After soft-wash (a. 4G water/2GCloroxOutdoor/1cupTSP, and 2b. OxalicAcid), I’m left with these spots where the black mold is hanging on. I’m pretty sure that after the Clorox, the mold is dead, but even with wetting it, it takes some vigorous scrubbing (with the coarsest 3M Scotchbrite pad). In spots I’ve done (sort of visible in the above photo), it looks like some wood also got scrubbed off.
I’m perfectly willing to repeat the soft wash for these isolated spots, doing the heavy scrubbing during step a.) above. But is there a better way to “uproot” the dead mold?
Call a professional contractor. He won’t be using any elbow grease, tsp etc. This is a professional washing forum. You can find a lot of info here but it is not really geared toward homeowners wiring on a weekend project
Thanks for all the wonderful advice here, including the one about hand-scrubbing the entire deck .
Believe it or not, the area which needs a 2d pass is roughly 5% of the deck’s area. The rest of the deck is a nice warm, teak color. The top sides of the deck railing members didn’t in fact get any treatment at all.
I didn’t need an entire 2-month training course in deck-cleaning, just the answer to a single question: after what was a good consensus protocol, would any black mold which didn’t get cleaned up with the rinses, just dry up an blow away?
I didn’t need an entire 2-month training course in deck-cleaning, just the answer to a single question: after what was a good consensus protocol, would any black mold which didn’t get cleaned up with the rinses, just dry up an blow away?
Short answer is no. Long answer requires a 2 month training program.
Look, you want to do this stuff yourself and I get it. I admire DIY types that aren’t beholden to someone else. The thing here is (to me) your description of what you did/used
After soft-wash (a. 4G water/2GCloroxOutdoor/1cupTSP, and 2b. OxalicAcid),
I don’t use TSP in my wood cleaning and I don’t soft wash decks. CLorox is 6% in the bottle you get from the store, and that is if it is fresh. No one here uses 6%. You then cut that 2 gallons of 6% into 4 gallons of water? I don’t know what the rest of that meant, did you put acid in with bleach? Or did you use it afterwards? Never ever ever mix acid and bleach. From your picture the deck still looks dirty to me, or it has the remnants of an old coating on it. And no, I am not talking about the black part, I am talking about the brown parts. Like where the chair leg is in your picture.
It is pouring here today and I am bored. You also need a pressure washer and the right pressure for your wood and that deck looks like PT lumber. No, it isn’t me saying you need a PW because you are on a PW site, every single DIY site I read says to use one. Probably why you are “hand scrubbing”.
Yea, black mold is just going to “dry up and blow away”
I can cut my own hair but chances are it’s gonna look rough. Or maybe my wife does it, same result.
If you want it to look good, hire someone who can make it look good.
If you’re cool with C+ results then read the deck 101 thread and go from there. Maybe you get a B+/A- result without buying real equipment. You’ll learn a skill along the way.
Im a DIYer in the lawn game. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than my neighbors trugreen service? Absolutely.
If you used Clorox Outdoor, that’s barely going to kill mildew on a concrete patio. Try a section at 1 part your SH and 2 parts water. But you’re either going to have to pressure wash it or scrub a lot more. That deck is nowhere close to clean in any part of the photo. Hopefully you used the oxalic after you cleaned. If you mixed, you’re lucky to be alive.
Guilty as charged: being a rank amateur, with no clue about the difference between what I managed to accomplish and real professional work, and, for lack of a hi-pressure, down-streaming pump, getting by with house-plumbing pressure and a mop to lay on the bleach. Yes the oxalic acid was the Savogran 12oz can, applied several rinses after the bleach/wash.
So if she’s happy, I think what I did as my first attempt will clean up what got missed, this time, applying the bleach/wash with a stiff-bristle brush (on a handle), instead of the mop. Oh, and saturating the wood grain with water before the bleach step. (And if she’s not happy with this pass, I’ll call a pro.)
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