my friend pete has just bought a fabric family tent the old style tent, same material as a scout tent, we are wondering the best way to get rid of mold on it without damageing it, its in really good condition, its a 8 man tent with kitchen,and the good thing is he paid 20quid for it,so am after a way to get rid of mold ,theres only a bit of mold on the froint.?
hi, you can treat the mould with milton , the stuff for sterilising baby bottles, but make it up slightly weaker. This will kill the mould growth but may not remove the stain. Then reproof with fabsil. You'll have to make sure the canvas is completely dried out before storing the tent. There are tent cleaning products available from fenwicks, but they also may not remove the stain, just kill the mould. Good luck.
DO NOT USE DETERGENTS thats the first mistake many people make you will never completely rinse it out and will stop you from being able to reproof the canvas. What you can use is pure soap flakes it must be pure soap this can be rinsed out and reproofed. as for killing the mould i also would recomend miltons diluted to same strength as recomended for sterilising baby food items and if possible leave canvas out in sunlight if poss (i know diff in this country)
I would also agree with the recommendation for Milton -I had a waterproof jacket that went mildewed, so I soaked the affected areas with a 1:10 Milton solution, allowed that to dry, then washed it with pure soap flakes, dried it thoroughly and then reproofed it with Fabsil. It has not got rid of the greyish patches, but it works fine in wet weather!