Shower Mold

[kobitz]

I have a faux marble shower with the seams sealed originally by caulk. For 10 years the shower had no signs of mold. Then one of my cleaning ladies used straight bleach on the floors and it deteriorated the caulk and now I have big black mold all around the perimeter of the shower floor. A friend tried to repair this by removing all the old caulk, drying out the shower, and then recaulking the seams, but the mold is back.

Is there a better solution to this than going to all the trouble my friend did (which only helped for a short time)?

Thanks!
Kim

[pushkins]

Unfortunately the answer is no, mold often starts "on" the caulk in early growth but very quickly moves to growing "in" the caulk, it actually is using the caulk as a growth medium.
Many caulks in the past were wrongly used for bathroom applications, you need to be looking for a 100% silicone caulk rated at bathroom use. Personally I never use the red and white tube of caulk available at big box stores, it is very prone to early mold growth in shower and bath applications but I've never had any problems with it's use around kitchen sinks, vanities etc...

The one I prefer is in a white tube with blue writing (3 hour shower ready).

[Kman]

I had never had any experience with these types of showers until last year when one was installed in a house I was working on. Basically, the sheets where glued to the drywall and the seams were sealed with silicone. It's a good system, until.....something happens like your situation.

If water got in at the seams and into the drywall, it will never dry out.

The only possible way I can think of that it might be salvageable is if you can go to the other side of the walls, cut out the drywall and dry it out from there.

If it was my shower, I would try to contact a company that installs them (preferably the one that installed it) and ask them for advice. There may be some other way to dry it out, but I would let them do it. If you get to knocking around in there and crack a sheet, water is going to get in, and you'll have more of the same problem.