Hello everyone, I notice mold in my 2 bathrooms on 1st floor, not a big deal, I mean, not much, but yes it is there, we cleaned with Clorox for Mold and Mildew, CLR Mold and Mildew, and it seems to work for 2-4 weeks and then comes back.

3rd-floor bath also has this but is worst than in our bathroom, in the 3rd floor is a customized shower that fit one person, they just reported this yesterday, and say it has been like this for 2-3 months, at the last visit we didn't noticed or smell any mold, they had been cleaning it and say they thought it was something they can deal with... They have a 1-year-old...

Should we contact a mold remediation company? I had quoted to fix the 2 bathrooms on the 1st floor, 1 of the quotes was for only 1 bathroom, 17K, and the complete bathroom re-done. ... The 2nd quote was 10k for 1 bathroom, and just working in the tub area, not removing tiles or anything, if we want to change the vanity and toilet, that is extra...

What is my best bet for now? Running a little short on budget for big projects...

It is a mold problem for you to deal with if it is coming from inside the wall - like from where there was a previous leak & the repairs were not thorough enough. Or a current leak.

It is a mildew / housekeeping problem for them if it is on the surface of the wall.

Which is it?

Like Jason said, you do need to have proper ventilation in a bathroom.

Although, truthfully, I have managed to keep my bathroom mildew-free without ventilation when I had to. Like open the door, use a portable fan, clean.

If they are generally good housekeepers, and the problem is persistent, you should investigate further.

How old are your pipes? Any chance there is a pinhole or two somewhere inside the walls? Have you ever had a roof leak, or other type of leak in those general areas - and perhaps not all of the damp drywall was removed or the wood was't dried out?

One thing we discovered in our "mold" complaint house, her dryer was completely stopped up, I'm sure that didn't help.

Lack of maintenance or Tenant Lifestyle issues.

in my old home even w bath fan on the tile would get darkened along the bottom, so once I regrouted I made it a practice to wipe down the walls after showering. walls remained in excellent condition for years. my mom's vacay bathroom is small and there is a a squeege to get the water off of them. I had tenants who didn't clean tub area and they had big spots of mold. I cleaned it once and gave them microbium and told them it's a housekeeping issue. they couldn't be bothered to keep it up and things returned to the way they were.

Jason thanks, I had a fan vented out in all of our bathrooms...

Jason there is no visible leak as long as I am aware. The house is from 1890, and most of the pipes are not new... The quote was not with a Mold Remediation Company, it was with a GC to re-do the bathroom, one quote is to do the full bathroom, and the other quote is with a Bathroom company, they don't do GC work, just bathroom tubs, custom bathroom and those things...

Vee on my 1st floor these 2 bathrooms are not located near to a window, but I have fan on both of them, in the 3rd floor the bathroom yes has a window and fan too.

PAt our dryer is in the basement and tenants do not have access to it.

Plenty I own a multi-family, live on the 1st floor, and rent another floor. On my floor, 1st floor, we have 2 bathrooms, in our 1st floor we cleaned with Clorox for Mold and Mildew, CLR Mold and Mildew, and it seems to work for 2-4 weeks and then comes back. House is from 1890. 1st-floor bathroom no windows and yes 2 new fans less than a year and did the test with the fan on and a piece of toilet paper to see the suction power and it is good. The 3rd-floor bathroom yes has a big window and fan too. There are no animals in the building.

Just had a little mold above a plastic shower tub combo. Turns out it was a leaking vent pipe on the roof. Water was coming in and running down the pipe into that wall area.

LZ, since you have fans, I'm inclined to agree with Still Learning that they are not working properly.

Turn the fans on & see if a piece of TP will stick to the grill. This won't tell you if they are doing a good job but it will at least give you an indication of whether or not they are drawing air out of the bathroom. We've found fans that were ducted to attics or just into the ceiling joists space but not to the exterior. So all they were actually doing was just basically nothing except getting some of the moist air out of the immediate vicinity of the bathroom.

Presuming that the fans are actually working you now need to determine if they are taking the air outside.

Leave the fans on & look on the exterior to insure that the flappers are actually opening & have someone shut them off to see if they really close properly. Vents that don't shut completely allow easy access for birds to enter. You can use either an electric leaf blower or a the blower of a shop vac to send air from the bathroom to the exterior. In order to do this you will need to remove the fan assembly to access the duct work. Most fans are easily removed for replacement so it shouldn't be a big deal to take it out. You can also use the shop vac to try to vacuum out the duct work from both the inside & the outside of the house. ://www.airkinglimited.com/blog/ventilation-diagnostic-5-ways-to-check-your-bathroom-exhaust-fan/

After the duct is clean the next thing to check is the volume of air that the fan is moving. In order to do this correctly you would need to use a flowhood to calculate the volume of air being drawn into the exhaust vent. Since most LLs don't have access to one, I doubt that you'll be able to do this. IMO instead of having a testing company come to verify the airflow you be better off just skipping the test & upgrading the fan.

If I was having these issues after having verified that the ducts were not obstructed, I'd just upgrade the actual fan. Most manufactures offer fans which can basically swapped out from the interior. For my clients & even for my rentals I like the Panasonic line of bathroom exhaust fans. Before you select your fan you need to calculate the volume of the room. being an older building, I presume that your baths all have 8'-9' ceiling heights so I'm guessing that you'll need a 150CFM or even larger fan to adequately remove the moisture. You might also consider getting one that has a built in humidistat especially since several of you bathrooms are having mold / mildew issues.

In addition to cleaning the ducts & upgrading the fans you also need to be sure that there is a source of makeup air. This can be done by either undercutting the door to the bathroom of installing a grill to bring air into the bathroom from an adjacent space.

I further suggest that you use one of the mold / mildew killing paints that both Kilz & Zinsser make to paint all of of your bathrooms. ://www.homedepot.com/s/mold%20preventing%20paint?NCNI-5

Lastly while you're checking & cleaning ductwork don't forget to do the clothes dryers.

LORDZ: The mold proof paint mentioned by STEVE above worked for us when we found mold on walls in a bathroom closet that would continue to return.

We have also found that if a tenant wants to save $ by not using heat or A/C when needed, or took hot baths regularly without wiping down the bathroom, shower area and walls, the fan was not enough to keep the moisture level down. If this is the case you may find windows in other rooms of the unit have moisture on them too.

We've begun to clean out the ducts and dryers at least annually to keep them running better and as a fire prevention measure.

Bonanza thanks I will take a look as well.

Steve hi friend. I did that, left the fan on, and check outside to see if the flap windows were open all the way and closing all the way, and they were working correctly, I need to try with the leaf blower and see if anything comes out.

Type of shower curtain can also affect mold in shower area. On my own home, I switched away from the shower curtains that need a vinyl liner probably a minute after the first time I ever spotted mold. Since then have ONLY used the fabric shower curtains that don’t use a liner. I buy mine at Home Depot or Menards. Because there is no layer of vinyl in there, air flows better. Nifty thing with these shower curtains is, IF you use the cheap plastic curtain rings, washing the shower curtain couldn’t be easier. Simply slide the curtain rings off the tension rod, pop the whole thing (curtain AND rings) in the washer. Hang back up in bathroom to dry. Mine is twelve years old, still looks new.

Steve Dee Ann and Lynn, the Kilz paint will work in a custom-made shower? Those plastic alike fitted showers that only fit 1 person, when I used it, it was for bedroom walls.

LZ, before I considered painting a fiberglass tub assembly, I'd be inclined to give it a very good cleaning & perhaps use some boat or car wax on the walls. Make sure if you do this to only wax the walls & not the floor or the threshold where people will step.

If there is some issue other than a mold / mildew issue & you feel the need to paint it I would give it a real good cleaning & use this

://www.kilz.com/primer/kilz-adhesion?gclid=6581a04d07051645e548c322a0bbb21b&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=6581a04d07051645e548c322a0bbb21b&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=KILZ_NA_NA_Masterbrand_AWA_Bing_Search_KWB_Copy_BRD_CPC_NA&utm_term=%2Bprimer%20%2Bpaint%20%2Bkilz&utm_content=Kilz_Primer_Brand

Thanks Still Learning and Steve, I used the Concrobium and for now everything is fine, I just thought to go above and beyond trying to nip this in the bu..