Getting Rid of Mold in Your Kitchen Cabinets

Mold is one of those things that can make you and your family sick, aggravate your allergies, and in some cases cause severe respiratory distress. Not only that, but it looks unsightly and smells a tad noxious, so if you see it in your kitchen, the best thing you can do is get rid of it immediately.

Unfortunately, refacing kitchen cabinets san diego are especially prone to mold because there are a lot of wooden cabinets and moisture to go along with them. While most cabinet wood is fairly good at resisting mold, there isn’t a type of wood in the world that actually prefers moisture to dry. 

Wood damaging pests rely on the moisture in the wood in order to feed, which is why specialists will tell you that there is no such thing as ‘dry rot’. Nonetheless, kitchens are where you boil water and cook, so moisture is inevitable, and if you don’t take proper care of your cabinets, so is mold. So if you’re in a position where you’re seeing some signs of molding, there are some steps you can take to remove the mold, but in other instances, you may have to replace the cabinets entirely.

For this you will need rubber gloves, bleach, a hard thistled brush, goggles, and a spray bottle.

#1. Self Protection

Firstly, you need to protect your hands and eyes. You’re also going to want a surgical mask so that you don’t breathe in any of the mold spores which can be potentially hazardous to your health, depending on what kind of mold it is. If you’re dealing with black mold, your best bet is to have all of this done professionally, since the symptoms can be quite uncomfortable and dangerous. If the black mold has spread to the frame of cabinetry, you’re probably going to want to have the cabinets replaced completely.

#2. Bleach and Water Mixture and Spraying the Mold

The next step will be preparing the spray mixture, which will be composed of part bleach and part water. While there is no set ratio for the perfect water to bleach mix for killing mold, you want enough to kill the mold, but no so much that the dog runs out of the room because his eyes are burning.

Then you’ll spray the mold with enough bleach solution to cover the entire surface, and give the bleach a few minutes to set in. There isn’t much that bleach can’t kill, and mold is no match for bleach. Then, with your stiff bristled scrubber, physically remove the mold from the wood, and rinse the area with cool water.

“Once the mold has spread to the frame, or underneath the cabinet where the pipes are you have a serious problem and refacing your kitchen cabinets won’t be enough,” says one San Diego cabinet installer. “You’ll need to replace them entirely.”