Hey so I have a customer that wants me to remove black mold from inside his pool I was thinking of just making a roof mix and adding extra surfactant to really make it stick and then maybe another coat or using pressure but I just wanted to see if any of yall had some experience with this and what worked and what didnt
Just remember, anytime you’re dealing with organics SH is the answer. I know the dirty water will end up being rinsed out but I’d only use enough surfactant as needed so you’re not spending a bunch of time trying to remove soapy water. If it’s kind of a rough surface you could probably get by without using any surfactant since that’ll help keep the sh from sheeting off. If they have a drain it shouldn’t be an issue how much surfactant you use though. You shouldn’t need much if any pressure to clean the mildew off. It won’t hurt anything to go strong with the SH but probably don’t have to get carried away.
What kind of pool is it? Is it an above ground pool or below ground? Does it have a liner or is it tile or cement?
My buddy installs above ground and partial above ground pools. I tested SH on a ton of his leftover job stuff to make sure that it wouldn’t hurt anything. I actually took a bunch of stuff, sprayed HW mix on it, and never rinsed it just to see. THe aluminum stuff that was painted had the worst result, everything else was pretty impervious.
Word of caution, some of the liners on above ground and partial below grade pools get real soft/brittle and will break if they were exposed and not kept wet. I wouldn’t put pressure on that type.
It’s an in ground concrete pool and I usually us a couple oz of elemenatotor on houses and a couple oz of cling-on on roofs in a 30 gallon tank
Don’t use any surfactant In the pool . Endless you want lots of suds and cloudy water for the next few weeks
Oh ya I didnt think about that. I’m not use to my customers swimming around my work later unless a hurricane comes
This was my experience. I didn’t want to etch the pool due to lack of experience, but I think that’s probably what it needed.
Thank you @Prout-1 the pool I’m doing looks like your after pic but I’m pretty sure it’s just the starts of black mold. Did you have any issues with the elemenator during rinse?
No. If you follow the directions, you are using such a small amount that it doesn’t really mater. I pumped out all the wash water before filling the pool, so we are probably talking about having less than an ounce of leftover Elemonator mixed to 3 or 4 thousand gallons of water. In retrospect, I would have applied 1 very strong mix with a pump-up and used fresher SH, then recommended an Acid Bath cleaning once the burnt out pool pump was replaced. the customer was happy with the result, but I could have done a better job of setting expectations.
the liner was in pretty rough shape to begin with. I used 500 PSI around the tile and still knocked off a few peaces that had previous damage. the owner wasn’t worried about it, and declined my offer to reattach them. I used 2500 PSI on the rest of the pool. I did a test spot at 4000 PSI. I’m sure the liner could have handled it, but the extra pressure din’t make it any cleaner.
UPDATE: so I went to do the job today turns out it wasnt black mold I tried sh, ox brite (oxilic acid), muratic acid, sodium bicarbonate, I even tried 30% vinegar and nothing really worked and I noticed eventually that the dark spots where also rough spots so I basically spent about 4 hrs trying to smooth out erosion spots with cleaners and acid lol apparently his blue dye in the water makes the slightly darker erosion spots look black so I apologized and told him I couldnt do anything for him and that I wouldn’t charge him but the guy was cool enough that he payed me anyway
4 Likes
