On Aug 1, 4:59*pm, aemeijers wrote:
Steve Barker wrote:
On 7/30/2010 6:58 PM, Higgs Boson wrote:
I am having a very long and annoying time removing the old caulk from
my tub where it meets the tile wall. *Somebody did a terrible job
recaulking, a while back. *I tried repeatedly to deal with the mold
exteriorly with various mildewcides. *Nothing worked, so I have now
grasped the nettle, and day by day, am chipping away at this train
wreck with various tools, mainly a razor blade in a straight holder.
Ghastly business!

QUESTION: *Since I don't ever want to go through this again, I want to
clean/disinfect/whatever the area with the strongest and best
mildewcide on the market before I recaulk.

Everybody has their own favorites. *Is there a concensus?

TIA

It's not really a matter of favorites or what not. *BLEACH kills mold
and mildew period. *But the secret is getting it dry back in there
before you re-caulk. *Or it'll just keep growing back there forever.

I'll second that. After multiple 24-hour and 48-hour waiting periods
failed (not just mold, the damn caulk kept falling out), I finally
abandoned the main bath for a full week and used the tiny stall shower
and guest bath exclusively, and it finally stuck. I also scrubbed ALL
the grout lines with bleach, and after recaulking the bathtub line and
corners, painted them with that clear grout seal stuff. I then let the
new caulk and seal set for another 48 hours before using the bath. So
far, other than one tiny spot where the caulk pulled away, success. When
I hit the lotto and build my dream house, the shower will have
solid-surface walls and rounded epoxy (or whatever they make field
joints out of) corners. I hate grout and caulk.

AMEN to that! Bathroom problems aside, my tiled kitchen counter and
backsplash have been a major problem for years. When I remodeled the
kitchen, back in the Paleozoic, I was too ignorant to realize problems
tile can bring.

can't afford to replace the whole thing with one of the high-end non-
tile products like Corian, etc. So I have to keep cleaning the damn
grout which never looks good, period. Have tried to re-grout several
times;; amateur job; good appearance lasts about 5 min. I used that
protective "clear grout seal stuff" after the last re-tile job; did
zip to preserve grout. Whole thing is about enough $$$ to put in a
functional non-tile kitchen counter. What's the winning lottery # this
week g.

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