Help with disgusting rental - slime mold and nicotine

19 years ago

I need some recommendations on cleaning two bathrooms. The master bathroom has a shower stall that was covered, literally covered, in orange and pink molds. When I scrubbed it off with a brush then used water to send it down the drain, it smelled like raw sewage. I'm sure now that I should have been wearing a face mask or a full biosuit :) It has been cleaned 3 times with professional strength shower cleaner and still is gross in corners. I'm going with straight bleach in a spray bottle next. I think that should have been my first choice.

The second bathroom has a tub with shower surround. Regular scrubbing bubbles and good old fashioned elbow grease got the black out of the tub, but I was not very successful in getting the nicotine stains out of the grout. I tried Soft Scrub gel with bleach too. Any recommendations there?

This is a very temporary housing situation as I sold my townhouse and have not found another place to buy, but in the meantime, I do need the bathrooms clean. One is fit for human use after 6 hours of scrubbing. I still have a long way to go on the floor, but it is bleached and fit for walking.

Any hints for removing nicotine from the bathroom walls would help too. They didn't paint one of the bathrooms (they claim they sealed the rest of the walls with Killz and painted over them, but the ceilings haven't been touched--guess we'll be doing that too).

The kitchen is coming soon. Ewww.

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Comments (9)

nelles_gw
19 years ago
Try one of those Mr. Clean "Magic Erasers". They work wonders on most anything!
Terrapots
19 years ago
My preference would be bleach/water, 1:9, using a bucket and sponge mop go over all the surfaces including the ceiling. It will help deodorize and get rid of mildew. I have no experience with nicotine, but at least the bleach should whiten it some. Run some baking soda, borax or vinegar down your drains, maybe some detergent and hot water with your leftover bleach. Good luck. I don't envy you.
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To all, Let's see......... I used the Kool-Aid thing because of it's citric acid content. Didn't want to buy a big container of Tang is why I chose it. I do use Borax although not in every load and I only use F.S. on a rare occasion. Am on well water, but also have a whole house filter hooked up to the water heater that is changed every few months or sooner. I use better filters not just the basic ones. The machine has a special cycle to clean the machine and it says to use regular bleach only. I only use chlorine bleach for this cycle as I otherwise only use oxy bleach. The homebrew soap was not used for every load and I only used it for a short period. Now I'm not saying this didn't have an impact on the resulting ick, but you can be sure I'm going to inspect the impeller every few weeks to ck it. The dot pattern you mentioned was actually the larger chunks of debris. I have dealt with mold before on walls and the pinkish slime that can sometimes build up in toilets, but these spores or whatever were not raised and active as it may have looked like. It looked like a crud like texture, but hey if it was mold I'm all over the idea of ridding the machine of it! mrmensch, Thanks so much for the Cabrio tear down link!!! I will most certainly be cking it out and will report back if I'm able to get the lid off! I'm actually excited about it!!! To update, I haven't had any debris on clothing or in the drum since I cleaned the impeller and I continue to have no issues to date! BTW, I just received my order of C.S. and will test it out and see how it performs with my hard well water. I do not know how to determine the grain hardness and the closest water testing that the county uses is an hour away. Any suggestions on how to ck it out cheaply? I was told to add some STTP or more washing soda in case my results were below average. I will relay my findings soon! Again thanks to all, no really!!! =)
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good36
19 years ago
For mold I use straight bleach in a spray bottle. One good shot and it is ALL gone! Can't beat plain old bleach in my opinion.
Judy Good
anrsaz
19 years ago
You can get a grout bleacher at a home improvement store...home depot or the like. I've used it before...I think it was called ZAP and it worked really well on whiting my grout.
User
19 years ago
Tobacco smoke has a resin-like component ... TSP in water will break it down.
gardenspice
19 years ago
A hand steamer works great on hard surfaces. I think mine is Eureka Sure shot. Also - Leave the soft scrub on for a day. I could not fathom that my renters had been bathing their toddler in that dirty tub/surround! It was pristine when they rented and it took two scrubbings, but was pristine again after a lot of elbow grease.
theresas
Original Author
19 years ago
I tried the Mr. Clean magic eraser. It helped the tile a little, but not the grout. Next will be the straight bleach. I'll try to do it tomorrow with lots of fans in the windows because guess what? no exhaust fans :(

The kitchen is getting there. We've used up about 4 Mr. Clean magic erasers in there on the cabinets. Seems to work better than most of the cleaning supplies like sprays and Lysol sanitizing and disinfecting wipes. Someone needs to buy stock in those considering all of them that we've gone through!

I'm going ot try the TSP solution for the walls and I will probably go over the doors and door frames again with it (if it will not hurt them). Too bad I probably can't use it on the carpets. I believe the resin stuff--everything is sticky. Or was. We've taken down all the blinds and shoved them in the attic. It's amazing how filthy the windows were. My husband found a wasps nest inside the windows :( :( :(

We are soooo focused on saving lots of money and moving to our Final Destination as we've begun to call it. Selling turned into a mini-nightmare and we're not eager to repeat the experience, so we're going to be rather picky with what we buy. We already have our neighborhood targeted =D

Now time to search the cooking archives for advice on using our new convection microwave. I'm not cooking in that oven, don't care how clean I get it! Well, I say that now, but you guys know I will :) The hubby spent 3 hours scrubbing 2 racks. Too bad we couldn't just put them in some dewey grass-----HOA rules would prohibit it. Thank goodness for Dawn spray! Otherwise it might've taken 6 hours.
jonsgirl
19 years ago
Try putting them in a garbage bag with some ammonia overnight...I think that helps loosen all the crud and they are easy to clean off.
User
19 years ago
It sounds like you are going right to scrubbing ... if you let things soak, the grime gets saturated and comes off easier. Water is a great solvent, soapy water even better, but the reaction takes time.

Oven racks: place in large trash bag, spray thoroughtly with oven cleaner and SEAL. Leave them in a sunny spot for a couple of days so they get real warm.

Grunge: wet paper towels with the cleaning solution, slap them on the surface and cover with plastic (trash bags again) to prevent evaporation. Test periodically and scrub only when the stuff has softened.

Help with disgusting rental - slime mold and nicotine

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nelles_gw

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Help with disgusting rental - slime mold and nicotine

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