Mouldy cotton and canvas :(

[Beardy]

Hi all, not sure if this is the place to put this but here we go, I had thought of putting this in the Food section under 'interesting fungi' or the First Aid under 'grow you own penicillin' but maybe not!

I know there's a lot of folk here with canvas kit and no doubt a lot too who find that their out-of-season outdoorsy clothes take up a bit too much space and so bung them in a box in the attic or garage or cellar.

So does anyone here know how to protect your kit against moulding? I just took a plastic box out of storage last night, with some out-of-season clothing in there and a few bags/satchels no longer in regular use, some canvas, some nylon.

Interestingly a couple of the canvas items have started to mould or rot. I can see white spore-like growths on the surface of some of the canvas. No sign of it on any of the clothes (mixed cotton and synthetic blends, mostly) or the nylon kit but I put all the clothing through the wash anyway to be sure. Next I've got to figure out what to do with the canvas stuff. I think I'll dunk the nylon stuff in soapy water and dry out again just to be on the safe side too.

To clarify, when I put the box away at the end of summer, all the stuff going in was clean and dry, not damp or mouldering. The box has been closed (its a 'Really Useful Box', sort of thing you put in the attic, not exactly hermetically sealed but it does have a decent lid on it) so I can't see how damp would have gotten in, and it's not been stored in extremes of temperature for condensation to happen either (typical unheated garage conditions over the past months, not a damp or wet room by any means).

So what's the solution to stopping everything mouldering away in the meantime?

I had thought of keeping the clothing in the wardrobe instead of in a plastic box next time to let more air get to it (I think no air movement can help spores take?) but that's going to take some jiggery-pokery to fit it all in and I'm not keen on the idea of spreading spores to my everyday clothes too? I'm also not keen on the idea of dousing everything in some sort of defumigating chemical as a routine matter of course, if that can be avoided!

Cheers

Beardy

 

[Shewie]

I wonder if those storage bags with the vacuum nozzle would work better than a box?

 

[RonW]

First dry these items out befor you store them. Than store them in a ventilated and dry place. If possible hang them up/out.
Throwing them in an airtight box or container is asking for trouble, since any moisture still trapped inside the fabric will start to mold over a period of time. If you have to store them in boxes, use those large cardboard bananaboxes with the open top and bottom, or something similar.
Done so for 2 decades myself (with my old army webbinggear for instance) and never had any problems.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Sounds like mildew.........................the spores are every where

I think it's condensation in the boxes that has caused it, there only has to be a slight difference in temperature between the interior of the box & the surrounding air for moisture to form. the temperatures in a garage vary quite a lot, from day to day, even from daytime to night.
The best way to store cotton or canvas is in an airy & dry atmosphere with plenty of air circulation & wth a stable temperature.......stuffing it in boxes then storing it in the attic, shed or garage is not ideal.

 

[Beardy]

Thanks for the pointers all, looks like the wardrobe is going to be full to bursting soon then!

Cardboard boxes would normally be a good choice but we have had a few mice around the garage and attic that just love chewing through anything organic that they can get their mitts on - which is why we went to the plastic boxes in the first place. Maybe we just need to cut back on the cat food so they have a bit more of a hunting instinct

I had briefly thought about vacuum sealed bags which you use a hoover to get the air out of, but whilst that would get rid of the moisture in said air I bet there would be some left behind in there.

The other thing that popped into my head was those little cloth bags of dessicant. But that's not so easy to find in the quantity needed to fill an attic or garage worth of boxes with the stuff!

I've got all the clothes hanging up drying around the house now, having come out of the wash. I hope that's got rid of whatever bugs they'd been lying next to enough for me to pop them in the wardrobe as usual? I think I will give the canvas mildewy things a good scrub and soap up, that should kill the nasties off?

 

[Shewie]

I had briefly thought about vacuum sealed bags which you use a hoover to get the air out of, but whilst that would get rid of the moisture in said air I bet there would be some left behind in there.

You'd have to make sure the kit was bone dry before packing, I stuck some stuff up in the loft a few months ago so I'll see how it's doing.

 

[Teepee]

I kept an old white canvas tent in a completely dry garage for years, in its canvas bag.

It went mouldy

I suffer with mould on my cotton dustsheets ( I'm a decorator). If I strip wallpaper, they get damp and need drying. 2 days of damp and they are already blackening.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I think I will give the canvas mildewy things a good scrub and soap up, that should kill the nasties off?

Wash them by all means but it may not remove all the fungi nor the musty smell....bleeched water will kill any spores & help with the smell though may change the colour. Dry them as quickly as you can, preferably over a radiator & if the weather is fine let them air out of doors for a few hours before hanging them up in your wardrobe ....these mould fungi hate sunlight & wind.

 

[Beardy]

I suffer with mould on my cotton dustsheets ( I'm a decorator). If I strip wallpaper, they get damp and need drying. 2 days of damp and they are already blackening.

I had this in digs I rented whilst a student. Bed right next to an exterior wall (it was a very odd shaped shared room so the only way to have it) and a cold damp house meant that the side of my mattress covers were growing black gunge. Even the paper of my books became manky. Nasty nasty stuff, but since leaving that hovel and washing everything like crazy it seems to not have come back.

I was wondering how canvas laavu's held up. How did you deal with your tent, did you just machine wash it?

 

[Beardy]

Wash them by all means but it may not remove all the fungi nor the musty smell....bleeched water will kill any spores & help with the smell though may change the colour. Dry them as quickly as you can, preferably over a radiator & if the weather is fine let them air out of doors for a few hours before hanging them up in your wardrobe ....these mould fungi hate sunlight & wind.

Cheers for that, clothing seems not to have picked up any mankiness (odd since they're a cotton synthetic blend I would have thought the cotton part of it would have gone) but the canvas stuff will get a scrubbing and an airing. Maybe I'll leave it out overnight and see if freezing will also get rid of the bugs!

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Cheers for that, clothing seems not to have picked up any mankiness (odd since they're a cotton synthetic blend I would have thought the cotton part of it would have gone) but the canvas stuff will get a scrubbing and an airing. Maybe I'll leave it out overnight and see if freezing will also get rid of the bugs!

BUGS ?..........Wouldn't hang it out overnight, it will just get damp again

 

[Hugo]

Only way to kill the mould is use bleach, smelly stuff I know but it works.
I'm getting some cotton canvas delivered this week, going to make a shelter out of it or a big tarp, I do like natural fibres and materials.

 

[rik_uk3]

Pack your kit bone dry

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-VACUUM-...90384153219?pt=UK_Storage&hash=item5ae4b57283

Work well, we use these type to store clothes and sheets up in the loft.

 

[mountainm]

Get some silica gel sachets and bung em in with whatever you're storing. Milton is a kind way to deal with the effects of Mould on cloth.

 

[Old Bones]

As long as the material has had enough time to dry out, you can use any vacbag you like - I tend to use the ones from Poundland. I wouldn't use them for any bag that needed to be moved around a lot, but for sleeping bags, etc that are just going in the loft, their fine.