Recipe 25 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Get Rid of Mold on a Bathroom Ceiling
Why Vinegar Beats Bleach
Black spots on a painted bathroom ceiling or the corner above the shower? Spray straight white vinegar, nothing added, 6 inches past the visible spots, wait a full hour, then wipe gently and fan dry. Bleach only lightens it and leaves the roots alive under the paint. Wear a mask. If the drywall is soft or sagging, or the patch is bigger than about 10 square feet, call a pro.
What it fixesBlack or green mold spotting on a painted bathroom ceiling, a closet wall or the corner above a shower.
You need
- 2 cups (475 ml) undiluted distilled white vinegar
- 16 oz spray bottle
- microfiber cloths
- N95 mask, safety glasses and gloves
- fan
- stain blocking primer, only if needed after
Mix it
- Pour the vinegar into the spray bottle undiluted. Do not cut it with water, and do not add anything to it.
- That is the whole mix. Vinegar is used straight here because at full strength acetic acid soaks into paint and the paper facing underneath instead of just sitting on top the way a foaming cleaner does.
Use it
- Put the mask and glasses on. Scrubbing dry mold puts spores in the air and you are standing right under it.
- Open a window and point a fan out of it, not at the wall.
- Mist the moldy area and about 6 inches past the edge of the visible growth. Do not soak it to the point of running, because saturated drywall is worse than moldy drywall.
- Let it dwell a full hour.
- Wipe with a damp microfiber using light pressure, one direction, folding to a clean side often. Do not scrub the paint off.
- Dry the area with a fan pointed at it for a few hours.
- If a stain remains but nothing feels fuzzy, prime that spot with a stain blocking primer and repaint.
Dale's noteVinegar beats bleach on this specific job, which surprises people. Bleach is mostly water once it hits a porous surface, so it lightens the color and leaves the roots alive under the paint, and you get the same spot back next month looking clean until it does not.
Don'tDo not spray this on a spot where the drywall is soft, spongy, sagging or stained brown, because that means water is getting in from behind and the board itself is compromised and has to be cut out. Never follow this with hydrogen peroxide on the wet surface, and if the patch is bigger than roughly 10 square feet or keeps coming back, call a remediation contractor instead of buying more vinegar.
This is 1 of 100 mixes in the Mix Book
Glass, wood, bathrooms, mold, kitchens, carpet, couches, laundry, floors, metal, odors and more. Every one with the same exact amounts, steps and warnings. A PDF in your email within a minute.
GET THE MIX BOOK · $12.99
Free: Dale's Fall Deep-Clean Checklist
19 jobs to do before the house closes up for winter, room by room, plus 3 recipes printed in full. Print it and stick it on the fridge.
SEND ME THE FREE CHECKLIST
