How effective is a UV light for mold prevention?


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Old 11-10-19, 11:06 AM
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How effective is a UV light for mold prevention?

Hello all! I have an older house with tenants, some of whom have asthma, and I am trying to clean and prevent mold in the bathrooms. I bought a small UV bulb (12 inches). We also bought Biocide mold foggers, but after those have been used, I want to prevent the mold from coming back. (I know it is dangerous to look at the UV light, I will be making sure no one comes into the bathroom while it's in use.) So is it possible to use a UV light regularly and prevent any new mold from growing? Thanks so much for your advice.
 
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Old 11-10-19, 12:00 PM
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So this begs the question...what is the source of the mold? Find that then you can eliminate the problem. UV light only if strong enough and for extended periods of time will kill mold (and I'm not sure it's effective on all molds).
 
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Old 11-10-19, 12:08 PM
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As far as we can tell, it is just the usual mold that you find on bathroom grout.

Thanks for the point about "extended periods" that is important to know.
 
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Old 11-10-19, 12:23 PM
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Well in that case as a landlord you can do nothing to prevent the mold. That's up to the tenant to keep things clean. Wiping down shower walls after each use is important (as my wife keeps telling me). Occasionally using a cleaner to clean the walls and if bad enough there are grout cleaner to be used. UV lighting will not help in this case.
 
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Old 11-10-19, 04:46 PM
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Well in that case as a landlord you can do nothing to prevent the mold on grout. That's up to the tenants to keep their living space clean. Wiping down the shower or tub walls is mandatory to prevent mold (as my wife alwtays tells me).
 
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Old 11-10-19, 07:21 PM
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UV light kills bacteria effectively but I don't think it works well enough across the board to be effective for mold.
https://www.hunker.com/12250750/how-...-with-uv-light
 
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Old 11-11-19, 03:38 AM
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As Stickshift's link shows, using the right kind of UV (type C) is critical and it takes lots of timed to "dis-infect" a moldy bathroom. If a person isn't going wipe down the walls you can be sure they won't spend the time necessary to use a UV light. If the tenant is disabled and cannot wipe down walls then that's a case of a "hired" cleaning person to handle. This is not a landlord responsibility to tenants.

I'm curious, and of course you don't need to answer this question, but why do you feel it's your responsibility to solve this problem?
 
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Old 11-11-19, 06:08 AM
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Hi Norm201, (and all) thanks for your clear answers. The reason is that it's also my home, the tenants are also housemates. So it's a shared thing with all of us. I appreciate your advice!
 
 

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