Black mould - natural approaches please 🙏

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How to clear black mould from a bedroom - ideally with natural remedies as it’s for a teenager with allergy issues. All suggestions welcome.

Vinegar!

Bumping for you.

I hate cleaning the en-suite, it’s enclosed and breathing in mould spray is awful and dangerous!

Vinegar isn’t the best for household mould, like it’ll clean it off but it won’t kill it.

bleach will kill it and it’s actually great because it fully breaks down into salt and water, but I appreciate the fumes can be tricky.

if you can clean it and then ventilate the area to get rid of the bleach fumes then the best thing to do is try and prevent it coming back - a dehumidifier and some anti mould paint.

Envirovent PIV unit, an expensive option but in my experience eradicates black mould completely. I don’t understand why social housing don’t fit them where they have problems with black mould. I was forever bleaching walls, behind furniture before I got one

I have found ditching the spray and using bleach and a paintbrush revelationary

What’s the bleach and paintbrushes method pls

Actually, it's the reverse. Bleach won't kill it on walls. But vinegar will.

I use a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and hot water, and a touch of clove oil sometimes. It's also good to spray the areas in a cheap spray bottle with warm water and a dash of clove oil first, leave for an hour and then wash with the vinegar and water. Some people add a touch of dishwashing liquid to the vingegar and water mix. Plenty of recipes online for natural mould removers.

You need bleach. Sorry.

I used bleach behind a wardrobe and let it ventilate for a week.

Why you should never use bleach to remove mould

Bleach won't kill it. If it's on a non-porous surface, white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide (can't remember what strength you need for that but you'd need to ventilate and use gloves and mask while applying). If it's a porous surface, ideally you should remove whatever material it's growing on under containment and with negative pressure. Then PIV (not the rude kind) to stop it returning.

Bleach only appears to kill mould on walls. The surface area of the mould is bleached, or lightened, the surface discolouration is gone, and the problem appears to be attended to - but the roots of the mould aren't reached or treated.

Would the vinegar mix be ok for tiles and grouting?

Evidence for bleach v vinegar - https://youtube.com/shorts/8gi2pp2Uv8M?si=UpWR-duAWcc2Uxpc

it’s true that it has reduced effectiveness on porous surfaces but that’s because spores can end up deep under the surface. You ideally need to find and treat the source, but if you can treat the visible mold and then dry the space fully you do then reduce the chance of it returning.

Have used bleach and vinegar here.
If you know what's caused it, try to stop this going forward. For us ventilation, regular heat to the room and dehumidifier ensured no return but I have to keep it up. Probably will need new windows but not on the budget right now!

Really helpful ideas, we have similar issues with mould!

Thank you all for your suggestions/ wisdom. It is around a window and due to lack of ventilation and heat as teenager refuses to put radiator on and doesn’t ventilate. This will obvs stop right now.

Will we need to gouge out some of the wall around the window to rid the problem or if we start ventilating etc right now and address the surface mould will that suffice?

What is on the budget is a type of water sucker/hoover for the windows and tiles.. probably would be very helpful for maintaining/preventing.

DH and I had a wildly exciting conversation about this yesterday, because we are now apparently old.

He informed me that after extensive research he had come to the conclusion that hydrogen peroxide and vinegar ( not at the same time obviously) as I had suggested was definitely not the way to go, but that borax is the way forward. I did point out that it is banned in the UK but after a quick Google borax substitute can be used. Something to do with it being alkaline.

Don't gouge out the wall!

Just get some white vinegar in warm water in a container, and wipe it with a sponge.

Some rooms are just prone to mould and you just need to keep on top of it and give it a going over with vinegar when/if it returns. Ventilation, air circulation, and wiping away condensation, or using a little window vac, all helps.

I put a little damp trap on dd bedroom window which mights help going forward once treated.
Bought cheaply from Asda.

You can get heat exchanger air vents from vent acia. Or could.if it's only one room because of their behaviour you could enforce your house rules first rather than spend the money. All ultimatum where they follow instructions or pay for it.