Bathroom Mold

2/14/2008 at 6:46:53 PM

Scrape out all the old Caulking and replace with 100% white silicone and wipe dry after each shower use.

This will keep the caulking mold free for a long time.

1/3/2012 at 8:47:37 AM

Clean the mold real good out of the grout joints, then seal them with a penetrating sealer. The other problem you might have is that there is no vapor gap. This is a gap between the wall and tub. Tubs have a built in one, it's a lip that you affix to the studs, your substrate is then sat on top of that. If water sits there where your caulk line is it will then wick up the wall, if the caulk line is compromised. A vapor gap stops the water from wicking up the wall. If your walls were set with mastic mold will grow behind the tile feeding off the organic materials in the mastic and coming out through the grout joints from the other side. If your walls are durock your tile will fall off. If it's hardibacker the mold will grow through the hardibacker and dilaminate it. If it's greenboard it will rot out and collapse. Before long the mold will jump around the other side of the wall and start growing inside the walls jumping from stud to stud. If you clean the mold off the joints and the mold takes a month or 3 weeks to come back your probably fine. If it's a week or less you probably have the problem I mentioned earlier. Check the structural integrity of the walls. Tap around, do tiles sound loose, are there splits in the grout against the edges of the tile. Is there grout missing in places. If you push against the wall does it flex. And hopefully you didn't push soap in the joints to fill up any voids.