Bleach is Ineffective to Kill Mold on Porous Surfaces and Building Materials

Bleach is not effective to kill toxic black mold and household mold on porous surfaces and building materials such as wood, plywood, paneling, ceiling tiles, drywall, paper backing of insulation, and carpeting, all of which are good food for mold to eat. Below are real-world reports from bleach users worldwide about the failure of bleach to kill mold growth:

---"The whole back of the house grows mold on the lower bottom of the walls.

  I bleach it and it comes right back."

"How can i prevent mold around the windows from coming back after I clean it with clorox and water? After about three months ii can see it starting to come back? I see different colors of it. What can I do to stop it?"

"I live in a half double and I recently discovered mold in my home. In my downstairs living room and

 in my upstairs bedroom. I cleaned the area with bleach and within a few days the white hairs were growing back."

---"I can forward you pics of the walls, which by the way I scrubbed with a bleach mixture, then sealed & repainted, the black & fuzzy grey mold is growing back.

 I know it is the mold making me sick, I never suffered from any of this before in my life."

 ---"Mold grows all over the baseboards of the downstairs. In the closets and on all the contents in the closets. It  grows on the sofas and the pillows on the sofas. It actually grows on any and everything down stairs.

  I have cleaned everything with Lysol and bleach and yet it returns."

---"My air conditioner was leaking this summer and caused water to run down my apt. wall,

 I now have mold on the wall, carpet, and surrounding woodwork despite trying to treat it with bleach."

"My mother called the landlord and told him that there was brown stuff growing on the walls, and he said   clean it with bleach and water. 

My mother is constantly cleaning the walls with bleach because it keeps coming back."

A.M., on Dec. 5, 2004

"On every single window seal in my house, we have mold that appears every week.  I have been cleaning it off with bleach, but I want to know how to make it stop.  All the windows are only 2-3 years old."

K.O., on Dec. 29, 2004.

"A month ago the apartment maintenance men cleaned the mold on the wall by our daughters crib with bleach. Since then, we have found, 4 more spots of mold, on the same wall."

M.S., Los Angeles, California, on Dec. 29, 2004

"I have a really gross looking mold (I think it’s a mold) growing in the corner of my shower, I believe originating from the tile grout.  It looks like two pale yellow macaroni noodles stuck together.  They are hollow and about 1 inch each.  They appeared literally overnight, for the second time, despite heavy cleaning and bleaching."

R.C., on Jan. 3, 2005

"I am 7 months pregnant and also have a 2 year old son and all of us have seemed to be sick since we moved here. The manager has only wiped the mold away with bleach and told us to do so also if it comes back..... which I have been doing every 3-5 days, that’s how long it usually takes to reappear."

D.D., on Jan. 4, 2005.

"I have scrubbed several times with straight bleach and the mold just keeps returning."

S.P., on Jan. 5, 2005.

"We have a severe mold problem growing in the basement. We have washed the walls time and time again with bleach and water, but it never seems to do any good."

C.B. on January 5, 2005.

"I have tons of mold in my classroom.  During the summer, I scraped it off, bleached it, and painted it.  It grew back within 3 days."

R.L. on January 5, 2005.

"We soon noticed one of the climbing vine houseplants had a fluffy white mold growing atop it's "climbing pole." We've noticed that the surface of some of the bricks were covered with a white powder, and unfortunately doused the bricks with bleach after removing the plants. This caused a fluffy white overgrowth that was much worse than the first."

K.S. on Jan. 6, 2005.

"We have a window mold problem. We have cleaned the tracks with bleach and it comes back."

P.R., on Jan. 7, 2005

Bleach seems to help control the mold only for a month or so

A.M. on Jan. 11, 2005.

The landlord recommended bleach which didn't get rid of the mold---it's growing back."

R.B. on Jan. 12, 2005

"I have been bleaching the mold and scrubbing the effected areas (the entire attic!) on a daily basis.   But it keeps coming back."---

C.H. on Jan. 12, 2005.

-"There is black mold in the shower at all times. I bleach it and it goes away for a day or so and then reappears."---

A.B. on Jan. 13, 2005

"I occasionally spray the moldy basement cement walls with clorox bleach.  The clorox only seems to work for a month or two."

T.L. on Jan. 13, 2005

"I have mold in my bathroom (ceiling and upper wall) and have tried bleach water and repainted with Kilz.  The mold is returning."

D.C. on Jan. 14, 2005.  

"All four walls are covered pretty much floor to ceiling along with the ceiling. Like many others, I have cleaned with bleach only to have the mold return."--

L.O. on Jan. 14, 2005

"We've cleaned with bleach but there is still mold in the house. I have been very nauseus and throwing up every morning."

T.T. on Jan. 14, 2005.

"Bleach spray will take it away but the mold comes back."

"A black powdery mold, growing in circle clusters keeps growing and growing. bleach doesn't work. I want to be able to kill it for good."

M.P. on Jan.16, 2005.

"My mother, who is a nurse and here on vacation, came over to our apartment and freaked out, saying that she smelled and detected mold in our window ledges, after I had just bleached it less than a month ago. So the mold has grown back since then."--

A.C. in North Carolina on Jan. 16, 2005.

"On the front porch of my daughter's home, there was mold all over. She cleaned with bleach and it came back."---

"Along the building there are now several areas as large as 2 to 3 feet in diameter of what appears to be a white mold substance coming up through the concrete. This substance cakes up 2 to 3 inches high. My rental manager has tried treating this with bleach and it has not stopped it from re-occurring."

S.H. in California on Jan. 18, 2005.

My cement garage floor (1st time ever) has white fuzzy mold all over it.  First I washed it with diluted bleach, the next day it came back.  I just poured straight bleach on it but it still is coming back."---

-D.C. on Jan. 14, 2005.

"All four walls are covered pretty much floor to ceiling along with the ceiling. Like many others, I have cleaned with bleach only to have the mold return."  

 L.O. on Jan. 14, 2005

"We've cleaned with bleach but there is still mold in the house. I have been very nauseus and throwing up every morning."-

 T.T. on Jan. 14, 2005

  Bleach spray will take it away but the mold comes back."

"A black powdery mold, growing in circle clusters keeps growing and growing. bleach doesn't work. I want to be able to kill it for good."

M.P. on Jan.16, 2005.

My mother, who is a nurse and here on vacation, came over to our apartment and freaked out, saying that she smelled and detected mold in our window ledges, after I had just bleached it less than a month ago. So the mold has grown back since then."--

A.C. in North Carolina on Jan. 16, 2005.

"On the front porch of my daughter's home, there was mold all over. She cleaned with bleach and it came back."---

 J.C. on Jan. 17, 2005.

Along the building there are now several areas as large as 2 to 3 feet in diameter of what appears to be a white mold substance coming up through the concrete. This substance cakes up 2 to 3 inches high. My rental manager has tried treating this with bleach and it has not stopped it from re-occurring."---

 S.H. in California on Jan. 18, 2005.

"My cement garage floor (1st time ever) has white fuzzy mold all over it.  First I washed it with diluted bleach, the next day it came back.  I just poured straight bleach on it but it still is coming back."

T.L. in Canada on Jan. 18, 2005. 

 "I have plaster walls throughout the home, and have been cleaning the mold with vinegar, bleach and water -- the mold seems to  disappear, but within weeks it is back again."

H.B. on Jan. 25, 2005.

 "We tried the bleach method, and it didn't work."

L.C. on Jan. 29, 2004.

The maintenance man comes and cleans the mold off with bleach water, but as of yet nothing is being done to fix this  'growing' problem."

K.O. on Feb. 4, 2005.

"We are able to completely remove the black spots when we clean the ceiling with Lysol Bathroom Cleaner (with bleach) but it’s only a matter of a week or two before it’s back again."

J.K. on Feb. 4, 2005

"I tried bleach and wire brush. It looked fairly well but after 24 hours the mold on the front wall is starting to grow back."---

D.K. in Hawaii on Feb. 7, 2005.

"I spray the wood walls with bleach, but as I have learned via the web, bleach is a myth.  Please give me some advice as to how I can kill mold effectively. It is such a shame to live in Hawaii and have to spend my days cleaning mold off the inside walls."

A.S. on February 8, 2005

"I began to notice mold growing on the window casings and the window sills. I would wipe it down with bleach water, but it soon would return."

   J.D. on Feb. 14, 2005.

" I  tried to kill the mold in my house with bleach but it didn't seem to help at all."--

D.L. in Florida on Feb. 15, 2005.

  "My husband washed the walls and windows with bleach (which obviously doesn't work because the mold is of course growing back now)."--

J.P. on Feb. 16, 2005

I have cleaned the wall mold up with diluted bleach, but it has returned worse."--

B.W. on Feb. 17, 2005

I have a tenant that has a problem with grey mold in one room,  They would bleach and then the next day its back."

  E.H. on Feb. 22, 2005.

"I need to know how to remove mold from the outside of my house. I have used bleach and Kilz and it keeps returning every year."--

L.F. on March 1, 2005.

"When i noticed the mold, I washed it off with bleach. I also used a product called 'stopz'--- its an oil based paint which stops stains from bleeding though the paint. I painted the wall about the first week of Nov and I though that the bleach would get rid of the mold. About 3 weeks later it came back even blacker and fuller than before."---

C.B. on March 2, 2005.

We are finding mold all over our house. Is it safe to live here? We have just finally decided to check into it, because most of us are sick with many of the mold symptoms. I have cleaned it when it has popped up with bleach, but it seems to be getting worse."

E.K. on March 5, 2005

"It's black and repeatedly grows back after being sprayed every few months with bleach."--

 N.B. on March 12, 2005.

"I am very concerned about this mildew that I have in my apartment.  Almost every week I clean it off with bleach and hot water and it still returns."--

We have have an ongoing problem with all of our outside walls getting black I don’t have a picture but I can describe it as being like black soot I clean the walls with bleach but it returns."

C.A. on March 15, 2005

"I live in an apartment and my bedroom wall consistently grows mildew the owner tells me to clean it off with bleach but it continues to grows. Of course I called and complained finally they sent out a painter to spray paint over the walls and guess what the mildew came back!"---

J.J. on March 21, 2005

"We have tried bleach water and it temporarily removes some of the mold but it grows back."

S.S. on March 26, 2005.

---"I started seeing MOLD little black/Brown patches in my shower...looks like it was also underneath the tile caulking!! like the landlord was trying to cover it up!!!!  I scrubbed with bleach and sprayed Lysol ... it was back with in a week..."---

"In my room I have black mold that grows about six inches up some of the walls. We bleach it and we have painted over it but it always returns.

A.K. on April 17, 2005.

"Each year we have a black mold returning on the siding in all areas---North-South-East-and West sides.  We have washed it with bleach and then re stained.  But that didn't work."

We would spray bleach on the mold and every other day it would grow back."---

There is white and tan fungi (not mold) on the joists and flooring under the house, possibly

Serpula lacrimans, which we sprayed with full strength household bleach last year before closing the place up. I had also placed a layer of clear plastic sheeting over the entire crawlspace sand floor. Of course this was a huge mistake because the water component of the bleach was standing in puddles over the whole plastic liner when we opened the place up this year, and the encrustation by fungi is way worse."

L.K. on August 20, 2005

"About a month ago I noticed mold growing inside a kitchen cupboard and on the surrounding drawers ,  I took everything out and cleaned the mold with a bleach mix, (which I have no read might not have been a good idea), dried everything, and left the cupboard open for a week.  The mold is now back."

"I have tried to clean some wood paneling in a basement.  Mold seems to grow back in a couple of days.

  I cleaned it with straight bleach.  I have also tried polish and Mop and Glow floor cleaner.  It seems to come back every time."