Remove Mold from Your Shower - Chemical Free!

Persistent damp, musty conditions are all mold needs to take root, grow and proliferate.  Unfortunately, these conditions often exist in the place where you spend the most time, namely your house.  Of course, some areas of your home are much more susceptible than others.  Take the fallout from your daily shower: the residual moisture trapped in your bathroom is more than adequate to encourage enough mold growth to threaten the health of you and your family.  The good news is that the mold growth in your bathroom is easily remedied with DIY efforts.  A mold removal project this modest can easily be done safely with the right cleansers and know-how.

First, let’s look at why mold is growing in your shower so that you can take steps to keep mold from re-growing there.  The bottom line is that if mold is growing in your shower, you have both a lack of air circulation and an excess of moisture in your bathroom.  Mold spores only need to find a persistently wet area combined with an organic surface before it can begin to digest that surface, allowing it to spew toxic fumes that can make you sick.  In the shower, oils and soap scum in your grout, on your bathmat or on the tile itself is all it takes.  Add water and the calm air of the average bathroom and you’ve got mold.  Perfect!

Shower Mold Removal Techniques

If there’s mold in your shower, you’ve got mold so check under the sink, at baseboards and above cabinets for other spots that need clean up.

1. Wear rubber gloves and a mask to protect yourself from mold spores during cleaning.  Better safe than sorry. 
2. Make a paste with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  Scrub all visible mold with the abrasive tool of your choice.  Take a break while it works.
3. Rinse; repeat if necessary. 
4. When the mold is gone, spray the walls with a mixture of white vinegar and water.  The acidic environment will inhibit mold growth until you rinse it off.

Why Not Bleach?

There are many reasons not to use bleach to remove mold.  Here are two:

• Bleach fumes are dangerous
• Bleach whitens the mold stain but does not remove the mold itself

Take Steps to Keep Mold from Re-growing

1. Reduce the humidity in the room.  Open windows, install a bathroom fan or even use a small countertop fan to keep the air moving.
2. Clean the bathroom.  No organic material means no hospitable surfaces for mold. 
3. Wash non-slip mats often and dry completely in the sun. 
4. If the mold is growing on a painted surface, clean it carefully and repaint with a mold retardant paint. 

Mold in your shower doesn’t have a lot going for it:  it’s ugly and can make you sick.  Fortunately, removing it is easy.  Just use these few simple steps