Sealant in Bathroom gone all mouldy and yuck!

nobile

The sealant (or whatever its called) along the entire length of the bath and tiles has gone from white to brown and mouldy black in the space of a few months.

Looks quite disgusting and needs to be removed and resealed.

Any idea HOW I take the old stuff off without damaging the bath & wall tiles?

Looks like it needs to be 'cut out'.

Any suggestions on what sealant I should use to replace with - preferrably one that wont go mouldy quicky.

All suggestions will be thanked:)

Cheers:beer:

secretdancer

You can remove it using silicon remover, as I presume it is the silicon sealant that has gone mouldy. Something like this http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=50102&ts=41322 should do the trick.

When you redo the the sealant get some decent anti mould stuff. It will last much longer

BobProperty

I would normally cut it out with a Stanley knife or similar, then scrape the remaining bits off with an old chisel blade. Silicone remover looks good in theory but the one I saw needs 3-4 hours to work.

Mr_Mister

Try dabbing household bleach on the black mould. You'll find it significantly reduced the next day. Unfortunately you'll get these types of mould on most sealants nowadays. Your best option is to remove the sealant with a sealant remover and reapply with mould resistant sealant. You'll find these at B&Q.

nobile

Many thanks for the suggestionms - will pop into B&Q tomorrow and use up that £5 gift voucher Ive been trying to get rid of for months:)

flossy_splodge

Oh lucky you! Have just done this job and suggest you are careful what you buy. Some sealants need a gun thing which you put the cartridge of sealant in and then pull a trigger to exude the sealant. The one I chose was VERY hard work. So two suggestions: 1) consider one of the ones that does NOT require a 'gun' or 'applicator' and secondly, before you redo the sealant use whatever product you choose to remove mould and squirt it liberally along the bath edge and clean thoroughly. I found that although I thought I'd done this, when I redid the sealant you could still see the line of the mould. Also personally I would NOT go for a clear sealant, does not look good in my opinion. :eek: :rotfl: Best of luck!:rotfl:

Poppycat

I normally use a window scraper its a plastic handle with a Stanley or razor blade in it that normally does the trick. As said get some decent anti mould silicon sealant around £3-£5 not much more than the cheap stuff at around £2. Silicon goes off quickly too. You will need a sealant gun though, I normally put masking tape around the place I want sealant at either side and in between put sealant on.

The other way is to get the Detox bleach spray its in a green type spray gun about £3 that normally gets rid of mould for a few weeks.

To prevent it happening again open window if you take a shower for an hour or so.

I have had bath room sealant on for about 8 years and rarely get mould on it, occasionally at this time of year it appears so I very occasionally use the Detox spray

EDIT not sure of the spray whetehr its Detox or not is a bleach spray (very strong) and in a bright green bottle

aminchom

We have had a similar problem. Depending on how bad it is you could try H&G mould and mildew spray. We get ours from Lakeland (but we live not too far from Windermere) and it works well. Word of caution though, it does contain bleach - dont get it on your clothes and keep the room well ventilated. It may take more than one treatment.

Hizz

The largest part of mould on silicone is caused by poor ventilation. Heat steam moisture is being retained within the room.

mikeywills

Tip on applying sealant.

make up a bowl of cold water and washing up liquid. The mix is not exact but when you put your fingers in the water should feel thickly soapy like the soap is still on your hands.
Make sure the surfaces are dry and clean of dust and dirt before applying the silicon
Cut a small angled cut onto the nozzle of the sealant, and squeeze along the run trying to get a consistant line. Overlap joints if you need to resqueeze the gun.
Dip your finger into the water and run it along the length of the sealant taking any excess off, and putting the sealant back in the bowl of water. Allow the surface to dry naturally. (you can go over the surface as many times as you need to just make sure you have the soapy water mixture on your hands)

The soap stops the sealant sticking to your hands, and the sealant will form blobs in the water mixture, making it easy to take out and dispose of.

This should give you nice smooth lines of silicon no bigger than 3-5mm wide.

Happy siliconing.

Lord_Gardener

Poppycat wrote:

I normally use a window scraper its a plastic handle with a Stanley or razor blade in it that normally does the trick. As said get some decent anti mould silicon sealant around £3-£5 not much more than the cheap stuff at around £2. Silicon goes off quickly too. You will need a sealant gun though, I normally put masking tape around the place I want sealant at either side and in between put sealant on.

The other way is to get the Detox bleach spray its in a green type spray gun about £3 that normally gets rid of mould for a few weeks.

To prevent it happening again open window if you take a shower for an hour or so.

I have had bath room sealant on for about 8 years and rarely get mould on it, occasionally at this time of year it appears so I very occasionally use the Detox spray

EDIT not sure of the spray whetehr its Detox or not is a bleach spray (very strong) and in a bright green bottle

Yes, it is bleach based with some surfactant to help with 'wetting' - a 5% bleach solution with some washing up liquid works just as well!