How do I clean a moldy bathroom?

February 23, 2004 9:55 AM

File under Moving Sucks. Without getting into the disgusting particulars, we have to clean. Specifically, our horrifying, non-ventilated bathroom, which looks like Richard Preston's nightmares. I sprayed some X-14 on the befouled walls, and the attack-molds laughed at it. What are some thoroughly eco-unfriendly death-chemicals I can launch at these horrors?
posted by Skot to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

bleach--you can pour it into a spray bottle and douse all of it...put a fan on in there tho and try not to breathe.

or this stuff, used at crime scenes : >
posted by amberglow at 10:10 AM on February 23, 2004

Bleach. Be careful of the fumes. They can cause permanent lung damage in high concentrations.
posted by adamrice at 10:16 AM on February 23, 2004

Just make sure you do not inadvertently mix bleach and ammonia, or even let their fumes mingle. The results are highly toxic.
posted by Vidiot at 10:17 AM on February 23, 2004

Yes, mixing bleach and ammonia does not make a super cleaner.

I find Tilex--which smells like bleach, so who knows?--works wonders. Coat all relevant surfaces, leave for 20 minutes, come back and lightly scrub/heavily spray said surfaces ... profit!
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:22 AM on February 23, 2004

From simple burglaries to multiple homicides your job remains the and so does ours. Get it clean quickly, safely and efficiently so that life and business can go on. WINSOL can be the silent partner you depend on when your good name is on the line.

This is outstanding. I'm totally going to kill somebody in my bathroom to get some of this stuff. What really sold me was their little illustration featuring a chalk outline of a body.
posted by Skot at 10:23 AM on February 23, 2004

I've gleaned out restaurant grill hoods with Simple Green. If your bathroom is worse off than that, may the Gods be with you.

Ditto on bleach and ammonia. Watch out. This includes cleaners like Comet and Ajax mixed with ammonia.
posted by scarabic at 10:56 AM on February 23, 2004

Yeah, be very careful about bleach and ammonia. My best friends aunt died that way.
posted by substrate at 10:58 AM on February 23, 2004

CLR Bath and Kitchen Cleaner - in a yellow bottle (not to be confused with regular CLR) works great.
posted by internal at 11:02 AM on February 23, 2004

For surfaces that will end up being painted, Kilz is your friend. super-mega-opaque primer with fungicide and stuff in it. Spray and brush-on.

We used it a lot the summer I was on a paint crew for an apartment company.. the full-timers called it "kiltch."
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:39 AM on February 23, 2004

You may also want to buy a Scumbuster to help with the process. (I actually have one, from my bachelor-with-a-mildewy-bathtub days, if you want to take it off my hands.)
posted by werty at 11:48 AM on February 23, 2004

Sorry if this doesn't answer your question, but hiring an expert to do it might be cheaper than you think.
posted by callmejay at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2004

I have to agree with callmejay. When we recently moved, hiring someone to do the cleaning for us was the best investment we made. It wasn't overly cheap, but it did mean that I didn't have to buy all those cleaning supplies, do all the cleaning, or expose myself to all those nasty chemicals. When you think about how much you might spend on the supplies and then the hours to do the cleaning, hiring someone might not look like an outrageous option.
posted by Orb at 1:24 PM on February 23, 2004

Hmmm. It's an enticing idea. So, sub-question: How much did you pay for the cleaners? Apart from the hideous shower stall, we're moving out of a reasonable clean 1-bedroom apartment.
posted by Skot at 1:51 PM on February 23, 2004

Actually, ignore me. Cleaning service prices are easily Googlable.
posted by Skot at 1:58 PM on February 23, 2004

Bleach. Be careful of the fumes. They can cause permanent lung damage in high concentrations.

Oh crap. I use straight bleach all over the bathroom all the time, and have always just breathed the fumes freely because I care more about killing germs for my guests than I do about my own personal well-being. Plus, I figured that since bleach & I have the same enemies, it must not be too bad for me. I'm not going to die right now from bleach-lung buildup am I?

At any rate, I still think bleach is a great cleaner for the bathroom, fumes be damned. You might want to dilute it like they recommend on the bottle if you don't want to have bleachy lungs like I surely must. You probably also want to wear gloves because bleach is very irritating to skin.
posted by catfood at 3:18 PM on February 23, 2004

there is also the swanky new clorox bleach pen, which might help with grout/tile issues.
posted by judith at 3:44 PM on February 23, 2004

So what's a good option if you're allergic to bleach?

I ask, because I want to wean my mother-in-law off of her bleach habit. I'd like to be able to use the bathroom without feeling like I can't breathe.
posted by Katemonkey at 12:20 AM on February 24, 2004