How can I get mould off of my bathroom door without damaging the paint?

Question

We like to hang our towels on hooks behind the bathroom door. We have noticed that there is a black substance on the door where the towels hang. We tried to clean the door with cleanser, but it took off the paint.

Answer 1

Spray the area with a dilution of bleach and water. That will kill the mold. Then get your cleaner and wipe gently. You're probably not going to save the paint.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Everyone has addressed the mold issue pretty well.

I think you need to look at your hooks. You should replace them with a rack that keeps the towels off the door so the towels can dry out without touching anything other than the rack or hooks that they are on. No room for towel rack? They make some nice double rod racks now that hold a number of towels. Ikea even has a folding rack which we use in our laundry room. When not in use, it folds up out of the way. this may not be practical if your bathroom door opens against a wall or cabinet.

Answer 4

ok, everyone and their best friends brothers have been telling you to use bleach or tilex, but if you can get ahold of microban or shockwave or even sporicidin then you can save the paint on your door. The 3 i've listed are still considered "hazardous" but they are not as caustic as bleach (which is the active ingredient in tilex too if i remember correctly). i work in the fire/water/mold damage industry and those 3 are what we use when we are dealing with microbial growth/activity. as a civilian you may have a hard time obtaining those chemicals but there should be some supplier for the fire/water damage industry in your area that will have what you need. also, application alone will not solve your problem you will need to scrub (elbow grease) the affected area after application and the main thing is you need to solve the source of the problem (stop hanging wet towels on the back of the door) or it will reoccur. mold/mildew require certain things in order to grow (lack of light, lack of air movement, food source, humidity, temp.). I hope this helps, since i am not present to give you an exact answer by investigating it thoroughly and just going by what you've described here.

PS-most of the advice ive seen on here is at best...ignorant to bad. also, as far as mold goes, hardly anything will actually "kill" mold, your usually just trying to put it (the spores) in a dormant state. Sporicidin is about the only thing i know that will actually even kill the spores.

Answer 5

The best way to do this is buy the product mold and mildew cleaner it will takee off. The bathroom must have air circulating open a window sometimes. If no window make sure when you tak a shower turn on the fan to remove the moisture from the bathroom. Wipe down shower shower walls and door with your tub cleaner. This will keep the mildew and mold from retuning. You must stick with this regime if not you will have the mold return. Bleach will also kill the bacteria. Use a clean
towel or paper towels dilute with a warm soapy water. that will do it.

Answer 6

yeah all the above is good for getting rid of it, but how do you keep it from coming back and why was it there anyway. If you have cleaned the surface before and soon it comes back, then what the real problem is ..........porous material. If it is wood then you should clean it, sand it down and lacquer it to seal the pores. Now no more mold or no more than any other surface you have. sanding isn't necessary but better to do. Even a spray acrylic will do the job. Just seal all the pores where mold can hide. Now when you wipe it down it will get everything. I know that you said it was painted but still you should be sure all surfaces are sealed and cleaned and dry as much as possible. Bleach does kill all germs and fungus.

Answer 7

Try a mixture of bleach and water, in a spray bottle,maybe a 2 to 10 solution , let it sit for a few moments wipe and repeat for several days. You can replace the paint lost earlier w/ mold resistant paint. Make sure to check often for mold and use a vent fan while showering if you have one now that you have mold you'll want to monitor that area and if you hang towels back there don' keep the door totally against the wall while the towels are wet. Make sure to pour out the bleach and water and rinse the spray bottle it won't be good for anything but B & W so mark it like that.Or throw it away.

Answer 8

If you want to keep the paint don't use bleach. Use Warm water with vinegar. You can try warm water with dish soap too, buy the antibacterial kind. Use those two separately. You have to scrub to get it off. If its just in a small area you can use a toothbrush (soft).

I personally would scrub it with vinegar and a hard bristle brush, the paint will come off, but that will get the mold off thoroughly. I would let it dry after that and then I'd just repaint the door. I would paint the door with mold resistant paint like kilz.

By the way, bleach is the worst to use on wood. Bleach gets into the patina of the wood and destroys it. Only use bleach, if you use bleach, on doors that are metal.

Answer 9

You have the solution to get the mold of the door. either the Clorox bleach solution or the vinegar solution, will work. What puzzles me, is that you: "like to hang towels on hooks behind the bathroom door" What is to be done with wet towels, is that they go down the shoot, and doing the laundry should be next on the agenda ,of things to be done, so that mold will not accumulate on the door or in the Laundry room from wet towels. After the towels are dry they can be safely replaced in the Linen, or towel closet , preferably neatly folded. Have all family member clean and dry the bathroom after taking a bath or shower.

Answer 10

One do not hang wet towels on back of door. If it is mold it is already ruined the paint. Need to kill the mold with clorox or something really strong, get it all of, then get a sealer paint that is mold resistant, the repaint the door. If it is the normal crappy hollow flimsy bathroom doors you might already have mold growing inside the door.

Use a hamper for your wet towels and once inawhile clean hamper very well using clorox. Some molds can be very dangerous. You can get a kit at either Homedepot or Lowes to find out what kinda mold it is...

Oh, try Moldex at HomeDepot or Lowes first. It might work. Not a bad idea to do the whole bathroom with it once in awhile as well.....

Answer 11

make a 1 to 10 bleach solution. 1 part bleach to 10 parts water.

put in spray bottle and spritz away. May or may not save the paint but the mold will eat up the rest of the door if you don't take care of it now.

Plus mold can be the cause of allergies, illness and in rare forms of mold even death.

For prevent down the road.
Dry your towels over the shower curtain rod...or over the back of a chair in a more ventilated area of the house.

Clean the area frequently.

Air your bathroom out properly. Open a window or turn on the vent. (Your vent may need cleaning). I shut the door to my bathroom and turn on the vent! That way I do not loose heat in my house to air out the bathroom from the excess moisture.