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Removing mildew from Silicone sealant? |
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| message from £$oteric on 12 May 2004 |
Are there any *effective* mildew removers on the market?
Trying to remove some extremely stubborn staining from my shower-tray/tiling
join.
I've tried everything 'under the sink' including neat bleach.
If I need to reseal (aaargh!) any advice on removing the old?
Thanks.
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| BillV replied to £$oteric on 13 May 2004 |
shower-tray/tiling
The mold you get on silicone sealant seems to be embedded within it.
My theory is that its the acetic acid thats used to cure it going moldy.
It extremely difficult/impossible to remove if this is the case.
You could try silicone eater but I've had limited sucess with that.
Its down to hard work with lots of scraping and cutting.
After cleanup replace with really quality stuff, the work in replacing is
not worth the price difference.
You don't seem to get this staining with non-silicobe sealants.
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| Ian Stirling replied to BillV on 13 May 2004 |
<snip>
Nope.
The acetic acid is gone after it cures.
When you stop smelling vinegar, it's gone.
A nice sharp scraper makes it not too bad at all.
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| BillV replied to Ian Stirling on 14 May 2004 |
Well there must be something in the body of the silicone that goes mouldy.
I've seen it so many times where even good quality silicone with fungicide
has been used.
When its cut off it can be seen that the mould is inside the bead so
external application of e.g. bleach won't work.
The non-silicone sealants don't seem to suffer from this.
If its on a plastic bath or shower tray you have to be extremely careful not
to scratch the item.
Also getting it out of the gap can be very tedious.
Of course, if the original stuff wasn't stuck down too well to begin with
then it is easy to remove. :-)
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| Ian Stirling replied to BillV on 14 May 2004 |
I don't think it's quite that simple.
I think it's just that mould can live in the most precarious ecological
niche.
Inside the silicone, there is some retained water, and some limited
nutrients that percolate in.
Mould has been found in explanted breast implants, living on the
glucose and other stuff that diffuses through the walls of the
implant.
I think it's just that silicone is by nature pretty inert, and somewhat
porous.
Water and nutrients can diffuse into the bead, and fungicides may leach
out, or be ineffective to certain strains.
Very true.
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| Soup replied to £$oteric on 13 May 2004 |
Soup popped his head over the parapet,saw what was going on and said
Have no idea how easy sealant will be to remove from your
shower tray. Generally when I take any of (listen to me you'd
think I did it all day everyday)(have taken it from the bathroom
floor and window surrounds) it comes off relatively easily on two
non porous surfaces it SHOULD just peel off.
Took the 'old' sealant from around a window frame mechanically
(it all just ripped of in one long strip). Put new sealant on the
window, but it wasn't on properly, wouldn't come off mechanically
(some of the wallpaper was coming with it) so tried a proprietary
"silicone eater" was VERY disappointed with the results ended up
painting over it (non prantable silicone) so fully expect the paint to
'flake' off, hopefully the paint basically has a key on the paper and
dries covering the silicone rather than trying to bond to the silicone.
The silicone eater does the job but expect to have to apply it a few
times and any closely surrounding decoration to not survive.
The silicone eater is not as miraculous as the instructions would
have you believe.After using any sort of silicone remover this must
be neutralised before resealing, the brand I was using recommends
a wipe down with mentholated spirits once the silicone eater has
done it's work.
YMMV
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Archived message: Removing mildew from Silicone sealant? (UK D-I-Y House Repairs)
