A Common Question: Does Bleach Kill Mold?

A Common Question: Does Bleach Kill Mold?

There are lots of different questions that are often asked about mold, and one of the most common is: does bleach kills mold? The answer is no, and you should absolutely not use it to kill mold or disinfect mold spores, because it is not an effective or long lasting killer of the mold and really is only good for changing the color of the mold as well as watering the roots of the mold.

The Details

It is important to realize that the basic object to killing mold is to kill the roots, not to saturate them, as you would be doing with bleach. Mold remediation involves the need to disinfect the materials that the mold has grown on, and therefore chlorine bleach should never be used in mold remediation because it is not able to kill the mold spores.

Although it does work well in terms of killing bacteria and viruses, in no way it is an anecdote for mold, and in fact bleach itself is ninety nine percent water, and then of course this largely explains why it should not be used on mold, as water is one of the main contributors of the growth of harmful bacteria and mold.

Those who know not to use bleach to kill mold it does nothing to help the problem. Anyone who attempts to kill mold with bleach does nothing but put him or her in a seriously dangerous situation especially if they are not protected properly.

The Real Deal

If you do have a mold problem, then you are going to want to instead act quickly and dry up the area as best you can, and then use non-ammonia soap or detergent to clean up the area. Remember that scrubbing may not completely remove the mold growth if you are cleaning off of structural wood, and so you may actually have to sand the area to completely remove the mold.

Once you have removed the mold you want to disinfect the area using a bleach and water solution. Just be sure that you have removed the mold completely because you now know that using bleach does nothing to kill mold.

After this, the process is not over. You really have to take the proper preventive measures in order to ensure that the mold will not grow back, and the only real way to do this is to make sure that you keep things dry. Also be on the lookout in the future for mold, being extra sure to check places that mold prefers to grow, such as on organic materials including paper, dirt, wood, and soap scum.