The silicone sealant (from a gun) behind the kitchen sink (sealing the worksurface to the wall tiles) has several spots of mould where I have been a bit lax with the cleaning. Anything I've tried will not shift the mould stains. The mould seems to have ingressed into the sealant. Is there any modern product I could try? Or is this a case of redoing the sealant strip in due course? I looked in Tesco, but they had no mould remover of any kind.
MM
Lakeland had some mould remover for silicone but looking at the 'ingredients' list it seemed to be mainly bleach. So I tried bleach on the black mould on the white silicone around the bath and it worked a treat. Might be worth a try in the kitchen.
Andrew
Bleach and/or replace, I'm afraid :o(
You could try putting some cling film over bleach soaked tissue pressed into the sealant, and leaving it an hour or so. Or Vim and a scourer.
Good ventilation should help prevent it happening.
Rob
One of the best agents against mould is boric acid. It is extremely effective when used in combination with sodium hypochlorite bleach.
I had to treat and remove some black mould at a house in the Caribbean for friends who own it. I used boric acid and sodium hypochlorite applied separately a day apart. 18 months later, it hasn't returned, yet the mould had previously been a difficult problem for a number of years.
I had no prior expertise and obtained the information about boric acid and sodium hypochlorite bleach from Google searches.
The only thing that will work is replacing the sealant. The mould is often partly within the body of the sealant so no amount of chemical warfare will get rid of it. The problem seems to be worse with silicone sealants that produce acetic acid as they cure. Several species of moulds can use this acetate as a food source, and the mould can penetrate the sealant where it is cosy, well fed and happy.
Neutral cure silicone with a fungicide doesn't suffer in the same way.
Most of the commercial mould cleaning agents are based on sodium hydroxide and bleach (sodium hypochlorite) with a little detergent "in variable proportions". In general if you don't know much about chemistry I can't recommend experimenting since the mixture causes terrible eye damage if you manage to spray it into your eyes.
Vim and a scourer will rough up the surface and make mould get a better hold in the future. Domestos will work. (not poncey supermarket imitations though)
Boodly 'ell - I haven't seen Vim for decades - can you still buy it? ISTR there was also Oxydol, a very similar product. I think the CWS used to do another called Pulvo. Cillit Bang (what a stupid name!) and Mister Muscle (another stupid nomenclature) seem to dominate the horriblemarket market, apart from things like 'specialist' stainless steel stuff and Bartsteward's Friend or whatever it's called.
Oxydol was a washing powder for whites. I think you mean Ajax.
That's the one that didn't work.
Probably. I'm sure you're rite...
Or "Mirro"
WRT the black mould I'm fairly sure that what you see is just the fruiting body and by the time it appears it's gone right through the silicone, and if you clean it off it just comes back PDQ.
Derek
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