How to remove black mold from walls

Black mold often appears in res­i­den­tial areas if a num­ber of pro­vok­ing fac­tors are present. Fun­gus spores are in the air and on all objects in the apart­ment, but they are, so to speak, on stand­by, begin to mul­ti­ply, man­i­fest them­selves only if con­di­tions are opti­mal for this process. If the room is humid, warm (if it is humid, but cool, this is also suit­able for the fun­gus) and nor­mal air cir­cu­la­tion is dis­turbed, black mold begins to affect dif­fer­ent sur­faces, it becomes notice­able to the naked eye. On the walls, it appears most often, espe­cial­ly in hard-to-reach places — behind cab­i­nets, under the ceil­ing, clos­er to base­boards, near win­dow open­ings and door blocks. Mold not only spoils the appear­ance of the room and cre­ates unsan­i­tary con­di­tions in which vul­ner­a­ble groups of peo­ple (chil­dren, the elder­ly, preg­nant and lac­tat­ing moth­ers, sick peo­ple, aller­gy suf­fer­ers) can­not stay. It also harms strong, strong, young and healthy organ­isms, as it pro­vokes the occur­rence of many dis­eases, rang­ing from asth­ma to dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, severe skin lesions.

Black mold should be removed as soon as it is dis­cov­ered. She her­self will not dis­ap­pear any­where, if such a prob­lem aris­es, it will only get worse. At first, the mold is on the sur­face of the walls, it is not dif­fi­cult to remove it even from such a sen­si­tive mate­r­i­al as paper wall­pa­per. But if the sit­u­a­tion is left to chance, the fun­gus begins to cor­rode the walls and the mate­ri­als with which they are cov­ered — wall­pa­per, dry­wall, plas­ter, etc. As a result, res­i­dents have to resort to such dras­tic mea­sures as cos­met­ic repairs, which take time and are often expen­sive. There­fore, if you have prob­lems with black mold, do not put off solv­ing the prob­lem until tomor­row, read the Exper­tol­ogy arti­cle to learn how to remove fun­gus from walls in sim­ple and afford­able ways. And if the defeat has passed into a severe stage, we will tell you sev­er­al prepa­ra­tions that are used in con­struc­tion and repair work to dis­in­fect walls, remove mold and pre­vent its occur­rence in the future.

How to properly prepare and precautions, inventory

What­ev­er means you use to remove black mold, fol­low these pre­cau­tions:

1. 1. Work with gloves (reg­u­lar, rub­ber, which are used while clean­ing the house and wash­ing dish­es). Prod­ucts that can remove black mold from walls are usu­al­ly aggres­sive. Upon con­tact with the skin, they can cause dry­ness of the epi­der­mis, crack­ing and irri­ta­tion.

       

 

1. 1. Use gog­gles to pro­tect your eyes. When you apply the mor­tar to the wall, splash­es may appear. And if they get on the mucous mem­branes of the eyes or mouth, nose, pain, irri­ta­tion, even a chem­i­cal burn may occur.

       

 

1. 1. Use res­pi­ra­to­ry pro­tec­tion. A mask, a res­pi­ra­tor, a sim­ple ban­dage on the nose and mouth will help pre­vent the inhala­tion of caus­tic fumes of antimy­cotic agents.

       

 

1. 1. Make sure that there are no unau­tho­rized per­sons or pets in the room in which the treat­ment takes place. Plants are also best tak­en out for a while to anoth­er room.

       

 

1. 1. If after treat­ment there is an unpleas­ant smell in the room or apart­ment, be sure to ven­ti­late the room.

       

 

1. 1. Make sure that the prod­ucts you use to remove black mold from walls do not harm the fin­ish. To do this, you can test the select­ed drug on a small and incon­spic­u­ous area of ​​​​the sur­face.

       

 

After pro­cess­ing, the instru­ments that were used dur­ing the pro­ce­dure must be thor­ough­ly cleaned, ster­il­ized if pos­si­ble, and not used in the future in every­day life, only for repeat­ed pro­cess­ing. If sponges, rags are used, which it is not a pity to throw away, it is bet­ter to get rid of them, since fun­gus spores may remain on them, infec­tion can pass from them to oth­er sur­faces.

What you may need in the process of remov­ing black mold from the walls in a room or apart­ment:

1. 1. Gloves, mask, gog­gles used in con­struc­tion work.

       

 

1. 1. A con­tain­er for mix­ing or prepar­ing a chem­i­cal agent.

       

 

1. 1. Brush, sponge, brush, spray gun for apply­ing mor­tar to the wall and remov­ing mold.

       

 

1. 1. Scraper, spat­u­la to remove a large lay­er of mold, if the fun­gus is very pro­lif­ic.

       

 

1. 1. Sponges and brush­es for clean­ing the walls from chem­i­cals after treat­ment.

       

 

Hav­ing pre­pared all the nec­es­sary devices in advance, you can car­ry out the pro­ce­dure quick­ly and cor­rect­ly, with­out being dis­tract­ed by the search for inven­to­ry.

Home remedies to remove black mold from walls

What are the ben­e­fits of home reme­dies? They have many advan­tages: they are effec­tive in the ini­tial stages of fun­gal infec­tion and help main­tain the nor­mal con­di­tion of the walls, as they dis­in­fect sur­faces; they are in every home, and if not, they are not dif­fi­cult to buy at the near­est house­hold goods store; they are inex­pen­sive and are used spar­ing­ly.

So, what can be used from impro­vised means to remove black mold from the walls in the apart­ment:

1. 1. White or chlo­rine solu­tion. This tool can be used undi­lut­ed, espe­cial­ly on light sur­faces (on white­wash, paint, tiles). Just damp­en the sponge with white and wash the wall as you would with a reg­u­lar cleanser. As it becomes dirty, the sponge can be rinsed with water and moist­ened with a chlo­rine solu­tion again. After fin­ish­ing the treat­ment, if pos­si­ble, do not wash the White­ness from the walls, it will act as a bar­ri­er to the fun­gus.

       

 

1. 1. Oxy­gen bleach­es like Sano Oxy­gen or Van­ish Gold. Using them is not dif­fi­cult, just read the instruc­tions. You can also save mon­ey and buy sodi­um per­car­bon­ate (it is on its basis that house­hold oxy­gen bleach­es are made). It is wide­ly used in every­day life for wash­ing clothes and remov­ing stains, gen­er­al house clean­ing, in the kitchen, for clean­ing car­pets and remov­ing plaque from dish­es. And in order to remove black mold from the walls in the apart­ment, dis­solve 50–60 grams (12 tea­spoons) of sodi­um per­car­bon­ate for every liter of warm / hot water. Wet the sur­face to be treat­ed well, leave for one hour. Scrub the sur­face with a brush and thor­ough­ly rinse off the remain­ing mold.

       

 

1. 1. Domestos. This house­hold chem­i­cal is effec­tive not only for clean­ing the toi­let bowl and car­ing for plumb­ing. They can be used on wash­able sur­faces to remove black mold. Just dilute 50–100 ml. of the prepa­ra­tion in sev­er­al liters of water and treat the spots with stains, then rinse the walls with stand­ing water.

       

 

1. 1. Bak­ing soda and dish deter­gent wash­ing pow­der, laun­dry soap. Mix 2 parts of soda and 2 parts of one or more of the list­ed prod­ucts, dilute 100 ml. boil­ing water, let cool to 40 degrees. Treat the affect­ed part of the wall and areas near the mold spots with a sponge damp­ened with the solu­tion or with a stiff-bris­tled brush. Achieve the com­plete dis­ap­pear­ance of stains, leave the wall to dry with­out wash­ing off the prod­uct.

       

 

1. 1. Vine­gar, includ­ing in com­bi­na­tion with soda. Pro­cess­ing takes place using ordi­nary table trans­par­ent 6% or 9% vine­gar. To enhance the effect, you can first wash the wall with a gru­el of soda, then, with­out wash­ing it off, sprin­kle it with vine­gar from a spray bot­tle. As soon as the chem­i­cal reac­tion between the two com­po­nents is com­plet­ed, the wall must be washed, after which vine­gar must be applied again to the clean sur­face.

       

 

1. 1. Hydro­gen per­ox­ide. Apply the prod­uct on the wall, rub it with a wash­cloth or sponge, leave it to dry com­plete­ly. Treat the site of infec­tion and the sur­round­ing area again, you can mix per­ox­ide with vine­gar for this.

       

 

1. 1. Bura. This prod­uct is suit­able for remov­ing mold in rooms that can­not be ven­ti­lat­ed or are dif­fi­cult to ven­ti­late after treat­ment. To stain the walls from the fun­gus, dilute 100 grams of this prepa­ra­tion in 2 liters of water, apply it on the infect­ed sur­face with your cheek, wait until it dries com­plete­ly. No need to rinse.

       

 

Also, prod­ucts such as cit­ric acid or fresh­ly squeezed lemon juice can be used to elim­i­nate mold; ammo­nia; essen­tial oils with dis­in­fec­tant and anti­sep­tic prop­er­ties; potas­si­um per­man­ganate solu­tion. All of them are used in approx­i­mate­ly the same way — slight­ly dilut­ed with water, applied to walls, washed off or left to dry.

If you do not want to deal with the removal of black mold with non-spe­cial­ized means, buy anti­fun­gal drugs from the house­hold chem­i­cals seg­ment. On the bot­tles of such prod­ucts it is indi­cat­ed that they are intend­ed to fight the fun­gus in the apart­ment. For exam­ple, you can buy Silit Bang or Tur­bo. The lat­ter, by the way, is not at all dif­fi­cult to use, it is sold in a spray bot­tle and applied to the walls with­out prob­lems. It is nec­es­sary to pre-clean the sur­face area affect­ed by fun­gus or mold, even­ly dis­trib­ute the prod­uct on it, and that’s it, you don’t need to rinse it off. If stains appear on the wall, after dry­ing, the prod­uct can be washed off no ear­li­er than a day lat­er.

Anoth­er effec­tive rem­e­dy for elim­i­nat­ing the prob­lem with black mold is a sul­fur check­er, for exam­ple, Cli­mate. This is an effec­tive drug for the destruc­tion of pathogens, bac­te­r­i­al infec­tions, mold, fun­gi, harm­ful insects, ticks in non-res­i­den­tial premis­es, cel­lars, sheds. It should be borne in mind that the room to be treat­ed must be emp­ty and well iso­lat­ed from the out­side world so that caus­tic fumes do not pen­e­trate to the neigh­bors. Fumi­ga­tion occurs with­in 1–1.5 days, after the end of this process, the room is ven­ti­lat­ed for 2 days, after which the remains (stains) of black mold can be washed off the walls.

We draw your atten­tion to the fact that there are dif­fer­ent types of mold and mildew. And although the list­ed house­hold chem­i­cals are effec­tive against most of them, some types may be resis­tant to their effects. In this case, you will have to use spe­cial­ized drugs or seek help from pro­fes­sion­als.

Construction and repair preparations

The fun­gus is eas­i­er to elim­i­nate at the stage of con­struc­tion and repair work. If the walls are affect­ed, then there is no point in cov­er­ing them with fin­ish­ing mate­ri­als, the mold will “gnaw through” them very quick­ly. If you find the prob­lem too late and the wall­pa­per or plas­ter has become com­plete­ly unus­able, you won’t be able to rean­i­mate them, so you need to put up with the sit­u­a­tion, remove the fin­ish­ing mate­ri­als, use a spe­cial tool for treat­ing the wall, and then make repairs. For these pur­pos­es, you can use the fol­low­ing drugs:

1. 1. Snow Effo. Can be used con­cen­trat­ed or dilut­ed accord­ing to the man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions. You can not wash it off, but if you plan to paint the wall in the future, you need to wash off the com­po­si­tion, but not ear­li­er than 10 days after treat­ment.

       

 

1. 1. Fongi­flu­id. The drug is suit­able for dif­fer­ent types of sur­faces, includ­ing for the dis­in­fec­tion of porous mate­ri­als. It is eco­nom­i­cal, easy to use, does not have an unpleas­ant odor, which allows it to be used in closed and poor­ly ven­ti­lat­ed rooms. You can wash off the liq­uid after 4–6 days, the man­u­fac­tur­er assures that the fun­gus will not affect the treat­ed sur­faces for at least 2 years.

       

 

1. 1. Home­en­pois­to. This Finnish black mold rem­e­dy is con­sid­ered very aggres­sive, and there­fore high­ly effec­tive. After treat­ment, the walls will need to be washed with water.

       

 

As you can see, there are enough drugs to com­bat mold in the domes­tic mar­ket. Their cost ranges from sev­er­al tens to sev­er­al of dol­lars (depend­ing on the intend­ed pur­pose and vol­ume of con­tain­ers). So you can real­ly pick up an effec­tive tool for any bud­get and wal­let. But what if there is sim­ply no strength to fight the fun­gus or there is no desire to do it your­self, waste time, mon­ey and not be sure of a 100% guar­an­tee of suc­cess? In this case, you need to con­tact pro­fes­sion­als. Remov­ing black mold is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the dis­in­fec­tion and dis­in­fes­ta­tion ser­vice, less often such ser­vices are pro­vid­ed by clean­ing com­pa­nies.

When to use the services of professionals

Con­tact­ing a room dis­in­fec­tion spe­cial­ist is a guar­an­tee that black mold will no longer affect the walls in your room or apart­ment. Pro­fes­sion­als use high­ly effec­tive spe­cial­ized prod­ucts that do not leave the fun­gus the slight­est chance. They have at their dis­pos­al inno­v­a­tive equip­ment that allows them to car­ry out the nec­es­sary work quick­ly, effi­cient­ly and with­out caus­ing dis­com­fort or dam­age to the clien­t’s prop­er­ty.

Before you call a dis­in­fec­tant to your apart­ment, check out the price list of the com­pa­ny. The com­pe­ti­tion in this mar­ket is high, as is the price range. Also, be sure to read reviews about the com­pa­ny’s work on inde­pen­dent sites and forums on the Inter­net. You need to under­stand how effi­cient­ly the com­pa­ny’s spe­cial­ists work, whether the fun­gus reap­pears after treat­ment, whether there is a guar­an­tee for ser­vices and whether the cen­ter’s employ­ees ful­fill their oblig­a­tions in full.

How to prevent the occurrence of black mold on the walls in the future — preventive measures

If the room does not meet cer­tain stan­dards, then even pro­fes­sion­als will not help you get rid of black mold for­ev­er. We have already said that if there are suit­able con­di­tions, the fun­gus will man­i­fest itself, no mat­ter how much grass it is. There­fore, to pre­vent re-infec­tion, first of all, you need to put the room or apart­ment in order. What is rec­om­mend­ed to do:

1. 1. Move fur­ni­ture away from the walls if it is close. A gap of a few cen­time­ters allows air to cir­cu­late freely through­out the room.

       

 

1. 1. Reg­u­lar­ly heat the rooms, make sure that the heat­ing works prop­er­ly dur­ing the cold sea­son.

       

 

1. 1. Orga­nize the nor­mal ven­ti­la­tion of the room, put the hood, make ven­ti­la­tion, mon­i­tor the con­di­tion of the air ducts. On plas­tic win­dows, you can put a sup­ply valve for auto­mat­ic ven­ti­la­tion.

       

 

1. 1. Mon­i­tor the lev­el of humid­i­ty in the room and apart­ment, do not cre­ate black mold “green­house con­di­tions” for life.

       

 

1. 1. At least once a week or two, treat the walls on which mold has already appeared with any folk or spe­cial­ized anti­fun­gal drugs. Even if symp­toms of infec­tion do not occur, such pro­ce­dures will be an excel­lent pre­ven­tion.

       

 

In con­clu­sion, let’s say that the fun­gus is always near us, it does not man­i­fest itself if the con­di­tions are uncom­fort­able for it, but as soon as three fac­tors con­verge: humid­i­ty, heat, lack of ven­ti­la­tion, mold appears. You need to remove it as soon as pos­si­ble, for this you can use inex­pen­sive tools at hand, prepa­ra­tions from the class of house­hold chem­i­cals, mor­tars, or you can seek the help of spe­cial­ists. But first, it is imper­a­tive to elim­i­nate the caus­es of its appear­ance, because oth­er­wise all the work done may be in vain.