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[wierd]

what kind of mold, and why?

If the mold has already infiltrated the wood, killing it is often very difficult.

[dragdeler]

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[wierd]

If this is black mold, it is caused by a leaky roof (and or, frequently getting wet), and you need to hazmat dispose of the material immediately.

http://www.ehs.ufl.edu/programs/ih/ieq/mold/



EDIT:

Green or white mold?  OK, thats less likely to be such a danger.  There are a number of substances that are naturally destructive/inhibitive to molds and their spores.  Most come from various conifers, or are otherwise volatile organic chemicals of botanical origin, which were evolved defenses against fungal infestation.   There are several artificial ones as well,  and artificial non VOCs such as concentrated peroxides or ozone.   Without knowing the exact mold, I can't really give you specifics though.

[Trekkin]

I believe what dragdeler wants is wood sealant. Spray-on polyurethane is cheap and straightforward to apply, and it's compatible with most finishes you're likely to encounter outside of an antique shop. Maybe try a can of that?

[wierd]

Wood sealant is a good idea, yes, but if you dont eliminate the fungus, it can continue to grow. Wood sealant only seals the outer few millimeters of wood. The rest of the wood grain continues to be edible to fungus, and continues to be porous to water and atmospheric gasses.

Making the wood highly inedible in addition to the sealant is double the good medicine.  this is the method used to weatherproof outdood wood; the wood gets saturated in copper compounds BEFORE getting a urethane or silicone sealant coating.

[Trekkin]

While that is true, it's probably not relevant; he's hardly going to perfuse copper into his window frame.

I've usually had good results just scraping off the visible mold and letting the polyurethane solvents take care of anything I missed, since the mold does a good job of opening up the grain, but if he's really worried there's always Moldex.

[dragdeler]

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[Trekkin]

Yeah I should probably seal though in that case I'll have another frenzic scrubbing of the thing before... I was thinking of hanging some of those "DO NOT EAT" dissicants up there, that should make it less welcoming in the meanwhile.

If it's wet enough to grow mold, it's probably too wet for dessicant packets to make much difference. The little packets you get in pill bottles and so forth are designed to absorb the water out of one pill bottle's volume of air when you open it and deal with whatever leaks through the seal in the meantime; they're going to have a hard time with a whole room.

But if you're going the sealant route, it's a fast process. Scrub as frenetically as you see fit, apply Moldex per package directions (it's a spray bottle, but check how long you need to leave it and how ventilated you need the room to be), wipe off and apply polyurethane. Should be done in an afternoon.

[wierd]

Hmm...  these active ingredients...

https://www.greendepot.com/greendepot/assets/images/docs/Moldex_MSDS.pdf


Looks very similar to hospital sanitizing sprays and wipes.  Makes some sense I suppose.  In any case, the application would serve to make the wood inedible. It would also be good against many harmful bacteria as well.

[Trekkin]

Yep. I suggested it because you can buy it at home improvement stores for $8 a bottle, not because it's in any way special.

As a general rule, killing mold isn't hard. Quaternary amines will do it, like you see. So will gamma radiation, superheated steam, or just hitting it really hard with a rock. You only really need more exotic antimycotics when you're trying to kill mold but leave something else growing with it alive, like in cell culture or medicine.

Plus which, it's, you know, an actual answer to his problem.

[wierd]

I know that last one is an XKCD reference, but no-- hitting it really hard with a rock really wouldn't   Mycelial culture is able to be replicated vegetatively.  A common technique to reproduce complex fungus is to take fruiting bodies and macerate the shit out of them in a sterilized growth media.  I've done it several times with fresh gourmet mushrooms to produce mycelial spawn to grow them with. (A steam cleaned, and peroxide sanitized kitchen blender is adequate most of the time.  However, hydrogen peroxide kills mold hyphae. If trying to cultivate molds, peroxide is discouraged.  More complex mushroom type fungus tends to have an oxidation inhibiting enzyme that counters peroxide, making them tolerant to weak first-aid grade peroxide solutions, allowing one to abuse it as an inhibitor for unwanted biota.)

drug cultivators do it all the time to cultivate psilocybe mushrooms, because producing spawn from spore prints is tedious, where vegetative culture is something even morons can do.

Anyhow- Yeah, Quaternary ammonium compounds are pretty toxic to basically anything with a cellular structure.  Not as stable as copper ions for long term biotoxicity, but meh.  The things that could break the stuff down cant penetrate deep into the wood's surface, so it will stick around in there. But you will have to basically soak the stuff.

and yeah, it's cheap.  You can get the stuff in many off branded santizing sprays if you dont want the name brand, but the name brand does seem to have some added silicate compounds added, likely to retard gas exchanges in the wood after application.

[Trekkin]

I could be like certain pedants on here and start quibbling over the exact meaning of "really hard", but yes, that was an attempt at levity.

[JoshuaFH]

I've been making a thing out of putting my legs up on my desk and trying to stretch my legs out ballerina-style. My legs are very inflexible, so I've been doing this every day pretty persistently to try to expedite my transformation into a rubber man. Roughly two weeks of this, and my leg muscles & tendons are still as tight as steel cords. I'm guessing this is another of those things I'll need to go at for months before I see noticeable improvement. I think the stretching improves my temperament and makes me me relaxed at least.

[Castlecliff]

Heh... you said retard

[Hanslanda]

I've been making a thing out of putting my legs up on my desk and trying to stretch my legs out ballerina-style. My legs are very inflexible, so I've been doing this every day pretty persistently to try to expedite my transformation into a rubber man. Roughly two weeks of this, and my leg muscles & tendons are still as tight as steel cords. I'm guessing this is another of those things I'll need to go at for months before I see noticeable improvement. I think the stretching improves my temperament and makes me me relaxed at least.

*is now imagining Josh as a steel muscled strongman*