

His suggestion can be found in our Best Advice article How do you prevent or remove mould? There's also plenty of advice from community members in How do you remove mould from the bathroom? The Bunnings team has also shared helpful tips in the article How to control mould.

Got your own way to deal with mould in your home? Let us know by replying below. We'd also be happy to help if you're struggling with how to tackle mould at your place. 

Jason

[MitchellMc]

I've managed to control a full-blown outbreak in my home this year. I needed to take some fairly drastic action as most walls and ceilings were covered with some form of mould. This all came on very quickly, as I'd only just fully painted the house last year. There are moisture issues in my ceiling, walls and under the house. Being a rental property, there isn't much I can do to resolve those problems.

This is how I dealt with the issue:

• First, I removed any items from the rooms with mould signs. I was careful not to spread mould spores in the process. These items were scrubbed clean outside with a mix of clove oil and water, followed by bleach.

• I cleaned all walls and ceilings with a mix of clove oil and water. First, I spritzed the walls and ceilings with the mixture to dampen the spores so they wouldn't become airborne after agitation. I then used a separate micro-fibre cloth for each area, applied more of the solution and wiped over all surfaces. I disposed of the cloth before the next section.

• I then sprayed down all surfaces with Flood 1L Mould Action Prewash and wiped them over them again. This product ensures that any spores that weren't destroyed by the clove oil are killed.

• I decided to paint my walls and ceilings in semi-gloss instead of your typically low-sheen wall and matt ceiling paints. Low-sheen and matt paints are excellent at hiding defects in walls and ceilings, but higher sheens are easier to clean and have a less permeable surface. My thoughts are that a semi-gloss will be easier to wipe any returning mould from, and it will have more difficulty embedding in the coating. You'll often find mould on porous surfaces like timber, materials and low-sheen paint, but seldom will you see it on hard surfaces like plastic and glass. Semi-gloss paint has a much less porous surface than low-sheen paint; that's why you'll find it used in bathroom paints.

• Before applying the semi-gloss wall paint, I added Protite 75ml Mould Defender Paint Additive. This is a mould-inhibiting additive for paint.

The moisture issues in my home haven't improved, but I'm pleased to see with the above method that no mould has returned to the walls and ceilings in the last six months.

I'm keen to assist with any questions on controlling mould in your home, so please let us know if we can help.

Mitchell