mildew on canvas

[themays5]

I have some friends whose canvas is totally mildewed. Any tips on trying to remove it?

[wavery]

I have some friends whose canvas is totally mildewed. Any tips on trying to remove it?

Mildew/mold (same thing) is a living organism. It will continue to grow and can damage the material over time. It may have already damaged the material into what looks like black residue that may not come off.

A 10% solution of bleach is the most common remedy for killing mold. Once the mold itself is killed, it will simply dissapear. There are other fancy packaged a named brands of mold and mildew removers but I don't think that anything is more effective than bleach.

It may be wise to treat a small area first, to see how the material reacts to the bleach solution (color fastness could be an issue) but in most cases, I believe that a 10% solution is pretty harmless to most materials.

[themays5]

Thanks for the tip, they tried it and it worked! They put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on and it disappeared right before their eyes. Now off to camping for the weekend!

[wavery]

Thanks for the tip, they tried it and it worked! They put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on and it disappeared right before their eyes. Now off to camping for the weekend!

Thanks for letting us know........BTW, the bleach should be rinsed well.

[boncrab]

Wavery,

Are there any issues after using bleach about the water proof ability of the canvas?

[wavery]

Wavery,

Are there any issues after using bleach about the water proof ability of the canvas?

It depends on how old the canvas is. The bleach in and of itself shouldn't effect the waterproofing (in most materials, especially Sunbrella) any more than most cleaners. If the canvas is 8-10 years old, one may want to consider a real good cleaning and water-proofing anyway.

[hoppy]

Are there any issues after using bleach about the water proof ability of the canvas?

 It never hurts to re-waterproof the canvas to help keep it in good shape.
 It's easy and cheap enough to do.
 When you think about it, the mildew formed due to water being absorbed in to the woven cotton fibre canvas in the first place.
 When I had my old 1978 Palomino with the canvas tenting, I would waterproof the tenting about every two years. This also helps prevent stains from setting in to the fabric and helps reduce dry-rot.
 I would use two spray cans on my PU of a product made by KIWI (the shoe polish company) called "Camp Dry" (found in the Walmart camping dept)
 At the time this stuff was about $5.00 a can, so you can see for ten bucks every other year it won't break the bank.