Mold Problem on Furniture.

Mold is one of the problems in the wood product. Mold that grows in the furniture or other wood product is always unwanted. The mold will ruin the furniture performance; more than that, it also could affect the human health; the dust from mold can be detrimental to breathing if it is inhaled. The fact we often find mold can grow on many objects. In the houses, the mold can be found at the floor, matt, door, furniture, and other household products. In the furniture, mold can be growing on the finish or unfinished surface. Mold can be seen as small spots with dusty surface or visible as a mushroom with many strands.

Mold is ignited when the spores of the mold are fallen on the surface of objects or media with the suitable conditions for its growth. The mold on the furniture surface usually will not damage the furniture and relatively easy to be cleaned at the time he starts to grow. However, if it is not handled properly, he can spread to become big area. The mold also can go into the wood and be more difficult to be cleaned and can cause more serious problem. Whatever it’s looked the mold on the furniture is a problem that needs to be cleaned off.

mold at the finished wood

Here are some tips to prevent the mold problem at the furniture.

• Keep the room to be dry.

The fungi require the special environmental conditions to grow and thrive. The wet and moist room is the ideal condition for the mold to grow and live. Then the best way to avoid the fungi is to keep the room dry and clean. We better design the house to give enough air circulation and ventilation to let the air and light flow in every space of the room. The dry and clear room is always more healthy, unliked by the mold. Mop and dry the wet or damp place to avoid the moist room.

If there is air conditioning installed in the room, then make sure it works well. Do proper cleaning and maintenance regularly to make sure it is always clean and healthy. The dirty air conditioning could become the medium for fungi and bacteria to grow.

• Clean the surface of furniture regularly.

Clean the surface of the furniture, flooring, and household regularly. The floor can be cleaned by sweeping or mopping regularly. Furniture and the household can be cleaned using the duster, dry cloth, or cleaning liquid. Or we can sue the vacuum cleaner to suck and clean off the dust in the room. The regularly cleaning schedule will minimize the fungal attack. Any spores or organisms that fell and stuck on the surface will be removed before they have time to grow. Regular cleaning is also meaning the regular check to the condition of our home furnishings. It will let us find any problems when it starts to ignite before they become big and serious problems.

How to clean surface that already has the mold problem.

The tips above are the way to prevent the growth of mold in our home furnishings. Meanwhile, the mold that has already existed at the surface of furniture or home furnishings is need different treatment.  Here is the step to fix the furniture with the mold problem.

• Clean the mold.

First thing we need to clean and remove the mold from the surface. We can use solvents that don’t solve the finishing layer such as: mineral spirit or naphtha. The “cleaning liquid”, a special liquid that is specially made to clean the coating also can be used.

Dampen a piece of cloth with mineral spirits, naphtha or the “cleaning liquid”, then use the cloth to wipe off and clean the mold.  Make sure all the mold has wiped off and we got the clean surface.

If we the mold cannot be removed with this way, then we may need to rub it little bit. Use steel wool and rub the surface to erase the mold. Do the rubbing lightly to avoid the line or the different sheen at the surface.

• Re coating.

If we can get the clean and even surface finish with the first step then we don’t need to do the next step. What we need to do is to maintain the room and furniture to be dry and clean. But if we found that we cannot get clean and even finish surface with the first step, then we need to re coat the finish. Sand the surface with sandpaper or steel wool. Make sure all the mold  are cleaned off from the surface. Then continue scuff sand for overall finish to prepare the top coating application. Then apply 1 layer or 2 layer wet coat at the finish. More explanation about the re coating can be viewed at our previous post: the refinishing without strip off the finish