Jake.White

Morning all.

On occasion I've arrived at my little house in Puglia to find nasty black mould cultures growing on my walls or ceiling and wondered if anyone has found a novel way to deal with it.

The first time I came across it some years ago I just got stuck in without wearing a mask and ended up quite ill from inhaling the spores but I'm more aware of it now and the dangers it presents and am sensible enough to wear a mask when dealing with it. I just need to find an effective way to treat it on a porous wall if bleach has to remain out of the equation..

Here in the UK I can use bog standard household bleach on my bathroom tiles and on the silicon seal around the bath and shower which works quickly and efficiently, but in Italy I can't find anything representing what we would call regular household bleach here in the UK, and I've also read that using bleach on a porous wall can just drive the mould deeper into the wall where it will fester for a while before manifesting itself on the outside again..

You can find all kinds of wierd and wonderful cleaning fluids in Italy, most of which in my experience seem to be some kind of inept marseglia flavoured soapy stuff, although I've found some more 'normal' preparations like 'Cif' in Lidl, but so far I've found nothing which can be recognisable as bleach..

Any ideas anyone..?

I've heard that white vinegar works quite well for black mould but I tried squirting some on to my bathroom tiles here in England and it didn't work at all - so it was back to the bleach which removed the nasty stuff in minutes.

I'm expecting to find a bit of a mouldy house when I go back to Italy for a visit in the autumn as I had noticed some little black spots starting to show on one of my walls when I left in the spring so I really need to start thinking of a solution for the problem.

All ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Tweedpipe

There was recently an interesting thread on the French forum on using bleach (eau de Javel) and/or a substitute, and it's use.
I recall the word 'muffa' - which always made me smile , did a search and found the following link. Candeginna. Does it help?

philat98

I just clean it off with warm water and a scrubbing brush and paint over with an anti mold bathroom emulsion. Seems to last a couple of years.

Pica

Antimuffa is what you need.

Geordieborn

I would second the above from Pica. Get it from the ferramenta, but take care it will bleach anything it touches... If bad you may need to go over again, but it does take a few minutes to work.

Jake.White

Hi all,

I've seen 'anti-muffa' silicon for sealing in bathrooms and kitchens but no other kind of anti-muffa preparation for just getting rid of the stuff without having to redecorate the whole place. Stuff like anti-mould paint never seems to work in my opinion but I'll continue to look anyway and see what's available and maybe cart a couple of bottles of bleach over next spring when I do the drive.

As Philat says, washing it off sort of gets rid of it but tends to leave a residue of little black spots which just grow back again eventually, and the stink of the stuff is quite abominable too when trying to treat it in this way. I really think bleach is the only answer so far but if anyone else has any ideas please do keep them coming..

Jake.White

I'll give it a try....

mikelincs

If you want to take something from the UK, I would strongly recommend ons of the anti mould treatments from Lakeland, I've used them and they really do get rid or it, and it's long lasting as well.

heritagestanley

You can use bleach or a special antimould product. But it would of course be better to tackle the problem at source. Have you looked at the Solarventi range? They are basically solar powered fans that suck in dry air and push out damp air. After we installed one we had no more problems of mould.

Jake.White

I've never heard of the Solarventi fans - they sound like they would be rather expensive..?? Yes you're absolutely right about dealing with the problem at source rather than with the symptoms, but the source of our problem is partly due to the 3 water storage tanks which are located directly under the house, as well as no damp proofing of any kind, and the fact that the house lies empty and sealed usually for 5 months at a time. I've considered getting a borehole drilled so I can do away with the tanks but it still leaves the damp proofing problem which seems to be something of a universal problem with these old country houses in Italy. It would cost an absolute packet to sort all that lot out, and as I've got the house up for sale I don't really want to have to start investing thousands into it at this stage in the game.. It's a funny thing though, we had an attack of mould about 10 years ago which I dealt with using the soap and water method mentioned above and it never reappeared again until this spring when I painted my main sitting room so I'm thinking it might be something to do with the paint I used which has somehow sealed the walls and stopped them from breathing and is holding moisture to provide ideal growing conditions for the mould or something like that...

modicasa

A solution with tea tree oil works. Have a look on google. Bog standard bleach is everywhere - candeggina its called. But for the long term you need some airflow as HeritageStanley suggests

Jake.White

Thanks modicasa and everyone else. I'll have a look at the tea tree oil option and if that fails I can always try the cadegginna now that I know what to look for..

I've always been aware of the need for airflow and there is a small degree of ventilation thanks to my chimneys and the small hole in the wall where the main power cable enters the house. I also leave all my internal doors open when I'm away to help with airflow so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we find when we arrive in September.

Diddidi

Jake.White

Thanks, I've heard of mixing bicarbonate of soda together with white vinegar for cleaning purposes so I'll add it to my list of things to try.

ononno

Sorry for popping in late on this one, but in fact common garden household bleach is easily available and well known in Italy, available in most usual outlets - ACE.
For black mould only really effective removal can be achieved by elbow grease and a hard brush.
Prevention, I've don't know except eliminate possible sources of damp; leaky pipes, poor grouting,leaky roof etc.
bye bye dicette l'inglese.