Grey Dusty (Mould?) On Furniture

[Clive_5077335]

I have just been in my caravan for the first time in a few months and found that a lot of the furniture has a grey, patchy dusty film of what I assume is mould.
I had a similar experience at the start of the 2011 season and put this down to a high moisture content in the air.
Has anyone come across this before, and if so, how or what can be done to lessen or prevent it? Is there a product that the furniture can be washed with? Some form of antibacterial fluid?

 

[JimC]

I had this on my Lunar Lexon EW, I just polished it off with my wifes household spray polish. It worked OK for Us.

 

[Guest]

It most probably is an excess of moisture, plus a lack of enough ventilation, very often, the source is a fixed bed matteress?

Earlier vans didn't have such vents, most current vans with fixed beds have quite large vents under the bed, this is directly releated to this mould problem and provided the vents are clear it should prevent or at least greatly reduce the problem.
The matteress itself should not be left covered so as to allow a good flow of air over it and trapped moisture to desperse more quickly.

The vents themselves can cause problems in use, in cold weather they pay havoc with the heating by allowing far to much cold air in, in this case cover them, but, make sure they are clear when vans put into storage.

 

[RogerL]

Even at 100% relative humidity, it need's something to cause mould, ie start it off.
As an advocate of NOT heating or dehumidifying caravans in winter despite parking near water, trees and bushes but never having a problem with winter mould, I think you need to look for the source of the mould rather than worrying about humidity.

 

[catherine2]

We had exactly this problem a number of years ago. Our van is kept in a partially enclosed barn.
We solved it by increasing ventilation to van through leaving windows on night latch and opening down door under oven - lots of ventilation comes through here on our Bailey Ranger.
We also wiped all cupboard doors down with Flash wipes - or similar- and left them to dry before storage.
We do notice the cupboard doors and mirrors are occasionally covered in condensation in certain weather conditions in the winter but with the above precautions no further mould and they are always dry again next time we check.

 

[RogerB]

I've always used a very dilute solution of water and bleach.Wipe it over the affected areas and it kills the mould spores and slows down re growth.

 

[Clive_5077335]

Thanks for all the advice. I notice that no one has suggested serious damp issues. I hadn't got round to taking all the bedding etc. outof the caravan, so a combination of this plus ventilation and using a cleaning aid might do the trick.