Can anyone tell me how to get rid of mold and mildew in my shower??

Question

I have horrible mildew in my shower. I cannot get rid of it. Does anyone know of a great way to clean and kill it? I am desparate here!

Answer 1

To restore your ceramic tile shower to near perfect condition, you are going to need several things. Get a new scrub brush that has stiff nylon or plastic bristles, a roll of paper towels, a gallon of chlorine bleach, a gallon of white vinegar, a spray bathroom cleaner or ultra mild abrasive cleaner, and your birthday suit. The stains and dirt have taken months to accumulate. Don't think you are going to complete this job in 30 minutes or less. The entire process is going to take place over a period of hours and possibly several days.

The first thing to do is to use the scrub brush to remove as much mildew, dirt, soap film etc. as possible from the tile and grout. Get into the shower and scrub well using lots of water and plenty of cleaner. Rinse often and do whatever is necessary to make the tile surfaces shine like a mirror. Don't worry that the grout is still gray with deeply embedded mildew. We will deal with that shortly.

After this cleaning process, you will probably have some dull stains that won't budge. These are very likely hard water deposits. You will remove those using some paper towels and white vinegar. Saturate some paper towels with the vinegar and place them over the hard water stains. Do this on the floor and any vertical surfaces. The wet paper towels will readily cling to vertical surfaces. Vinegar is a very mild acid and it works slowly but efficiently to dissolve the alkaline water deposits.

Get dressed or put on your robe and go relax for a while. Stop back every hour to make sure the towels are still wet with vinegar. Pull away a towel and scrub the deposits. They may completely wash away. If they do not, pour fresh vinegar on the towels to continue the cleansing chemical reaction. Heavy deposits can take up to eight hours or so to completely melt away. The trick is to keep fresh vinegar on the towels.
Once you have all of the hard water deposits removed, clean the shower again to remove all traces of vinegar. It is now time to attack any residual mildew that has stained the grout. You are going to use the pure chlorine bleach and the remaining paper towels to accomplish this task. Saturate as many towels as necessary and put these in contact with the mildew stained grout. It can take hours and possibly days to bleach out all of the mildew in the grout. Be careful not to splash the chlorine bleach in your eyes or on any fabrics or carpets. It can harm you and it removes color from dyed fabrics.

If you are allergic to chlorine bleach or the chlorine fumes bother you, use oxygen bleach to remove mildew. You use the same techniques as described above, it just might take a little longer. Oxygen bleach is color and fabric safe. It is also excellent for people who have septic systems. Chlorine bleach that escapes from the tub or shower into the drain system can kill beneficial bacteria in the septic tank. Oxygen bleach actually helps this bacteria!

To prevent the staining problem in your shower, it helps to understand mildew. It is an organism that requires food and water to live. Showers and bath areas provide the moisture and you provide the food every time you use soap, shampoo, cream rinse, etc. Even the dirt and oils you wash from your skin and hair are food for mildew. If you minimize or eliminate the food and water, you can eliminate the mildew.

I feel the best way to defeat mildew is to clean the shower every two weeks. Every day after you have showered use a plastic cup to pour clean water down the sides of the tile. Then use a squeegee to quickly wipe down the tiles directing as much water as possible to the shower drain. These two simple steps will remove a huge amount of food and water from the shower each day. When you get ready to leave the bathroom, open the shower curtain or shower door. Keep the bathroom door open as well. You want as much air to circulate in the shower as possible. This will dry all bath surfaces quickly and rob any microscopic mildew spores of water.

Answer 2

There is a profession mold killer on the market that we use to clean up after hurricanes. it kill mold and the spores. Use this product and you will never have mold again. They have a three step process.
Mold stat™ 3-Step EPA Guaranteed Process To Permanently Remove Mold
First step-Moldstat™ Moldstat™ Peroxy Kling: Is A Concentrated Multi-Surface Cleaner to remove Molds Food Source and Removes All Bio film Accumulation From Mold Affected Surfaces

Second Step-Mold stat PLUS: Super Concentrated Sporicide, MildewStat, Fungicide, Disinfectant EPA Registered EPA Registered Fungicide, Mildewstat & Disinfectant Which Effectively Eliminates A Broad Spectrum Of Bacteria Including Mold & Mildew

Final Step-Moldstat™ Moldstat™ Mold Resistant Coating & Encapsulator: This Stops the mold from coming Back
Places A Clear, Protective, Fungicide Barrier To Prevent The Future Growth Of Harmful Mold & Microbes

Answer 3

I found out by trial and error that TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) is a better mold and mildew remover than the caustic smelling bleach.
This product can be found in your hardware store by the paints. Painters use it mixed with water and rubber gloves to clean a dirty surface prior to painting.

Repeat as necessary to remove all traces of the mold.
Next wash all towels, rugs and other items for a thourough cleaning as they may contain the mold spores which will lead to further problems.
Repaint the bathroom with a mildewcide additive found at the paint section of the hardware store. Recaulk and silicone seal the seams around the tub, shower and sink areas and seal the caulk with a caulk sealer.

Finally make sure the bathroom has a working bathroom exhaust fan that vents the moisture to the outside of your home.

Answer 4

first scrape off thesurface mildew with a knife or sharp blade, then dip a cloth in bleach and lay it on the mildew. OR just spray the shower with bleach once a week. This is what I have to do. It doesn'ttake much of the stain away, but it prevents if from coming back

Answer 5

Just so you know, Zep (and a lot of other mold stain removers) or bleach-based. And contrary to popular opinion, bleach does not stop mold. It doesn't penetrate the roots of mold (due to its ionic structure) so the hyphae live on and grow into new surface mold in weeks.
So if you just want to remove the stain, and don't mind exposing yourself to bleach fumes every few weeks, a stain remover is fine. If you wanto to solve the problem you need to deal with the humidity issue in your bathroom. Is it properly ventilated.
Also - check Home Depot for other mold products that eliminate and prevent mold. With no bleach. :)

Answer 6

Put on rubber gloves and a nose mask, you'll need them for this.
Sprinkle Comet or a similar product over the stained surfaces.Scrub off with a fifty -fifty solution of water and household bleach. Soak all the shower curtains and bath mats in a 20% solution of bleach in water,but keep an eye on them so they don't start to lose their colors.

After this,you'll need to spray the entire surface of the shower daily with a 20% solution of bleach.Keep the room aired.Have you installed a ventilator fan yet?

I had a similar experience when living in a very damp environment,but bleach soon became my very favorite cleaning supply.

Answer 7

At home depot they have a product call Zep shower cleaner, it is awesome it will get everything clean and kill the mildew and mold!

Answer 8

Have you tried bleach? That's the only way I know of to kill mold. Then, spray bleach in your shower about once a week to prevent it from coming back. Good Luck!

Answer 9

The way to kill it is with bleach. Any good bathroom cleaner will work after that. You should also have good ventilation in the bathroom. Wear a mask while getting rid of the mold.

Answer 10

First, of course, try bleach. Soft scrub with bleach works well. If the mold is in the grout or on the caulking, try to determine if the caulking used was water resistent. Most caulks' labels show whether or not they are "mold-proof." If the bleach isn't taking it off, you might have to strip the caulking and recaulk it with the water-proof stuff.