Cleaning Mildew off Vynalite PVC tube flooring

[riveRecon]

Hi everyone, I have a lot of problems with mildew up here in the humidity of Queensland, especially on my boat flooring. The last two times cleaning my boat flooring has been hard work scrubbing and trialling different approaches and cleaning products. I've trolled the internet looking and trying all sorts of things to clean mold and mildew off my PVC/Vinyl flooring. My particular brand of tube flooring is Vynalite, I really like it.

I finally landed on a way that is easy and has done the best job. The latest expensive option was a dedicated mold removal product, it worked well but cost $15 per bottle and I'd need to use three to four bottles for the whole boat floor. I tried bleach at $2 a bottle and it worked better than the dedicated product! I've tried bleach before from a spray bottle but did not get great results.

All I did was apply full strength bleach to the tubing while on the concrete floor outside with a broom. I didn't do it inside of the boat because I was worried about the chemicals causing corrosion. I just lightly brushed with the broom so it would foam up across the whole flooring. I let it sit on the floor for whatever length of time was convenient with everything else going on - sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes the whole day. It took five to six applications over a couple of days of this process to get the results pictured. I didn't wash it off bewtween applications.

I'm beyond happy with the result and the ease of cleaning it this way, I thought I was going to have to throw out the flooring and replace it with new. Pictures attached of before and after and the expensive mold remover and the bleach I last tried.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Very good result there @riveRecon and thanks for sharing!

[zmk1962]

4 hours ago, riveRecon said:

Hi everyone, I have a lot of problems with mildew up here in the humidity of Queensland, especially on my boat flooring. The last two times cleaning my boat flooring has been hard work scrubbing and trialling different approaches and cleaning products. I've trolled the internet looking and trying all sorts of things to clean mold and mildew off my PVC/Vinyl flooring. My particular brand of tube flooring is Vynalite, I really like it.

I finally landed on a way that is easy and has done the best job. The latest expensive option was a dedicated mold removal product, it worked well but cost $15 per bottle and I'd need to use three to four bottles for the whole boat floor. I tried bleach at $2 a bottle and it worked better than the dedicated product! I've tried bleach before from a spray bottle but did not get great results.

All I did was apply full strength bleach to the tubing while on the concrete floor outside with a broom. I didn't do it inside of the boat because I was worried about the chemicals causing corrosion. I just lightly brushed with the broom so it would foam up across the whole flooring. I let it sit on the floor for whatever length of time was convenient with everything else going on - sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes the whole day. It took five to six applications over a couple of days of this process to get the results pictured. I didn't wash it off bewtween applications.

I'm beyond happy with the result and the ease of cleaning it this way, I thought I was going to have to throw out the flooring and replace it with new. Pictures attached of before and after and the expensive mold remover and the bleach I last tried.

Not sure if you cleaned the flooring in the boat or took it out of the boat to clean. From memory you have an ally plate boat - the general guidance is you should not use bleach on aluminium - it will corrode and blacken the ally. Also, from my understanding bleach does not actually kill the mold/mildew spores - it does "bleach" the colour out of the mildew so gives the appearance of removing it.

Hydrogen Peroxide 3% is a very effective mold/mildew killer. It actually breaks down the protein chains and when you spray it on mold/mildew you will see it bubbling as this reaction takes place.  It's quite cheap and available from the big online Amazing store. You don't need more than 3% strength so don't get carried away with buying the higher concentrations unless you plan to dilute it down.

Cheers Zoran

Edited March 1 by zmk1962

[riveRecon]

2 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Not sure if you cleaned the flooring in the boat or took it out of the boat to clean. From memory you have an ally plate boat - the general guidance is you should not use bleach on aluminium - it will corrode and blacken the ally. Also, from my understanding bleach does not actually kill the mold/mildew spores - it does "bleach" the colour out of the mildew so gives the appearance of removing it.

Hydrogen Peroxide 3% is a very effective mold/mildew killer. It actually breaks down the protein chains and when you spray it on mold/mildew you will see it bubbling as this reaction takes place.  It's quite cheap and available from the big online Amazing store. You don't need more than 3% strength so don't get carried away with buying the higher concentrations unless you plan to dilute it down.

Cheers Zoran

Hey Zoran, yes I took it out of the boat for that very reason 😀. I'll try the Hydrogen Peroxide 3% the next time I have to clean them. Thanks for the suggestion!