Cleaning roller blinds?

purplegirluk1

Help me please, we need to clean our bathroom bind. I have searched the mega index but I cannot find anything about cleaning a material roller blind? It has become black from the condensation as our bathroom isn't very well ventilated. I am sure I cannot put it in the WM so I need to make a cleaning soloution I guess. Has anyone else had this problem, what did you use? Any tips would be great as we are all fed up, the blind has only been in there six months and looks like its been theretwenty years!

Ticklemouse

Argh - just posted a reply and it's been eaten :mad:

Anyway - as I was saying, I'd be tempted to unroll the material and dip it into the bath with warm soapy water - bio washing liquid and washing soda? Rub it gently with a soft nail brush, then rinse well.

You will probably find the material is glued to the metalpole so it may take 2 of you to hold it over the bath whilst washing it.

Drip dry unrolled over somewhere suitable like the shower rail.

HTH
TM

calleyw

I have in the past taken my roller blind apart and put the material in the washing machine.

It came out ok and I ironed it ok. And then stapled it all back together again.

When I moved in to this place we have loads of vertical blinds and I washed these in the washing machine and even did a few in the bath as there was smoker in the house so grim is the only work.

But as ticklemouse put it in the bath. Minus the cardboard tube otherwise it will be no good to be used again.


Yours


Calley

Stompa

I guess it depends on the type of material it's made from but be careful. If you get water anywhere near ours they tend to start curling at the edges.

Stompa

Sweet_Pea_2

I had a similar problem with mine, the black started to creep up from the bottom. I tried washing in the bath in warm soapy water, and when that didnt work I even tried a weak bleach solution, but that didnt work either. I think once the mould is there it is impossible to shift. What I did in the end is chop the bottom off altogether and machine stitch a new hem and slotted the plastic bit at the bottom back in, although I had to sacrifice the patterned border at the bottom of the blind. (Luckily there was loads of material to enable me to do this.) I managed to get another year out of the blind before it happened again and I had to bin it. I now have cheap and nasty plasticky things which can at least be wiped over if grubby.
I also find similar with shower curtains, they go mouldy from the bottom where the weighted hem is. I found the best solution, when I buy new shower curtains, before I use them I cut the hew off and restitch on the machine. I have got years more use out of them, they never seem to go mouldy if I do this, it must be whatever they put in the hem to weight it.

purplegirluk1

Is was made specifically for our bathroom by a blind company and so cost a lot of money, I can't see it being thrown away just yet. It is inteneded to be for a bathroom though so I can not too sure why it is so bad. We couldn't put it in the WM because it is made of a material that contains soem sort of plastic to make it wipeable. It also curles at the edges when wet so i'm not surw about dunking it the bath.

Thanks for the suggestions but back to the drawing board I must go............

savvy

purplegirluk1 wrote:

Is was made specifically for our bathroom by a blind company and so cost a lot of money, I can't see it being thrown away just yet. It is inteneded to be for a bathroom though so I can not too sure why it is so bad. We couldn't put it in the WM because it is made of a material that contains soem sort of plastic to make it wipeable. It also curles at the edges when wet so i'm not surw about dunking it the bath.

Thanks for the suggestions but back to the drawing board I must go............

Hi purple, SURELY you can go back to the company only having had it for just 6 months????? Doesn't sound as if it is fit for purpose to me!! Did it come with a gaurantee at all if it had a special coating, and did you have care instructions come with it?

purplegirluk1

Well my Dad thinks we shoull call them back and ask them to come and look at it as they knew what the bathroom was like and how little ventilation it had as they measured it up before it was made. I don't think there was any guarantee with it. The one in the toilet room is fine so it must be a result of the condensation but we did think that the bathroom specific material would be ok.

calleyw

is the window in the bathroom non opening.

As I found the best way to cure my mould on both the blinds and the shower curtain was to make sure the bathroom window was open even just a crack all the time.

And with shower curtains don't leave them pushede up one end when wet. Allow them to dry open all along the rail.

I would get back to the company myself. But would also look to see if there was anyway to add any extra ventilation in to the bathroom. Because if it is making the blind mouldy then what is doing to the fabric of the room and the building.

Yours

Calley

purplegirluk1

We live in a converted bungalow so the bathroom is on the ground floor, the window gets opened after showers but can't be open all the time for safety. I am not sure what we can do to prevent it happening again.

calleyw

purplegirluk1 wrote:

We live in a converted bungalow so the bathroom is on the ground floor, the window gets opened after showers but can't be open all the time for safety. I am not sure what we can do to prevent it happening again.

Is this a double glazed window or a wooden one.

As we use to live in a ground floor flat with wooden windows and I had a window lock. The window was locked opened all day and all night when we where there. If not then we would lock it shut. Same for the bedroom window as well.

If it is double glazed then some have an way to lock the windows so that they are only open a smidge. I use that in the bathroom now all the time as we now have a house. But there is a outside extension so someone could climb on it and get in.

If you can you need to look at either trickle vents or even a extraction fan.

But then I am mad woman and every morning when I get up no matter what the weather open all my windows wide open for about 30 mins or so to air all the rooms.

Not sure what else to suggest.

Yours

Calley