Cleaning out your boat equipment and the interior is as important as maintaining the boat’s functionality. Having the idea of how to clean boat carpet mold is beneficial in keeping your boat safe and sound, and you will find all the steps for that here.
Molds can also cause health hazards, as well as damage your boat’s interior if left unattended. They use organic material to feed on to grow and multiply which can later result in the boat being structurally damaged.
The boat’s carpet covers almost all the boat’s interior. Due to its placement inside the boat, the boat carpet is one of the places where mold can grow unnoticed.
A boat carpet infested by mold will also result in a musky smell. This would often lead to people getting sick such as allergies and some other respiratory health risks.
To stop these, you need to maintain the boat’s cleanliness on every nook and corner.
Steps In Removing Boat Carpet Mold
While most marketed boat carpets arrive at you readily pretreated to prevent mold growth, this treatment can wear off with time, allowing colonies to begin and build up. With the constant supply of moisture in the open water, the damage from these mold colonies can lead to a fast pace depreciation of the boat, then leading to your boat’s early retirement.
To keep these floating spores from decommissioning your floating investments, here’s how you can get rid of mold growing in your boat carpet.
Step #1. Take out the carpet
To thoroughly clean the mold out of the boat carpet effectively, you first need to take the carpet off of the boat. Place it somewhere outside the boat where you can deal with it later on.
Assuming that the molds are already spread both on your boat’s floor as well as the carpet, you need to divide the cleansing operation into two. One on the floor and one on the carpet itself.
Step #2. Clean the boat’s floor
Starting off with the floor, pick up some floor brush, a pail of water, detergent soap, and bleach. While prepping all these things that you need, you should also grab some PPE, especially some masks and gloves before beginning.
Take off all things on the floor that must not get wet and properly cover those that you cannot remove. If the mold colonies are already thick, you might want to run some vacuum over the entire area before scrubbing so the spores won’t fly everywhere.
Next, scrub the floor with water and detergent to remove not only the molds but also any dirt that has run below the carpet. For heavy dirt masses, you can opt for a pressure washer, but first, consult with a professional so you won’t damage your boat.
Rinse the soap and dirt off, then soak the floor with a 10% solution of bleach for about 10-15 minutes to kill off any mold remnants. Rinse the rinse solution again then dry the floor completely, preferably under the sun or with UV light.
In case your floor has somehow sustained water damage, you might want to check this article on how to remove mold from water damage.
Step #3. Clean the boat’s carpet
Now, you need to deal with the carpet. Much like a car’s interior, your boat’s carpet receives all the dirt its visitors’ shoes are carrying.
There are multiple ways you can use to clean this carpet: you can scrub it, pressure wash, or for an ultimate cleansing, you can send it to professionals on washing services.
For manual scrubbing, you need a scrub that can remove the dirt and molds up to the innermost parts of the carpet. However, it should be gentle enough that it doesn’t end up tearing or dismantling the carpet’s fibers.
Wash the carpet with detergent to take away all the molds and rinse it properly. Hang it to dry in the sun, which can kill any remnant spores.
Pressure washing is still like manual scrubbing except the pressure generated with the water is the one doing the labor. Some still use soap but the dirt and mold removal is more of a responsibility of proper application of the machine.
Finally, for professional washing services, it’s best to look for one that specializes in carpets. Doing so assures you that they know exactly how to deal with specific stains, specks of dirt, and even bacterial and fungal infestation, like molds.
If you want a specific process for this, you might want to check how to write a mold report so you’ll completely convey your needs to the professionals.
What kills mold in the carpet?
When dealing with molds on the carpet, most homeowners would recommend that you use either vinegar or baking soda, which both kills and prevents molds from reoccurring. While substances that kill mold on various surfaces technically remain the same, there’s a need to consider any possible damage to the object itself.
For instance, bleach works well on killing and preventing molds on most surfaces. Unfortunately, bleach damages almost every type of carpet for boats, causing spots on their color and sometimes even fiber damage.
Conclusion
It’s crucial to clean your boat to maintain an optimum condition. Learning how to clean boat carpet mold is one of the several processes that you need to accomplish to keep your boat safe and sound.
Proper maintenance and regular clean up of your boat can keep the pesky molds away. Your boat, being one of your prized investments, deserves regular maintenance to keep it in the best shape.