I have expensive leather office chair that may have some mold in the nooks and cranies. It is still being used indoors and was never stored outside. Anyway, I like to see if I can treat the chair but without soaking it in cleaner or water and without expensive cleaning.
I am hoping someone here knows something about the property of mold killing chemicals and either confirm or reject what I thought of doing.
I understand that bleach may not actually kill the mold.
What I planned was to try fumigating the chair. I would set the chair on a big sheet of plastic, set down a container of bleach (or another kind anti-mold solution -vinegar?) and close up the plastic over the chair. The evaporating solution would fumigate the chair.
Does this sound like it will work? What chemical would you recommend?
I read about fumigating unfinished furniture to age the wood, and if this kind of treatment also has anti-mold effect, please advise.
Thank you to all in advance.
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I'd be leery of getting chlorine bleach anywhere near a good leather chair.
If I were trying to fumigate something with chlorine, I'd do something slightly dangerous and tent the object, then put a bit of acid into a bit of bleach. This will result in the release of free chlorine gas, which is highly toxic, and will kill just about anything. Which would include you, the kids, the pets, etc., if you weren't extremely careful.
But as Dan said, it might not be a good idea to get chlorine around the leather.
Free chlorine would really bleach and dry out the leather, corrode any metal (oxidize it) and probably cause the leather to crack. Chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent, and as you mentioned, pretty toxic.
Boric acid in alcohol may work. (Sorry, should have posted this to original poster.) I think others here have talked about a solution of boric acid, alcohol and borax that actually kills mold. The alcohol may not be as bad as water for the leather, but it may still have bad effects. Maybe ask someone at a furniture store--seems like they may have encountered this before, or have ideas about it.
rubbing alcohol, then saddle soap, then perhaps an Armoral or other oil treatment specifically for leather.
Just wipe down with the rubbing alcohol. Too much soaking in will not be great for the leather. It is used for rawhide to shape it into various forms by reconstituing the shapes of the cells, softening the walls.
But it should kill surface spores residing on the leather. Colonies growing down into the leather are good reason to burn it, but that is far less likely.
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BTW, the acids in vinegar would be more likely to destroy bacteria than mold. Lots of molds love acidic environments.
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I'm with Piffin-
I've attended a lot of mold remediation courses over the years.
'Elbow grease" is unanimously said to be required.
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Try some Lysol spray on a clean cloth or paper towel, wiping the leather chair on the underside first as a test. Some of the leather dye may come off on the towel.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Once again I like Piffin's advice. Also it's not a bad idea to bring the chair outside on a dry sunny day to do it. Tomorrow is supposed to be like that.
Your chair can be fumigated with chlorine dioxide. Here's a website that sells kits that produce the gas. What you do is build a chamber out of plastic, place the pouch and some water to activate in the chamber, and seal it up. I'm doing that now to clean up musty smelling books from my basement. I haven't taken them out yet to see if this really works. But chlorine dioxide is a legitimate mold killer. It's the stuff that was used to kill the anthrax in the post office buildings and kill mold in several notable building in New Orleans.
I don't recall if the website said anything about leather.
http://www.odorxit.com/?order~CoGen#clo2
No to most of the recommendations.
Use a quaternary cleaner, like Lysol IC. Then dry and apply a leather conditioner. You may try saddle soap first. . The rubbing alcohol will probably work too.
Also try whatever you decide to use on a small underside section to see what it does to the surface.
Edited 9/19/2009 12:58 am ET by Southbay
Another vote for Lysol and some elbow grease.
guess what the main ingredient of the Lysol is?The rubbing ( denatured) alcohol is lots cheaper.
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I am replying to the last poster because I don't know how to put in my own post in the thread. Anyway, thank you very much to all for the advice.
By nooks I meant the deep creases in the leather made by the buttons. I hope you know what I mean. Although it was expensive, now some buttons are missing and the chair is not in top condition. Therefore, I would not mind just pouring small amount of alcohol over the buttons. Then I will clean the rest with saddle soap.
Again, thank you.
Piffin-
I recommended Lysol because I had to clean up a lot of mold on a water damaged house a while back. While looking into "mold remediation" products (ridiculously expensive), the active ingredient was always alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. I'm no chemist, so I started looking at regular cleaning products. Guess what? Lysol All Purpose Cleaner has almost as much of the same ingredient (1.2%) but at an incredibly lower cost. A lot of other regular cleaning products have the ingredient too, just not as much as Lysol does. I buy the 40 oz. bottle at walmart for $2.00. Keep in mind, this stuff comes in a regular bottle, not a spray bottle. Some of the spray bottles with Lysol's name on them are weaker, diluted products (glass cleaners, etc.). I usually pour the Lysol into a spray bottle and apply it full strength to surfaces that need cleaning. In addition to killing the mold on contact, the ingredient also provides some protection from it coming back in the future.
good background on that.
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Piffin's alcohol, works in seconds.
Saddle soap afterwards.
Cinnamin down in the crevases will prevent any reoccurance.
SamT
A Pragmatic Classical Liberal, aka Libertarian.
I'm always right!
Except when I'm not.
Something I don't think you've told us is why you think it has mold in the "nooks and crannies".
This is waaaay late to share, but Chlorine Dioxide gas could be used for the odor removal needs. If the chair is "tented" off, the gas would, in theory, be able to hit all areas air would. Chlorine Dioxide is well documented in being a good deodorizer, and is even used to deodorize smoke odors and foul smells in cars (See here for an example: https://www.pureline.com/removes-odors-from-autos-and-rvs/)