Hi I know there are many posts about this topic , but I need advice please. We camped this weekend and had not used the tent since August we packed away during very slight smirry rain, but we forgot to dry it!('')
So when setting up the tent on Friday we were struck by the smell and mould etc on our Gelert Horizon 6 so its a polyester tent. It would appear that is only really the top part of the tent thats the worst affected. I am currently trying to dry the tent in the house as poured when we packed away on Monday. Perhaps I should heed my hubbies's suggestion to go the night before after 2 dry & sunny days when the forecast was bad!! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.. So my question is this is it safe to pack away the tent when it's dry and do a thorough clean of mildew and re proofing at a later date. We wont be using the tent until probably Easter next year, can it be left this long. Or should we try and do it when we get a dry day in the Autumn? Also have read Milton is the best to clean Mildew any other suggestions? Thanks in advance
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I am in a similar position only the mildew / mould is on the mesh windows
Im sure mildew / mould is a living organism so it really needs to be killed before you pack away or it will just spread, but I stand to be corrected though
I would say NO the longer you leave it the worse it will get as its in the same conditions, damp and dark, that started it growing in the first place. So you really really need to kill it ASAP
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Oh dear! The mildew is nasty. As others have suggested, get this sorted well before next Easter otherwise you may not have much of a tent roof left.
We have recently had similar problems with our big tent. Hopefully we have managed to catch and treat the problem in time. We used a very weak solution of Milton on the mildew areas and rinsed off thoroughly. Obviously make sure it is 100% dry before you pack it up.
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You need to kill off the spores before you pack it away for the winter. Use one part Milton to ten parts water. Make sure it's dry before you pack it up. In the spring, pitch the tent on a warm, dry day & hose it to see whether you need to re-proof the parts which you cleaned with the Milton solution.