Mold on the wall in the apartment: what to do and how to get rid of it?

Mold is an uninvited guest and a formidable enemy of many dwellings, insidious and dangerous. He appears imperceptibly, stays for a long time, pretty spoils the aesthetics, health and nerves of the residents, reluctantly retreats. You and your loved ones can consider yourself the sovereign owners of your apartment until mold has settled in it. From the moment you accidentally noticed “something black” on the wall, just a small speck for now, the question of autocracy in the apartment has become moot. Removing mold or fungus on the walls is not an easy task. At the very beginning of the struggle, the variety of effective anti-mold remedies inspires optimism. Almost immediately, it weakens somewhat, and you are already seriously thinking: is it possible to radically get rid of mold in an apartment?

Why does mold appear

Fungus in the apartment can appear for several reasons.

Increased humidity in the room - cause and effect rolled into one. All other factors, one way or another, are associated with excess moisture. Black mold spores, when they get on a wet surface, germinate with mycelium - thin threads. A favorite place for the accumulation of mold fungi is the bathroom. But often the fungus appears in the apartment on the walls, ceiling, on the sealant of plastic windows, under baseboards and carpets, even in flower pots - wherever dampness is present.

The temperature is above 20 °C. This is a relative factor in the appearance of mold, and humidity must also be taken into account. The higher the humidity, the more likely it is that fungus will appear on the walls.
Bad ventilation. Poor ventilation or its absence provokes and enhances the effect of high humidity.
Broken wall waterproofing. The interaction of groundwater salts with the foundation of the building leads to the fact that the fungus on the walls can appear not only on the first floors.
Roof leak. With a leaky roof, every rain or snow causes drips to form on the upper floors. In the cold season, moisture freezes and remains in the plaster, which contributes to the formation of mold.
Insufficient heating. In a room with insufficient heating due to dampness, mold is bred much faster.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: How to patch holes in concrete or drywall walls

Removing mold from walls

Thinking about how to remove mold from the walls, first of all, you need to determine the root cause of this unpleasant phenomenon. Everything closes on the high humidity in the room, the cause of which can be a dozen factors. For fungus removal to be effective, these factors must be identified and eliminated.

Eliminate the causes of mold formation

You can independently determine the causes of excess moisture and eliminate them with your own hands using these recommendations.

Check the operation of the ventilation hood. If the hood is working properly, a piece of paper brought to the hole will tightly adjoin it with the air flow. Otherwise, it is necessary to solve the issue of centralized ventilation at the level of housing and communal services.
Enhance ventilation additional fan.
The door to the bathroom should have holes for air flow.
When installing plastic windows, choose models with micro-ventilation and supply valves.
Ventilate the apartment more often. Ideally, a window in ventilation mode should always be open in any of the rooms.
Observe the temperature balance in the apartment. A temperature of 20-21 ° C with normalized humidity will be optimal.

How to remove mold from a wall

What to do if mold has spread on the wall? Whatever the affected area, large or small, radical remedies must be used against mold. Fungal foci on the wallpaper are just the tip of the iceberg, the main problem lies at the very base of the wall.

Mold removal algorithm:

Remove wallpaper and plaster from the affected wall.

Advice. When working with a contaminated surface, use protective equipment: a respirator, goggles and gloves. All objects affected by the fungus should be isolated in a plastic bag and discarded.

Wash the walls with detergent.
Treat the entire surface with an antiseptic. After drying, repeat the treatment.
Let the wall dry. Plaster and prime using an antibacterial primer - an antiseptic (ArmMix Biocide, Alk-primer, LITOCOL).
Glue new wallpaper on the walls with an anti-fungal adhesive, such as EURO 3000 or QUELYD express glue.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: How to glue wallpaper in the corners: we join the picture

Important! If the wall on which mold forms is problematic (corner room, leaky external seams), you first need to resolve the issue of its external insulation and sealing. Instead of wallpapering, it makes sense to paint the wall with high-quality moisture-resistant paint.

Natural remedies for mold

The question "how to remove mold from the walls" can be solved with the help of specialized anti-fungal products on the walls, presented in a wide range of stores. But first, you can try to deal with mold naturally.

Natural ways to clean mold from walls:

Hydrogen peroxide. The main advantage of this tool is its safety. Through a spray bottle, you need to spray the substance on the affected surface, leave for 20-30 minutes and wipe dry.
Alcoholic vinegar or vinegar essence. The algorithm is the same: spray vinegar on the wall, wait and wipe until dry.
Baking soda. Dissolve half a tablespoon of baking soda in two glasses of water, apply to the wall and rub with a brush. Rinse with water and repeat treatment.
Tea tree oil. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of oil in 2 cups of water, spread the solution over the surface of the wall and allow to dry without rinsing.

Important! Folk remedies in most cases only stop the process of mold spreading, but will not allow you to radically get rid of it. For a more reliable result, it is still better to use special antiseptics.

Cleaning with improvised means

Remove mold from bathroom wall or any other room, you can also use household chemicals.

Detergent. A solution that, in cases of a small lesion, allows you to cope with mold, is easy to prepare at home with your own hands. To do this, you need to dissolve a measuring cup of any washing powder in 3-4 liters of water, apply the product on the wall, rub it with a brush and then rinse.
Ammonia. Care should be taken when using ammonia at home due to its toxicity. Effectively removes fungus on glass and tiles, but does little to help on porous surfaces. Treat the moldy wall with a solution of water and ammonia in a 1: 1 ratio, leave for several hours, rinse and dry.
Bleach. Use bleach in a well-ventilated area with personal protection, as it has a very strong odor and an unsafe chemical formula. Spray a solution of 1 cup of bleach and 3-4 liters of water onto the infected wall surface, wait and rinse.
Bura. A solution of 1 cup of borax to 4 liters of water will help treat mold infested areas on both smooth and porous surfaces. After carefully working the area with a stiff brush, wash off the wall and repeat the application of the prepared product. Should not be washed off.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Soundproofing rooms in an apartment in a new building

Special fungicides

What to do if the mold has deeply eaten into the base of the wall? How to remove the fungus in this case? With solutions prepared with your own hands from folk remedies, the wall can hardly be put in order.In this case, it would be wiser from the very beginning to use special antiseptics with powerful fungicidal properties.

These include, for example:

Titan Fungicide (FG-1 and FG-2) will solve the problem of how to remove fungus on various surfaces;
DALI is a universal antiseptic that gets rid of mold and other organic lesions on any wall base;
Fongifluid ALPA will effectively treat the inner and outer surface of the wall without harming the finishing materials;
Olimp Stop Mold is a safe and non-toxic agent designed to fight fungus in the most humid areas (bathrooms, baths, basements).

It is quite possible to remove the mold with your own hands, but if this disaster has spread to large areas, it would be wiser to use the services of professional disinfectors. They have much more powerful tools and modern equipment in their arsenal that will help you stop worrying about how to remove fungus from the walls. And you just have to take a mild sedative and relax. Fear of mold should not have power over you: you have done everything possible to eliminate it and you can sleep peacefully.

Olga

Comrade Voronin, can you tell me the name of the checker with which you treated your mother's private house from mold?

Answer

Yuri Voronin

Alternatively, you can also get rid of mold indoors with the help of smoke treatment with a checker. I remember in this way I quickly removed the mold in my mother's private house.

Kirill

Good afternoon. Please tell me, we have a one-room apartment, a 9-storey panel house. In the kitchen and in the room, the windows were changed to metal-plastic ones. Everything is in order in the room, but in the kitchen mold began to form on the new puttied slopes. Previously, it was not there, and the temperature in the room and in the kitchen is the same. With what it can be connected? Will the insulation of the facade from the outside help?

ibuilder.decorexpro.com/en/

Hello Kirill!
Most likely, the slopes in the kitchen were not insulated, so condensation and mold are now forming on them. We cannot say that the insulation of the facade will completely eliminate freezing, although it is quite possible that these measures will be enough. In extreme cases, we recommend doing ventilation and insulation of slopes. You can read more about the cause of condensation on windows in our article.

Answer