[Ian Rochester]

The Story - Had a 3 piece to clean today, when I got there the owner told me that she had put the cushions in the attic 3 weeks ago whilst building work was going on, the carcasses went in the garage.  When she brought the cushions down this morning to be cleaned by me they were badly marked with mould.  It turns out the cowboys she had in to do her bathroom had vented the extraction straight in to the attic and not ducted it to the eaves!!!  Obviously creating ideal conditions for mould growth.

At first I thought it was a walk away job, but she begged and pleaded etc, etc, so in the end I cleaned it on the condition that I would not be responsible if it did not clean or if the mould marks returned.

Anyway, I took the cover off the first cushion and there was no sign of mould on the padding, refitted it and they all cleaned up fine.  Put two dryers on them  and left the dryers on whilst I went to another job.  Suite is now dry and looks good, much better than I expected.

The Question - is the mould likely to return, I know mould is spore forming and when I used to work in the food industry we used to use sodium hypochlorite (bleach) to get rid of it.

Are there any chemicals on the market that inhibit mould growth and can be applied to carpets or upholstery safely either pre, during or as a post treatment?

The woman was happy when I left and I said I would give her a call in a couple of weeks to see if it had worked.

Ian